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.

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.

The first outing was a trip where patience was the key. We arrived and knew we were looking at West winds for the day. It is probably good to be optimistic, I think we were, but somehow the wind and waves are always bigger than you hope. No fish that day. I did observe a few Pass Crabs floating by the skiff which allowed me to do some fly updating at home. Lesson one…be observant of your surroundings.

Trips two and three had the weather more to the norm; Hot with winds from the Southeast. We encountered Tarpon almost immediately as we reached a favorite spot. All three of us had shots at Tarpon. We all hooked up during our turn on the bow… but were “Whopped up on” and had our line broken in different ways. I learned that a bad knot will always be exposed by the King. The lesson that day was listening; when a friend says “that your leader connection looks funny” you should examine it closer.

I did get the chance on trips two and three to test out the Pass Crab fly pattern that I reworked. I was well received and resulted in hook ups on these outings.  Did I land the King on the last trip you ask? No…another broken leader. Yes I wanted to scream. Yes breaking a line is one of the most frustrating things that can happen. I have only myself to blame. I did not hang my head very long and was back in the game helping my friend.

Perseverance must be the lesson to remember here. There will be another trip and I will keep after them. If all things go right I will have a couple more chances to boat a Tarpon this season. Good luck on your upcoming fishing trips…remember to always “Bow to the King”.

Chris, a BTT BOD member, talked about the fun he just experienced as part of the ESPN series “Pirates of the Flats.” Hell’s Bay provided skiffs that were used in the filming of the series. Even though he was not part of the cast he participated in the filming and enjoyed the films celebrities company.

He expressed his gratitude to the all those who participated in order to help BTT protect this important fishery.

Chris also discussed the importance of supporting organizations like the BTT, The Coastal Conservation Association and The International Game Fish Association whom all provide funding to study and preserve fisheries internationally. Hell’s Bay has even donated a flats skiff to the BTT. Go to www.tarbone.org and enter the sweepstakes and win the grand prize.

Captain Tom Van Horn Editor of the Orlando Coast Angler Magazine also shared fishing reports with the club. Tom shared some hotspots on the St. John’s River and Titusville. Don’t forget about Fish Stock coming soon to New Smyrna Beach area.

The BFA meets the second Wednesday of the month at O’ Boy’s BBQ restaurant at 6:30 PM. See the club’s website @ Backcountry Flyfishing Orlando.com to learn more about the club and read the monthly newsletter.

The day was great weather wise… sunny with the winds never over 10 miles per hour. I must laugh though…north winds as we paddled north and south winds as we returned. Only in the NMZ. And as you can probably guess with the coldest winter on record behind us, the water was crystal clear, slightly warming, with a lot of new sea grass growth just breaking the bottom’s surface.

Yes, there are still Snook in the area. Eric landed 2 beautiful Snook. I was so happy for both of us. I always hope that the guests that I fish with catch fish & catch them early in the day. It takes the pressure off. Eric made a couple accurate casts and Wham…Bam… the fishing day was off and rolling.

Eric & I changed positions and I was on the deck. I had a few casts at some smaller Redfish. I had a follow…but most were very spooky and decided to stick with their diet.

We then came across some muddied up water and were on alert for the cause of the disturbance. Enter Mr. Black Drum. Quietly Eric backed the canoe as we were on top of a nice sized school of Drum.

I’m not sure how many attempts it took, but I finally presented a Merkin Crab to a happy & hungry fish. Drum are a blast to catch. They know how to bend a rod. We landed the fish, took a couple photos, and rested a few minutes to allow the churned up water and fish to settle.

We expected to find the Drum after we rested, but to no avail. They were off the radar. We cast to more Reds as we returned. A few sniffed the fly. A few spooked. We both caught great fish. We returned back to the cars…and I would dare say, “It was a good day.” I look forward to the next trip that we will both share a boat.

I received an email from a local fly shop inviting me to attend a Tarpon presentation yesterday. I love fishing for Tarpon. The reason that I attended was again a poor weather forecast for the day with winds at 15 plus mph and temperature in the 50’s. It was either stay home and ties flies or receives first hand knowledge from the Keys & coffee & donuts.

I had never meet captain Drew before and soon found that he was very personable and did not mind sharing his knowledge. He mentioned that an angler could somewhat read the motivation of fish by their color. I had never heard this. Black & brown backs are good, blue or lighter colors was not as good and if cast at and a refusal occurred…move on to the next fish. Presentation of casts to laid up fish and to sliders (moving fish) was covered with power point and briefly outside.

Drew emphasized the importance of casting accuracy & lead. He mentioned that the speed of the fish’s movement, position in the water column and size & sink rate of the fly all came into play. Try casting to different fish within a school or daisy chain of fish if your previous presentations did not work. If you make a good cast at a daisy chain and a fish ignores it…leaving it for the next fish can be a strategy.

It was a great class. If you are going to the Keys… you might give him a call. I plan on a trip there this year. I find that you can never know enough about the Silver King. Hope you will get out and fish soon or at least do some lawn casting.

Thanks goodness for Neoprene waders. We have had an unusually cold streak of weather here in central Florida. I believe that 7 days straight in the 30’s or below is a record that the region does not want to claim. Trout and Redfish in this area, along with thin blooded Southerners, have no use for such silliness. A friend called me and said “if we were to go…Thursday was the day;” the warmest day of the past two weeks.  So we loaded up the canoe later than usual and hoped for the best.

