Winter time can be
one the best times of the year to go fly fishing. Soon baits
like larger pilchards
and threadfins will start to dissipate and most fish will start
to switch over to
eating more crustaceans (shrimp, crabs, blood worms,
etc…). Also as water temps
start to drop, the fish appetites will begin to slow down.
As their appetites
begin to slow down, the fish start to prey on smaller baits.
This making it the
perfect time of year for throwing flies!
My all around go
to rod and reel this time of year is a St. Croix 9 ft./ 8wt.
Legend Elite with
a 3-TAND T-70 reel. The rod has plenty of backbone/
sensitivity for throwing
most flies and handling fish from 1-2 lbs. up to 30plus lbs.
The reel has a
sealed Nano CF Drag system, interchangeable larger arbors
from 7-9 wt., incredibly
strong for a great price that doesn’t break the bank! I
prefer to use Teeny’s
weight forward floating Redfish line. This WF line was
designed to help
kayakers cast while sitting down, but, rockets out of the rod to
make for a long accurate
cast. Most of the fish I
target with this line will in pretty skinny water unless
I’m fishing deeper
creeks in which case I will add more length to my
leader. For my leader,
I start out with 4-6 ft. of 40-50 lb. test, then connect
that to a 3 ft. 30-25lb
test leader and finally connect that to a 3 ft. 20-10 lb.
Seaguar Fluorocarbon
leader. I do adjust my leaders due to fishing certain
species of fish or during this
time on windier days I like to shorten my
leader up to about 8
ft.
Now for my flies
of choice this time of year… I have been having lots of success on
River Bums chartreuse/white deceiver. Catching everything
from trout, redfish,
to snook. Another fly that I have lots of luck on
is a simple white
gotcha. It is so small and simple looking but, I have hooked
some huge snook on
them this time of year! Last, but, my favorite is a Tan
Epoxy shrimp. This
fly is killer this time of year for just about all types of
fish! Also what is
cool about this fly is that because it is made out of epoxy,
I like to put a
little shrimp flavored Pro Cure on it. Work it extremely
slowly along the bottom
and it is game on!
Hope this helps motivate
anyone thinking of picking up the
fly rod this winter. Until next time… stay warm! Tight
Lines and Tight knots!