by Cas Summers on August 16, 2010
I love this quote made almost weekly by Lee Corso as he works on the set of ESPN’s College Football Game Day. This he usually remarks to a game prediction he disagrees with. I will borrow the quote as you may think that Tarpon season is over.
The Backcountry Fly Fishing Association just held its August meeting with Captain Scott Mac Calla as presenter. Captain Scott fishes the waters of the Indian River, Mosquito lagoon and near Offshore waters of the Atlantic.
Captain Scott discussed the bounty of fish that are currently available in the waters near Ponce Inlet. Tarpon, Cobia, Jacks, Bonita and Sharks are all available with a bit of searching and good weather. Scott fishes with both fly and conventional tackle.
Sometimes the fish are finicky and need motivation with teaser plugs and or chumed live bait. At other times, the bite is chaotic and almost anything that lands in the water is toast.
I myself being very loyal to tossing flies… am looking forward to a different kind of Tarpon trip. Maybe it’s not as good as sight fishing an approaching string of West Coast Tarpon, but I am not ready to put the 12 weight away. I will just have to be content with casting large Lefty Deceivers at a pod of hungry Tarpon on a school of Pogies.
Captain Scott is ready to escort you to the Tarpon playing field. Enjoy the days before the football season begins. Remember, “Not so Fast my Friends.” Send him an email. captainscott@mosquitolagoonflyfishing.com.
by Cas Summers on August 2, 2010
This past Friday I had the opportunity to fish with a couple friends on the Indian River in Titusville Florida. I was thinking that the day would be a short one. It is July and hot as a fire cracker. We had a couple areas lined up to deal with different wind conditions. West winds in the morning and Southwest for most of the afternoon was how the day evolved.
The day had plenty of sunshine, comfortable breezes and Redfish wagging their tails.
The areas we targeted in the morning were flexible. We were heading in there general direction and planned on stopping when we found baitfish and clean water. This is not always an easy task mid summer. By the way, we launched in a friends Beavertail skiff…what a nice fishing machine. It poled beautifully and was quiet when under the power of its Evenrude Etec 50 HP engine. So I poled us first until we found a bait pod of mullet acting very stressed by what we hoped to be some Redfish.
The three of us grabbed a fly rod and a hand full of flies and were out of the skiff. I believe that we all had on different flies when we started to wade. The first fish a Trout fell to a top water gurgler pattern, the second fish was a Redfish eating a green Slider pattern; and that was it. No fish for me. We moved on. Quickly we observed more signs of fish in the area…Tails.
Again we got out of the skiff in really skinny water not to disturb the tailing Reds. They were cruising very shallow and were mixed in with a bunch of Catfish. Telling the tail of a Catfish and Red apart is not always easy. It requires a lot of observation and concentration. It also took some fish “psyching.” I quietly yelled to my friend… “do you think any of these fish are Reds?” They heard me… and began to tail… “fish psyching.”
I believe that what happened next is a record, for me at least. I cast to a Red that just popped up directly in front of me. One cast and one hooked Red… no it came unbuttoned. The hook pulled. No worries, another Red begins to tail in the same area. Next cast, another Red eats the fly; a tan & chartreuse slider pattern, it breaks off. I just set the hook to hard. Two casts and two lost fish, normally it takes me longer to mess up.
We were off again. We poled and poled. We had quite a few shots at laid up tailing Reds. We put one more Redfish in the boat. Snapped a few pictures and enjoyed the July weather. Thanks to my friends for the fishing invite. The day was remarkable.
