Brad Lowman Photo

Snook will reopen for harvest in Atlantic federal, state and inland waters, including Lake Okeechobee and the Kissimmee River, on Sept. 1. Snook remains closed for harvest in Gulf of Mexico state waters, including Everglades National Park and Monroe County. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will decide at its June meeting in Lakeland whether to allow the Gulf snook harvest to reopen Sept. 1.

State waters in the Atlantic extend from shore to 3 nautical miles and in the Gulf from shore to 9 nautical miles.

Seasonal harvest closures protect Florida’s valuable snook populations and help sustain and improve the fishery for the future.

Learn more about recreational fishing at MyFWC.com/Fishing by clicking on “Saltwater” and “Recreational Regulations.”

Presentation is key – listen to your guide!

It was a tarpon fisher’s dream, a school of at least 200 fish, tightly wadded up, slinking over each other, finning out, flashing, real relaxed, real happy, one of the finest sights in all of angling. Harry Kant was trembling with excitement. He’d been trying for 11 seasons to take a hundred pounder on fly. It was practically certain that the deed would now be done.

“Cast out in front of them, and retrieve just fast enough to keep in contact with the fly,” I told him. Harry, an excellent caster, ignored me completely, casting right across the middle of the school and stripping hard back through them. The fish weren’t quite as relaxed now.

“Don’t do that, you’re scaring them,” I said. “Lead them, put it where they’re going and let them swim into it.” Harry cast right across the school and stripped it hard through them again.

“Harry, don’t cast it across them, it’s spooking them. And strip it slower, you’re going too fast!”

Harry turned to me and stated in a tone that squelched any further discussion, “I don’t like to strip slow.” So I shut up and stayed with the fish while he cast over them time and time again, stripping hard, and not getting bit.

Harry finally turned to me and said, “I don’t have any faith in this fly.”

“Give me your rod, and find another one in the stretcher box,” I said. While he looked for the magic fly, I took two casts at the fish. On the second a big fat fish ate the fly right by the boat, jumped immediately, almost landed on the gunwale, and soaked Harry with water. The fish, thrashing wildly, hopped off on its third jump. I handed the rod back to Harry and said, “It’s not the fly Harry, it’s you.”

There are two morals to this story. The first is, take your guide’s advice. The second, and the one we’ll deal with here for the rest of this piece, is that after locating the fish, how you present the fly to them is the single most important variable in getting one to bite, even more important than what’s at the end of your leader.

The Strike Zone

Pate’s “Fly Fishing for Tarpon” DVD

When I was younger and just getting into the tarpon game, I was fortunate to get a copy of the finest instructional fishing video ever made, Billy Pate’s Fly Fishing for Tarpon (which I recommend highly). In this video Billy explains the concept of strike zones as it relates to tarpon fishing. We’re going to revisit this concept and then relate it to presenting the fly to cruising fish, laid-up fish, and fish in daisy chains.

The strike zone is an area around the fish where, if the fly is properly presented, you have a reasonable chance that the fish will take it. This area is roughly shaped like a half a football, extending with the wide part at the mouth of the fish to the apex out in front of it. Since their mouths point up, tarpon prefer to feed going up, so in their case the strike zone might be a little above their line of travel. Understand that this zone changes in size constantly though, going from non-existent to huge and back again, and occasionally even goes behind the fish. Over the years I’ve seen two fish do about faces to take a fly. It’s rare, but it does happen. Our assumption here is that in order to get a bite, the fly must be in the strike zone.

Hopefully it’s obvious that the longer the fly is in that strike zone, the more likely the fish is to take it. This brings us to presentation angles.

Presentation Angles for Cruising Fish

You could be positioned in front of the fish, with him swimming directly at you. You could be behind the fish, with him swimming directly away from you. You might be off to the side of the path of the fish, with your cast at a right angle to his line of movement. Or you might be somewhere in between one of these three locations. Where is the sweetest place to be?

The longer you can keep the fly in the strike zone, the more likely you are to get a bite. The place from which you can keep the fly in the strike zone for the longest amount of time is directly in the path of the fish, with him coming right at you. You can adjust the speed of your retrieve to keep the fly a foot in front of him, or, if it’s a school, in front of a lot of them. This is by far your best chance.

As you get closer to being at a right angle to the path of the fish the sweetness of the angle declines, since the fly of necessity is in the strike zone for a shorter amount of time. Cruising tarpon move fairly quickly, so at a 90 degree angle your fly might be in front of the fish only a second or two.

By the way, do not make the mistake of casting past the fish and bringing the fly to it. Tarpon are not used to being attacked by their prey, and unless you’ve watched it happen you’d be astonished at just how spooked a group of tarpon can be by a three inch long fly. If your cast is too long it’s best to wait for the fish to pass and then try again.

As the fish gets past you you’re casting from behind it. You have almost no chance to get a bite. They see the line and leader land, and the fly is coming at them. This is a desperation tactic and only serves to booger up the fish. It’s much better to use the time to collect yourself for the next shot, or to try to get back out in front of them.

Presentation Angles for Laid Up Fish

Getting the fly to the strike zone is essential.

I do most of my tarpon fishing along the southwest Florida coast and don’t see too many laid up tarpon there. However, I have fished for them in the Keys and in the Everglades, and everything mentioned above holds true. Actually, it’s easier fishing because the fish is just sitting there. You have much more time to get a good angle and make a good cast.

