Early Morning Fly Fishing

I had a noon appointment and Joe Di Toro had stuff going on this afternoon, so the only window we had to fish was early this morning. Joe was in town with his wife, visiting from New York and was eager to notch a Redfish on a Flyrod so we met at the Sawpit Creek boat ramp at 6am with the sun not yet up. We prepped the flyrods then headed up Nassau River, stopping at a creek runout in the Spanish Drop area. Joe unlimbered the fly rods, offering a larger popping fly at first on the top water, then switching to a weighted shrimp fly to bump the bottom. We had no strikes so we headed further up river, passing through Jackstaff to fish it's mouth and western shoreline. Joe was working hard, casting the shrimp fly then switching to a black rabbit fur-ish fly that we thought resembled a fiddler crab. The wind was 10mph with gusts to 12 and we had an outgoing current that swept the fly line and fly out of the target zone rather quickly, but Joe persevered and eventually was rewarded with a strong bite and after setting the hook with a good strip, the fight was on with a feisty Redfish! Joe worked the fish beautifully, letting the rod wear the fish out and we soon netted an 18" Redfish, snapped some pictures, and released the fish back to the river. We fished the bank further, switching to a 1/40z Sure Catch jig with a natural Gulp shrimp and Joe hooked up with another hard fighting Redfish, battling it to the boat, the net and after a picture, back to the river to be caught another day. After a brief stop at "Gnat" Island, we called it a day, another great one to be out on the water!