I just heard from my friend Jimmy Harris, owner of Unicoi Outfitters in Helen, Ga. “It’s been cold and slow,” he said, talking about the weather, the water temps and the fish bite. It’s no surprise that fishing is the same everywhere. The weather and water temps will wreak havoc with all of us. It doesn’t matter if you are in Southwest Florida, Georgia or Argentina, weather and temperature changes affect the moods of fish … and us.
As I write this, we’ve just gone through several days of very little sun. Dark gray skies, a little rain, cold, windy — I didn’t sign up for this! Where is my Florida sun? If a little bad weather can bother me (just ask my wife; she’ll tell you), think what it does to the fish. I get grumpy during extended poor weather and I don’t even have a swim bladder or a lateral line to deal with. (At least I don’t think I do — I’ll have that checked out next time I see the doc.)
But nothing bothered Ethan, a 16-year-old kid from Jacksonville who came to fish with me. He was given the guided trip as a Christmas gift by his granddad, who lives nearby. When Ethan I and I got out on the water to start our trip, the water temp was 57°F and it was breezy. Ethan pulled up his buff, zipped up his sweatshirt and handed me his phone to put away for him.
A 16-year-old voluntarily giving up his phone? Am I in an alternate universe, caught between space and time? Nope — I was just lucky enough to be with a kid who loves to fish as much as many of us do.
Now, I’d been told ahead of time that Ethan was very good with a flyrod. He and his granddad had trout fished streams many times and Ethan had done really well with both his casting and his catching. How many times I have heard this story! I’ve even written songs about it. One of these days I’ll give you some of my song lyrics to read (you certainly don’t want to hear me sing them).
As I pushpoled the boat into position, Ethan was stripping line from his reel. I told him to stretch the line out to eliminate the coils from the cold line and he did so, quickly and efficiently. Hmmm — so far so good. I said, “When you’re ready, cast all that line for me.” (He had pulled off quite a bit of line.) He made a couple of short casts to lengthen the line outside his rod tip. I cringed. Then he dumped a 70-footer, and I smiled.
I asked him about the boat clock for directions, and he already knew what that was. I spotted a redfish and told him on the clock where it was. “I see it!” What? He can see it?!I’m not in an alternate universe — I’m in heaven if this kid can not only cast but also see fish.
I said, “Put it 3 feet in front of him.” He put it 4 feet. The fish looked, crept up on the fly, then slid off into the grass. “What did I do wrong?” I laughed and told him his cast was too good — they aren’t used to that. I poled on and we saw lots of fish. We saw more reds, big snook, little snook and lots of trout. He kept casting great, with only a couple of problems.
One was the fish wouldn’t eat. The other was that his line would go out straight, but his leader would often turn into a “bloody L.” This is where the leader will lay off almost 90 degrees to the flyline when it comes down — like an L. He asked, “Why does it do that weird thing at the end of my cast?” “I’m so glad you asked,” I said. “Do you want to fix it?”
So we worked on rod tracking, grip and refining the backcast — nothing new here; all stuff I’ve written about before. After a little coaching and some on-the-spot practice, Ethan’s line was laying out straight and he was ecstatic.
We poled on and found some more fish, but they were in bad moods. The snook were wearing fleece jackets and frowning. I actually thought I heard one growl at us.
“OK, let’s get your rod bent,” I told him. I taded out his 8 weight for a 6 weight and moved to a deep grassflat. He started catching trout and ladyfish immediately… and he was strip-setting. Wow. He made only a couple of “trout-sets” where he missed fish. I taught him the oval cast and he caught more fish. Then he looked at me and said, “It’s great catching these fish, but can we try the snook and reds again before we go in?” Once again, I smiled.
To shorten a great story about a great kid and a great day, his persistence (and a slight warming of the water) earned him his first snook (he hooked several) on fly, his first 20 speckled trout on fly, and he hooked a red that just didn’t stay buttoned up (maybe a little more trout-set than strip-set on that one). He almost had a slam. I can’t wait until granddad gives Ethan another trip with me. That was a pleasure!
I know it’s winter and it’s cold, but the fish are here. Go slow, spot them, make long casts if you can and move the fly slowly. Look for sunny spots with dark grass or muddy bottoms that warm up a little and you should find some fish.
Capt. Rex Gudgel is a fly fishing guide in the Boca Grande area and an International Federation of Fly Fishers Master Certified casting instructor. If you’d like to take casting lessons, book a trip or just need more fly fishing info, contact him at 706-254-3504 or visit BocaGrandeSlamFlyFishing.com or CastWithRex.com.
January 21, 2021 at 06:00AM
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I know it's cold, but the fish are here - yoursun.com
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