I was in the Keys backcountry with John Bottko one time, and we found this big fish that was just lying there, apparently asleep. I had the rod, and dropped the fly three feet in front of it. Nothing. I placed the fly two feet in front of it. Nothing. I placed the fly a foot in front of it. Nothing. I laid that fly right at the tip of its nose. Fish don’t have eyelids, but I swear that fish blinked, and then in the most casual way imaginable opened its cavernous mouth and sucked that fly in. What a rush!

What you don’t want to do to a laid up fish is spook it. Start by putting your fly out in front of it a short distance, and if nothing happens cast it closer and closer until you get a response.

Presentation Angles for Daisy Chains

We may not see lots of laid up fish along the southwest Florida beaches, but we certainly see lots of daisy chains. A daisy chain is a string of tarpon swimming in a circle, nose to tail. They can go either clockwise or counterclockwise, and I’ve seen them with as few as four fish to as many as a couple hundred. They present a wonderful target since you get shot after shot after shot. So, to where do you cast?

In any daisy chain some fish are moving at right angles to you. Others are moving away from you. Others are coming at you. Based on what was said above, hopefully it’s obvious you want to cast to the fish coming at you.

This is another situation where you want to strip as slowly as you can and still keep contact with the fly. When you get it in their face, leave it there! When one fish passes it another will be approaching, so it doesn’t make sense to strip fast. More casts mean more chances to spook the fish.

Final Thoughts

Understandably, fishermen get excited when they see big tarpon, whether it’s a single fish or a school of hundreds. When the time comes to make the cast, everything about it needs to be second nature. This is no place to be trying to perfect your double haul. Things happen real fast, and you need to be able to respond to opportunities quickly.

You need to be patient when that fish is there, too. One good cast is worth dozens of bad ones. Wait until you have a good angle and be sure you can make the cast before you let it fly.

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In general, tarpon don’t feed aggressively. There are exceptions to this, but ordinarily if you want a bite you have to make it as easy as possible for them to eat. Get the fly in their face, and keep it there as long as you can. As soon as it’s out of the strike zone, pick it up and put it back in there. If you do these things you will have success. If you expect the fish to go out of its way to take your fly you’ll usually be disappointed. Make it easy for them to eat!

Harry Kant spent two days fishing with me last May. He took my advice this time, had lots of good shots, hooked three fish, and finally, at long last, got that hundred pound tarpon on fly.

I guess sometimes you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Is that a crease fly hanging out of Mr. Snuke’s jaw?

The snook fishing out of Flamingo is just about to get into to full swing with summer approaching and with the clean water along the coast we have had. This is also really exciting because I like to use topwater plugs on these cruising fish.  

I can’t forget about the redfish. They are still around and are starting to school up on the flats.  When this happens, they are looking to eat just about anything that gets in front of them. You need a really light weight fly for this application because a lot of the time we are so shallow sometimes the redfish backs are out of the water. It is quite a sight to see.

Give me a call and let’s fish the Glades!

Cobia!

Having picked two nice trout out of a hole on the low tide, one 24″ one 25″, my good friend Keith Sawyer and I took my East Cape Lostmen across the bay to hopefully find redfish on a flat we know well. It was my turn on the bow, and Keith began slowly poling us through about 2′ of water.  Armed with a Clutch TSx 908 8wt, Cheeky Mojo 425 (in custom color pattern) and a self-tied 3″ trusted redfish fly (on a #4 owner fly liner hook) I saw nothing but sting rays on the flat.

Keith then said, “11 o’clock…. 50′, look at the size of that ray!!!!” It was enormous… But something wasn’t right! Almost simultaneously, we both said “Cobia!!!”

My first cast at the fish was refused… The second led the ray/fish freight train by a good 6′. The fly hit the sand, and with a little slow strip, the cobia pounced. I hit him with a solid strike, and before I knew it was 40 yards into backing.
After about 20 minutes of back and forth, the fish (36″ it the fork, estimated weight 24 lbs, and my first cobia on fly) joined us for a photo op, and accepted an invitation to dinner.

Not a bad day of redfishing.

Bluefish are one of my favorite target species simply because of their aggressiveness and hard fight. While wading in Melbourne one morning I watched a school of (always) ravenous bluefish trap a school of mullet against a seawall. The water frothed red as mullet tried to grow wings. I actually felt bad for them, knowing at that moment it sucked to be a baitfish. I was really glad I was no where near them!

Get into a school of bluefish with any fly that resembles a baitfish in any way, shape or form and be prepared to have it destroyed. Long-shank hooks are called for; some folks simply tie silver tinsel at the bend. …and keep your hands out of the water! Ed.

Image: Diane Rome Peebles

Appearance:

Bluefish are greenish blue on their back, with silvery sides and a large mouth filled with prominent, sharp teeth.

Habitat:

Young usually are inshore during spring and summer and move offshore to join adults during fall and winter. Large numbers of bluefish migrate to Florida from northern stocks during winter. Anglers on the east coast catch larger bluefish than fishermen on the west coast.

Behavior:

Bluefish travel in large schools following baitfish. Members of a school tend to be about the same size because they are cannibalistic. Spawning occurs offshore in spring and summer.

State Record:

22 lb 2 oz, caught near Jensen Beach

Fishing Tips and Facts:

Bluefish may be caught from boat or shore. Chumming is a helpful, and a wire leader is a must to prevent fish from biting through the line. Anglers use a variety of plugs, sand eel type jigs, and squid- or mackerel-like lures. Pogies, mackerel or eels are good live baits and cut bait works too. Average size is 3-5 pounds. These fish are a bit oily for some people, so gut them and clean them as soon as you legally can.