i lived in stuart until 8th grade i think and i swear that's all i ever caught. just snook, snook, snook then we moved up a little north to vero and there just aren't near as many. or at least i still haven't found them 10 years later haha. lots of trout, and seeing some reds though.

yea, i'm an awkward lefty . plus, then people don't ask to use my tackle as much haha.

tied some more stuff this afternoon. plan on fishing tomorrow and wednesday. not even sure what this pattern is called but it's basically just like a rabbit sea-ducer. tail material varies between polar fibre, bucktail and some yak hair i believe. all the heads are just spun rabbit strips with diff sized eyes.

They have some weird bugs in Florida. When I go fly fishing in Mammoth, California the biggest fly I use is about 1/3 of an inch.

generally but not always the size of the fly targets the size of the fish you catch.

those are all tied on 1/0's and mlike 4inches long maybe? yea i suppose all the saltwater flies are a lot bigger generally. part of it is when you are fishing deeper water i guess 1) you need to make your presence known more and 2)not as concerned w presentation. that, and standard, 'match the hatch' most of the baitfish that the fish in the river (here, at least) are eating are a little bigger. i've fished some shrimp patterns before and they can work well in a little shallower water but you also end up catching a bunch of 4" snapper or pinfish which is annoying.

went last night, tried our hardest to catch snook, didn't catch a thing. fished some live baits under some bridges and canals and then went around when the sun went down the fly rod looking for lighted docks (which usually concentrates minnows/shrimp small stuff and usually decent sized snook will loiter around the edges)
made some little minnow patterns but no fish last night (those are #2 hooks iirc)

went again this morning and caught some fish--here is a nice little redfish i caught on my 6 weight w one of the red/white rabbit flies from above. hooked it in relatively deeper water, prob 6 ft or so, right in some mud off of a bank and got a really good fight out of it w/ the current and water depth. was really fun.

I think that, that phrase is a misconception. I have been fly fishing for over 10 years and I have seen baby trout grab onto a fly about half the size of them, and Alper's Trout grabbing onto flys 1/4 of an inch (Of course it is harder to land them with such a tiny hook.) They didn't happen often, but they happened enough to rule out just an oddity.

re read what you quoted please.

hey, back 40 or so years ago, no one used flies down Miami way. i only found one shop in the city that had any flies and only a few junker rods.

i saw lots of people catching mullet out of back waters and the slow parts of the bays, so i was asking what they used and they said you cant catch them on flies. that is all it took and i figured out what to do and landed hundreds of them over the course of a year.
lots of fun.

next it was bonefish. i heard about how they run off all the line on your reel. but you needed live bait like small crabs to catch them. and they wouldnt hit flies.

so i tied up something to look like a small crab but came out pretty badly, but it did work.

so i caught bonefish in biscayne bay by wading out and casting to what i saw.

you caught mullet? on the fly? i've never even heard of anyone catching a mullet, or even trying to lol. what did you use? that's pretty interesting.

Mullet Fish are also called Bread Fish right or is that another fish?

i have never heard of them called anything other than mullet so i really don't know. they range from a few inches ("finger mullet") to like prob 2lbs (i like to call these "bank loafers") around here. ppl cast net them for bait for snook/tarpon et cetera and also rig them up for teasers while sailfishing. i have never caught one and i've been fishing a lot since i was like 4 or 5 lol.

they were easy to catch. most bank fishermen used some kind of doughball.
i dont remember exactly what i used but i think it was a small tan or gray nymph of some kind. i also caught some on dry flies at times.

most were one to two pounds and fought hard.

shell, i only heard of them called mullet as well.

very cool ray. i will have to check that out. weird i had never heard of anyone catching one.

JSnipes, very nicely tied. I also used to tie in HS, mostly for trout but also some for stripers. My dad got me a subscription to fly tier magazine this last Christmas hoping that I would get back into it, but I've been too busy.

I've only fished the Housatonic a couple times, so I'm not really familiar with it much.

The upper Deerfield can be really nice, especially if you take the time to hike to some of the more secluded spots. There are some really nice looking pools that have easy road access and thus are tempting, but I've never done well in them. The biggest downside to the Deerfield is the dams and the frequent water releases which can come unexpectedly and really ruin a good day of fishing (or get you stranded).