We arrived around 10 AM and the weather and wind was just as we expected. Friends who fished the Indian River on Wednesday, a colder day, let us know the bite that they experienced happened after the water temperature had climbed 4 degrees. We hoped to find fish moving into the shallows to warm themselves and possibly feed. The water was clear if only the winter sun angle would have been higher.

We did not have to pole long before we moved some Redfish. A few casts later and a 3 lb Trout was in the canoe. We noticed this many times during the day, that the Trout and Reds were hanging close together in the warmest areas. Minutes later a Chartreuse Clouser retrieved very slowly produced a nice 29 inch Redfish. The key to catching both fish was the slow strip of the fly which kept the fly near the muddy bottom.

We were able to fish within a quarter mile area for most of the day. The fish were laid up, some laying in the mud and others seeking warmth in sand holes. I cast at Reds, Trout and a lot of Black Drum today. My best fish was a feisty 4 lb Seatrout. We did wade some and I also managed 3 smaller Trout while search casting the area. The Chartreuse Clouser minnow was the ace fly of the day. The clear water and beautiful sunny skies with cold water made the weighted minnow the perfect fly choice for the day.

It was a great day on the water. I only have one request “Please give us back our warm weather.” Happy New Year Everyone.

I do not have any photos for this post, but most resembled the “rat” Red that I posted last. The water was beautiful and air temperature about perfect; and following the 2 hour rain out that I experienced on Wednesday, it made watching football expendable. Besides a few muddy places that Mullet had been frolicking and or a Ray mingling the water was quite clear.

The Reds were very interested in the Baitfish pattern that I tied with “Steve Farrar’s flash blend” material. I did modify it slightly by adding larger eyes and a red throat. We each also landed a slot sized trout even though we had no intention of keeping fish due to the seasonal closure. In keeping with fisherman’s luck…I lost a beautiful trout after getting her close enough to touch and to “painfully” notice that the hook that was once in her mouth was barely hanging on in the underbelly.

Yes, I lost her. I actually did laugh when I saw the hook and before the Trout escaped. It was like hearing a great joke that you have heard before; just as the punch line was shared. We saw quite a few nice fish throughout the day.

We visited a few different places on Sunday. Both the Redfish and Trout were finicky. I guess they wanted to save themselves in case a better deal presented itself at a later date.
I did manage to catch a couple more smallish Redfish later in the day as the sun climbed higher and visibility improved. Often the improved visibility only meant that I would be able to see the fish, cast, and then watch it swim over and inspect “the fly” and reject it.

Keep your confidence all sales personnel and fishermen. It is just the beginning of the sales season. I’m hopeful that sales will continue to improve. Good luck on your next outing.

We had to fish behind the spoil islands on the eastern side of the Lagoon. We would be fishing shallow water and found some spooky Reds right away. We found out that our casts must be presented quickly and precise. Visibility was poor with low wispy frontal clouds blocked the sun at all the wrong times. We had a few fish spook with the cast and a few actually nose the fly…but no takers.

When it was my turn on the bow we were on a windward shore with clear water and a mottled bottom that I had to blind cast due to cloud cover. I tied on a pink Clouser minnow on a #2 3407 hook with a mono weed guard. I paid attention to pinch down the bard of the hook with all the wind and two partners that I shared the boat. I tried to cover the water as best as the 15 plus MPH winds would allow the skiff to be poled. It was not long and I hooked and landed a smallish Red. A few photos were snapped and off it went back into the water after an easy release as a result of a barbless hook.

Each of us had 2 turns on the bow this day. We covered a lot of water. Boat handling, casting and seeing fish was challenging. We saw a good number of Redfish, most of them after we approached too closely. It probably would have been a good wading day. Most of the fish we saw were “laid up” and actually seemed to prefer the windward shoreline. The day was enjoyable; spent with two friends and a lot of promising water.

My friends and I were a team from the Backcountry Fly Fishing Assoc. from Orlando. We were greeted by Captain Bryon Chamberlin, Leigh West, and long time friend David Olson of the Fly Shop of Miami who made our drive seem short. In all, I would guess that there were between 30 to 40 casters participating in the fun.

The “Big Gun” was composed of teams of 3 competing at “casting stations” for a point score based on your casting success. The casts were timed and usually started at a distance of 30 feet and ended at 70 feet. Casting a fly thru a hoop, under mangroves, into Frisbees and into a cup simulated casting challenges encountered while fishing. Leigh West’s team won; congratulations to them.

You might have been wondering why the event was called “Big Gun?” A distance casting station was also part of the competition. Casters who could cast a line over 100 feet qualified for the final event. I believe 15 casters made the final. The best of 5 casts determined the final winner and “Big Gun.”

The winning cast measured 134’ 3”, second was 134’ and third measured 130’. This was my first year competing in the event. I hope to participate in future events, it was fun. Last year’s winner Dave Chouinard finished third. David Olson, my friend, finished as the winner. I finished second with my last cast just 3 inches short. Congratulations David. If you were not my friend and such a great fly angler & caster I would be bummed out. Thanks to Tampa Bay Fly Fishing club and tight lines to all the events anglers.