Any Fly Fishermen lurking about? (1 Viewer)

Jon Udell

Jon Udell

Pair
Joined
Nov 21, 2016
Messages
211
Reaction score
508
Location
Boca Raton Florida
Getting back into the sport of salt water fly fishing again. Its the time of year to hit the beach early in the morning on the incoming tide for a variety of species including Jacks, Barracuda, Snook, and Tarpon.... all while standing at the waters edge. When its happening there is no need to cast further than 30 feet. Just dug out my tying material and vice and tied a few closer minnows. Possibly my all time favorite go to fly for saltwater of freshwater. I have a pond out back of the house that house some 8lbs bass swimming around.
IMG_7181.JPG
 
My dad lives in Engelwood FL and fishes the intercoastal about 5 days a week. He does target reds, trout and snook with his fly rod and ties his own flies as a hobby. I have fished down there a fair amount but I suck with a fly rod, I have never been able to really get the hang of it. All of my fishing, and actually most of his, is with spinning and casting rods. He has also caught some nice bass on the ponds at his golf course with his fly rod.
 
Love fly fishing. I am exclusively a river angler based and use mainly very light equipment. That's based on nothing more than what's around. Snook on a fly rod sounds intense!
 
ChipEnvy said:
Most times fly fishing doesn’t require industrial safety equipment. LOL.

Full contact Fly Flying?
Click to expand...

Most of my deep sea fishing is off a rig or a boat I was working on.

I also bass fish and cat fish around the house, but not so much the last couple years.
 
Jon Udell said:
Getting back into the sport of salt water fly fishing again. Its the time of year to hit the beach early in the morning on the incoming tide for a variety of species including Jacks, Barracuda, Snook, and Tarpon.... all while standing at the waters edge. When its happening there is no need to cast further than 30 feet. Just dug out my tying material and vice and tied a few closer minnows. Possibly my all time favorite go to fly for saltwater of freshwater. I have a pond out back of the house that house some 8lbs bass swimming around.
Click to expand...

Those clousers look great. As does the cat toy. ;)
 
The cat toy is deadly on snook! Actually when in the water its rather sleek. Got the recipe out of Lefty Kreh's saltwater fly book. Its actually called a Ralph's Snook fly. Throwing that for an hour and a half with a 10 weight wore me out. Waiting for the tides to line up again. Hoping to fish for trout this summer out west which I enjoy just as much. Tomorrow I am headed out with my uncles old crew to do some drift fishing. Those guys did some smuggling and prison time back in the day.... the stories are always entertaining
 
That sounds like fun. Nothing like hanging out with a pile of pirate rapscallions.

Have you decided on rivers yet? Or even the state you are going to?
 
Tomorrow we are drift fishing out of Port of Palm Beach for 4 hours on a semi private charter for Snapper, Dolphin, Cobia and Grouper. When the tide is right I like to fly fish the beach for Snook, Tarpon and Jacks this time of year. If I want to get up real early its a trip down to Flamingo National Park which must be top 5 in the world for saltwater. I had a nice 17 foot Maverick Mirage skiff but sold it years ago. I go with a guide when Im down there.

A few weekends ago I organized a reunion of people I worked with on the Netflix show Bloodline. We all met up in Key Largo, had a few homes rented and some folks stayed at local hotels/resorts. The real reason was to play poker! While working on the show and living in the Florida Keys we had a regular crew of people playing poker multiple sessions per week. I ran the "poker room" in a 6 bedroom 5 bath house on the water with hot tub and dock. I shared the place with 3 other crew members. We had a dedicated poker room with two nice tables. It was normal to have around 25-40 any given session trying to get a seat. It was heaven!

So as I was saying we had an awesome poker weekend reunion enjoyed by all ..... in a house right on the Florida Bay. We watched people fishing our dock for Tarpon, snook, redfish, sharks and I didn't even bother to bring a rod! Here's a picture of an old school Bucktail Jig.
IMG_7222.JPG
 
I'm about as casual as it gets when it comes to fly fishing, which means I only do it when I'm on vacation... fresh water only.

I'm traveling through Western Canada for a week in mid-September and plan to do an entire guided day on the Bow in Calgary, which I'm REALLY excited for.
 
Thread revival.

My parents purchased a lake home earlier this year (lake is small-ish at 65 acres, but plenty big enough for some fishing). Been fishing from a 14 foot flat bottom boat.

Lake holds largemouth, pickerel, perch, crappie, and bluegill (if there’s anything else, I haven’t seen it... yet).

Everyone else uses spin gear with crankbaits, worms, etc.) I’ve been having a great time catching bluegill along the banks on size 8-12 terrestrial patterns with a “softer” 5 weight. I’m going to look into something super light like a 3-weight to use exclusively for the bluegill.

Also have a 6 and 8 weight for the big poppers and streamers that I target bass with. Haven’t caught many bass at all through the summer, mostly because I prefer to fish the surface rather than go deep.

Hopefully as the weather cools, they’ll make their way back towards the banks.

I’m also going to try to make it a point to start fishing my local trout rivers this fall.
 
What state is your parents place? Try throwing in a Clouser minnow for the Bass. You can fish them various depths just by how long you wait to retrieve. If you don't hook a bass you will still nail most everything else. I fish behind the house most nights with a Clouser minnow for largemouth. I fish each fly till there is barely anything left but for a few strands of hair and flash.... than I go tie up a batch at my bench.
 
Jon Udell said:
What state is your parents place? Try throwing in a Clouser minnow for the Bass. You can fish them various depths just by how long you wait to retrieve. If you don't hook a bass you will still nail most everything else. I fish behind the house most nights with a Clouser minnow for largemouth. I fish each fly till there is barely anything left but for a few strands of hair and flash.... than I go tie up a batch at my bench.
Click to expand...

Pennsylvania, in the Poconos. A stone’s throw from Brodhead Creek, which as I understand it, is actually the first fly fishing water in the US. Unfortunately, the 10 miles or so that leads up to our lake is all posted, I assume due to private clubs owning the water. I’d have to drive a half hour to get back to the public sections, which I’d still be willing to do, but haven’t done yet.
 
A “No Trespassing” sign. The universal symbol that excellent fishing just ahead.
 
Fishing on the North Umpqua the past few days. (Got 15 mins notice that I needed to evac the motel this morning. Ash and burning leaves falling on my truck as I was driving out as fire travelled nearly 10 miles in an hour!)

but this little Green Butt Skunk
BE7DE5B5-78CE-43DB-B5D9-E1746E419353.jpeg


Took down this Coho (about 15#)


look at the belly of eggs!

E6EB77F6-5FB0-40F6-B7C6-26CB03073ABD.jpeg
08C370F4-8C36-4E12-8826-CC3913BB74C8.jpeg


Deep into backing. 7weight spey rod struggled to control her in the heavy current. Perhaps 300’ of line out ... on a river! Crazy!
 
Caught this morning. Was running a chubby Chernobyl on the surface (size 8) and a small bead head nymph (probably about size 16) about 18” below the top fly. Was pretty much targeting bluegill near the bank, but then we came along a nice weed bed, and this guy took the little nymph. Was a nice fight on a 5 weight. Didn’t take the scale out, but I’d guess around 3 lbs.

Funny thing is, about 10 minutes before this catch, I was saying to my dad, “I wonder what the smallest size bug is that a bass will consider eating below the surface.” Guess they’ll eat just about anything.

6FBE2DEC-8CED-4730-8E7F-3534F2128C58.jpeg
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account and join our community. It's easy!

Register

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Back
Top Bottom