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vicente

Florida mid September

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........ I was hoping to grab the bead chain today but no luck.......

Vicente,

 

If you're in need of bead chain for eyes, Home Depot sells in at least two sizes and colors. It's in the electrical department. I just took a look. 3 feet for $6, brushed nickle. Much cheaper than specialty shops.

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In general Ive always used old time hardware stores for the various sized bead chain I need... buying it both by the foot and by the spool when needed.

The largest size I use was always called plumbers chain by older hardware guys. These days you see it used mostly for the pull chains on big vertical blinds.

 

Much, much cheaper than what fly shops sell - and the exact same stuff.

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Guest

+1 on the exotics. Peacocks, ClownKnifes, MayanCichlids, from canal between DelRayBeach and BocaRotan.

IMG-0942.jpg

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Very nice... I'm starting a six day run tomorrow out of Flamingo. We're going to be hunting tarpon on fly every day. With a bit of luck I should have a report a week from today. This time of year bookings are few and far between so I'm very grateful to be back down in the 'glades...

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Nice Bob, the fishing has been a bit rough here, I got a fly broken off by snook this morning fishing it with standard tackle which was a bummer since it was a good one.

 

I was hoping we'd maybe be able to get out with you this time around but no way it could happen hopefully another day.

 

I was wondering if you'd let me know what you use for snook and reds with artificial lures.

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Bad day... was down at Flamingo at about 5:45Am today, on the water and ready for my anglers (every day I commute down to either Flamingo or Chokoloskee if I have anglers... for me that's 93 miles one way, towing my skiff...). We got started in good order, needing a long run before sunup to be on station at dawn about 21 miles from the ramp... Didn't happen, brand new motor quit on us a few times before we called it a day and headed back for the dock... Three hours later I had a brand new fuel pump - to go with my brand new motor... so I'll be meeting my anglers again tomorrow... Nothing like losing a day's charter to just make your day. My hat's off to my dealer, SeaPower in south Miami for jumping on the problem and sorting it out (with the weekend coming...). It's only 1Pm here now and I've already logged around 200 miles towing my skiff...and not one bit of fishing... Early starts mean early early for me with the alarm clock waking me at 3Am... As we move into fall our start time will fall back to 7am and I'll get a bit more sleep...

 

As far as snook and reds... in winter with cooler water temps all the fish are eating shrimp or small crabs... So a fly that is the same size and coloration as a shrimp is a start - then fishing it like a shrimp.. is all you need. The rest of the year the fish are still feeding on shrimp but much more on bait of one kind or other from tiny little bay anchovies (locally called glass minnows...) to pilchards (scaled sardines the correct name..), threadfin herring, and mullet of every size... Most anglers are using bugs meant to resemble either finger mullet or pilchards...

 

The big difference between snook and reds is how they feed... Snook are ambush feeders, laying in wait like a pike around cover or bottom of some kind then attacking food as it comes by on the tide... Redfish also like shorelines and downed trees or oyster bars - but they're much more moving along the bottom looking for feeding opportunities...

 

When there's mullet around a topwater plug like a Zara Spook or a Rapala Skitterwalk will get attacked on sight. On more than one occasion a big snook has blasted a topwater bait as much as ten feet in the air when they're on the feed (or sip it in so quietly it takes a moment for you to realize it's gone..). Both species will fall for a slow moving bucktail jig or a gold spoon...

 

For flies, my standard go to clouser style fly for working along wild mangrove shorelines or actually up into downed trees is this "Whitewater clouser" in size 2/0 . Two things to note.. the first is that all of the bucktail is on the same side of the hook shank - on top (Lefty's preferred way to tie up a clouser...), the second is a wire weedguard - a necessity if you're working on top of or in downed trees or other forms of cover that both species love...

 

The next pattern I use quite a bit is my own Silhouette - on a 1/0 or 2/0 hook - usually in all white - This is my go to fly for any shorelines holding schools of "whitebait" (a generic term for pilchards, herring, and spanish sardines...). When we're fishing shallow (sight -fishing) that Silhouette changes for a Seaducer type fly.. something that lands softly and suspends in the water column during brief pauses in your retrieve..

 

Lastly when finger mullet are around a Dahlberg diver, a muddler, or a full bore mullet fly puts you in the game..

 

Here are a few pics...

 

hgedpui.jpg

standard color Whitewater clouser - in winter when water temps get much lower we go one size smaller and use a darker color combination for the wings (brown/orange, black/ purple, purple and brown...). I want my angler actually hitting the cover where fish might be holding, then allowing it to sink to the bottom before starting a retrieve...

 

the Silhouette

aFMWjyq.jpg

additional colors...

H3zPgtx.jpg

 

Seaducers in size 2, 1, and 1/0

6BboYZZ.jpg

Seaducer variation

0yQApBO.jpg

 

Mullet flies... the first are full bore big finger mullets on a 2/0 or 3/0 hook

6QmgXaM.jpg

Much smaller woolhead finger mullet, size 1/0.

Lhtfgu5.jpg

 

Hope this helps...

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Very simple - the entire fly materials on that pattern are all strung saddle hackles (and I'm always wanting the widest, webbiest saddles... The tail is six saddles, three on a side, mated so that the curve on the feathers faces inwards (Deceiver style - not splayed out like a Seaducer...). The eyes are tied in first, then the tail, then the flash on each side for the tail (I alternate between Flashabou Accent and ordinary Flashabou, almost always in pearl...). The body of the fly is done with three of those same wide, webby saddle hackles tied in as a unit at the base of the tail by the butt end of the saddles - then wound forward between the eyes and secured at the hook eye... The TRICK... I use as much of the webby fluff at the base of those saddles as possible so the first windings look like maribou (thick and dense, I often use a bodkin or needle to pick out any trapped fibers....). Here's how to judge just how much of the "fluff" you can use.. Take a saddle in hand and note exactly where the stem of the feather starts to get larger and stiff... That part isn't usable but there's always a bit of the fluff end that does have a flexible stem - suitable for palmering around the hook shank...

 

Done properly the first question I always get is "How did you use maribou on that fly"?

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