Fishing Report- week ending 10/31/2009
This week had the temperatures back up in the 90s with some records set here along the coast. The wind was pretty fierce earlier in the week making for some dirty water conditions and tough fly fishing. There have been some extreme tides this week with the upcoming full moon on Monday.
Despite the changes in the temperature, snook are both in the back and outside points feeding on glass minnows. I have also found a few smaller tarpon in the back bays out of the wind rolling on the incoming.
I have heard some reports from the captains up north of bonito two to three miles offshore. These fish are awesome on a 9 weight fly rod and will have you into your backing before you know it.
I ran about five miles out into Gullivan Bay yesterday in search of these schools but did not find much in the way of bait or birds at first. There were a few schools of mackerel here and there and we saw one school of large fish feeding on top but they went down by the time we got close. Upon arriving near the tip of Cape Romano we found widespread birds and acres of mackerel feeding on glass minnows. The water was boiling with fish. We watched for a bit to see if we could find tarpon or bonito, but finding no evidence of any, decided mackerel on a light fly rod are fun.
I have a fly that I tie especially for this: it is basically a Clouser Minnow tied all the way back on a size 2 Carlisle 2x long hook leaving as much of the bare hook shank forward as possible. Chartreuse Supreme Hair works great and is far more durable than bucktail. I don’t use a wire bite tippet with this fly, 30# hard mono. You will get cut off occasionally but you will get more strikes with this than using wire and the bare hook shank makes it easy to release your fish. We caught fish until we said enough. The secret is to move the fly as fast as you can.
Have a great week.
All the best,
Capt. Bill
