(No fly zone) Non fly caught fish pictures

[Iroc_Jeff 0]

4 hours ago, skeet3t said:

No fly,,,duh, I forgot.Been fishing for carp since October 2014. Look at www.carpanglersgroup.com for loads of info. I'm the state chair for CAG. Wrote an article on Euro style carp fishing for Fur-Fish-Game in 2019.

I just re joined last December  although the forum isn't what is used to be 15 years ago. It was humming in 2004-5 when I first joined. I bought my new rods off someone on the tackle trading post this past Christmas and got a sweet deal on rods used 1 time. That makes the 20 bucks worth signing back up for. 

[skeet3t 0]

The action is now on Facebook, like a lot of other organizations.

[Chasing_Tails 0]

Time to bump this thread.

Conditions this weekend were not great for flats fishing with water temps in in the 92 range. So I figured I would try something different and have been hearing the bull redfish are moving in with the mullet run on the way. The goal for the day was 1) try a new spot for me, and 2) catch redfish.

Headed out to the bridges in the morning for the last of the incoming tide with the main plan to fish the outgoing. Today was a bait day with live shrimp in the baitwell, fresh dead mullet and a few frozen blue crabs. I put out two rods with a lighter rod (Shimano baitrunner 3500/30lb power pro/40lb flouro leader) for the shrimp, and a heavier rod (baitrunner 4500/40lb power pro/50lb flouro leader) for the mullet and crab.

After a few hard head catfish on the shrimp rod it tapped again. I pulled tight to set the circle hook and thought it was a snag until the first head shake. After a good fight and some close calls with the bridge pilings a 38" red came to the boat. 

Landed another 32" fish and lost a third that freight trained me and was not going to be stopped until it cut me off on bottom structure. 

By noon my goal was met and I was out of bait. Time to go home.

This is hard work fishing...

[Steeldrifter 0]

Beautiful red 👍👍

[niveker 0]

8 hours ago, Chasing_Tails said:

water temps in in the 92 range

Is that a typo?  Wow.  

Nice fish and report.  I think I've said this before, but that looks like a nice set-up.  

 

[Chasing_Tails 0]

1 hour ago, niveker said:

Is that a typo?  Wow.  

Nice fish and report.  I think I've said this before, but that looks like a nice set-up.  

 

No, that is not a typo. The mud/oyster flats will easily hit 90-95 on a sunny day. Just last week I went out for docklights in the evening and even at 11pm the river water was showing 88-90 degrees. The ocean temperature today is 85 so if you get a sunny day and shallow water it will shoot up from there. 

[niveker 0]

That makes sense, but I had no idea the water got that warm

[caloosa bug 0]

23 hours ago, Chasing_Tails said:

Time to bump this thread.

 

 

Heck yeah! That’s awesome. What a fight in a kayak!

Snook season just opened on the first here and I’ve been preoccupied with panfish on fly. This past Saturday my goal was to get a slot snook early, then get at the panfish. I brought my action camera hoping to film some tail-walking snook. Had 3 rods with rigged with 30lb leader. And an 8wt. at the ready. For some reason all the culverts and weirs within a 20 mile stretch of the Caloosahatchee were at a standstill. One in particular I wanted to hit first, has been flowing for weeks. Oh well. Mullet was everywhere and even 🐊 were getting in on the buffet. Caught a few bass, then went to throwing the 3wt. 

Here’s the big fish of the day.
https://youtu.be/UxRSW30DWtw

 

[caloosa bug 0]

After finding reports of water releases on the army corps website, I trailered the boat 15 miles down river this morning. I launched at 6:00 am. At 6:20 I had a 29 inch snook in the live well, filling my limit for the day before the sun came up.  Caught another small one, and lost 3 others. Tried the 8wt. for a little while and only managed a big Gill on a 1/0 streamer. The only pic I took was of this wonderful slab of awesomeness. 

[Chasing_Tails 0]

The poon gods were good to me this evening.

I was hoping to pull out the fly rod with a gurgler but the wind had the surface too roughed up for top water this evening. A live mullet under a float though did the trick.

Definitely going to have to go back again this weekend.

 

 

 

[Steeldrifter 0]

 That is an awesome pic bud. Magazine quality IMO! 👍

[feathers5 0]

Very nice fish and photo.

[Chasing_Tails 0]

14 hours ago, Steeldrifter said:

 That is an awesome pic bud. Magazine quality IMO! 👍

Thank you. Wish I had a bit more light to really light the fish up.

The spot that fish came from is a very special place. It is a small municipal pond off of a canal that flows from the river. It has a healthy population of tarpon up to 40-50lbs, snook, large mangrove snapper, black drum, and I even caught two juvenile goliath grouper a few years back (i wonder if they are still in there somewhere). Most people show up to try and catch bass, bluegills, or mullet, but a few of us know what really swims below the surface.

Best part, it is less than 2 minutes from my front door...

[caloosa bug 0]

Nice. 👍.  
I’ve caught a few poons in the river here in the fresh, but few and far between. Snook fishing a dark moonless night last weekend, I hooked up what I thought was a snook.  After a couple jumps in the dark and a good fight, I had the fish near my feet. Suddenly it jumped 10ft into a hyacinth patch. I was like what the?? I turned my headlight on to see the silver flash under the surface as it headed back out to open water. Then a big jump as my plug came flying out. They can sure  the 🫀 pumping.

[Chasing_Tails 0]

The majority of the tarpon I have hit on fly are on top water (gurglers are my go to). What has always surprised if is the subtlety of the strike. More times than not they sip the fly off the surface without any flashy strike, just like a trout taking a dry fly.