If you’ve read much of my rants about fly-fishing, you might have noticed that one thing I speak about fairly often is fishing in new destinations. You might also notice that while I obviously love going abroad to fish, I’m also a huge believer that our country is blessed with so many hidden gems in terms of outstanding fisheries. My skin is just now beginning to peel after spending 4 days at Cabin Bluff, an outdoorsman’s paradise that sits just north of the Florida border (approximately 30 minutes north of Jacksonville).
Chris Peterson of Hell’s Bay Boatworks (hellsbayboatworks.com) joined myself and Fly Fishing in Salt Water’s staff photographer for 3 days of fishing along the completely vacant beaches and literally in the middle of dense spartina grass flats. The three of us felt right at home immediately. I don’t want to give away too much because Fly Fishing in Salt Waters will be featuring this trip in the Jan/Feb issue but let me tell you, if you crave diversity in a fishery, this place is for you. Jacks, redfish, tarpon, tripletail all made appearances and we even found many who cooperated by eating our flies. The off the water activities proved to be every bit as diverse as the fishery itself. Just kicking back is of course an option but we really enjoyed many stations of the sporting clay range the most.
And, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the food — wow! The freshest ingredients you can imagine prepared by classically trained chefs.
Cabin Bluff is one of those places that you visit once and you just know that it’s a place you’ll return to year after year. At the top of this story is a photo gallery with a quick sample of some images Jon Whittle captured during our stay. Keep an eye out for the full feature story in the Jan/Feb 2014 issue.
Many thanks to the amazing crew at Cabin Bluff!
