Fly Caught Red

I squeezed in a fishing trip this morning, trying to beat the afternoon thunderstorms, and met Webster Jorgensen and his dad, Jim, down at the south end boat ramp. We were "fly fishing only" so we met early - 6:30am - just as the sun was coming up and headed up the Nassau River to make our first stop along a shell bed on the very last of an outgoing tide. Both anglers were making nice casts and we worked the bank slowly. I know Webster had at least one "take" along that first stretch, but the fish spit the fly.

We worked some beds at Seymore's, then some docks, then headed down to Broward Island to take advantage of the incoming tide. We were fishing intermediate sinking lines and tried a number of fly patterns: shrimpy flies, buggy flies, clousers and crabby flies. The water is deeper here so Webster and Jim had to let their flies sink slowly and finally it paid off when Jim had a hard bite, a set, and a hookup and, Fish On!  He played the fish expertly, slowly stripping in until he go it on the reel, then let the rod wear it out. After a good fight he landed a nice 19" Slot Red.

We finished the trip fishing some now flooding shell beds with some smaller suspended shrimp before we called it a day, another great one to be fishing here at Amelia Island, Florida.