The lower Swift river is interesting. It's a bottom release from the Quabbin reservoir, so the water is always 55 degrees in the area below the dam. It's fly fishing catch and release only, but it still gets a lot of action. Hopper flys are a must there.

There are also some really big fish in the Westfield, although the water gets pretty warm in parts. I never really figured that river out to be honest, although a friend of mine used to pull some huge (20+ inch) browns and rainbows out of the Texon pool regularly during stonefly hatches.

been fishing and tying a fair amount. caught a bunch of really nice sized jacks this weekend (not v sexy, or good table fare, but they fight really hard) and the standard array of seatrout.

i was fishin solo so not v good pictures but here is one of the jacks. helluva fight on the 6wt on an open flat. thing put me on the reel right away



been having good success w/ this color combo


there are also rumors of small-medium sized tarpon in the river which i plan on investigating later this week or this weekend. tied up a few offerings to try out
'black pearl' with a flylipp (not v traditional but it swims like a m'fer w that lip)

also tied up some shrimp gurglers


merkin-style crab pattern


and an assortment of diff sized/colored tarpon toads



if all the pictures are annoying lmk and i'll stop posting so many haha. think i'm gonna go again thursday and then try and investigate the tarpon scene friday or saturday with my dad or another buddy. we shall see.

i used to catch small tarpon like 8 pounds on landlocked salmon flies like black ghost or paramichel belle with mylar bodies. only becuase that is what i had and when i fished there, no one knew anything about flies. your pictures are great.

man the tarpon are there. so far not a single bite though . stumbled upon them finally around 10:30 on thurs morning while i was investigating the river and casted at them for about an hour w the fly before i packed it in. went back bright and early and was on the fish by 7am friday morning and threw some diff colored toads, a big deceiver pattern, a smaller deceiver, a seaducer. no bites. good amount of fish too, and nice sized, prob 30-60lbs most of them are i would guess. river is pretty narrow but about 8-10ft deep in this spot and they are mostly rolling w/ the occasional explosion. i think it is just a timing thing and i have to get a little lucky and throw it into one of their mouths. may go at dusk tonight w a cast net and try and get some live bait and just freeline some mullet back and see if i can catch one the old fashioned way.

Jsnipes, what kind of boat do you fish out of?

my parents have a maverick mirage 2 ('98) that i fish out of. it's a really awesome boat. engine is a little tired but hard to beat this hull for around here.

so i've lately gotten my fly rod out and been doing some casting (still relatively new to the sport) and i think i'm making some progress...the other day at the casino i was playing with a guy and he noticed i had a columbia PFG shirt on and started asking me about fishing and whatnot, and he said he was from Montrose, CO near the Gunnison River gold medal water...evidently there is a portion of that that is usually overfished, but there are some more areas that require somewhat strenuous hikes down the canyon and back up that see fewer fishermen. that got me kind of excited as i love hiking to begin with so I may try to hit that up this summer...also my friend's grandparents who live in Pueblo, CO have a cabin near Eleven Mile Reservoir which has some more gold medal waters by it. I plan on playing a couple tourneys before June and then some WSOP events, but after that I plan on doing some fly fishing in Colorado and possibly Wyoming/Montana (not for sure yet)...but i may do some TRs as i'm already pretty excited about it.

P.S. As I have not yet got into fly tying, I have been looking around online for some places that make good flies for a good price...does anyone have any suggestions or favorites they use?

build up your collection by buying from local fly shops where you are going to fish. with your purchase you get all the local knowledge that they are willing to give out.

for general everywhere for trout.

dry flies-- adams, adams and adams. plus a few others like blue wing olives, adams, grass hoppers, ants, and adams.

nymphs,--- hares ear, hares ear, prince, zug bug, hares ear, scuds,

streamers,--- muddler, muddler, and the muddler

cheating at fly fishing-- san juan worms

Thats a nice looking boat. I caught a decent carp and some wiper the other day on a fly rod out here in colorado

from my experience when they say you will see less fisherman still expect to see a ****load. I haven't fished the gunnison but I have fished near pueblo. Lots of good rivers there that have big trout. The gunnison would probably give you a more Colorado feel however and there are probably some areas where you could possibly need climbing gear to get to that you will see less people in. But, if this guy is sharing information about how to get to less visited sites on a river then chances are he is not among the few of them to know and you're still going to see heavy traffic.