FLORIDA: Tarpon Foot Work

Posted on January 13th, 2010

The thing about Florida is, the accessible water to fly fish by foot can be staggering if you know where to find it, especially if you know which back waters serve as juvenile detention centers for the progeny of silver kings. Marshall DeMott, a fly fishing guide based in Naples (and a regular at Flies and Fins), sent word of his hard work turned good fortune on a recent outing. Most of you know that a good day on the canal is maybe two hookups….this was exceptional and we think the extremely cold weather shut down the hunger drive and when it warmed up, the Tarpon raided the lunch box.” Well played.

Tagged: adventures in ditch fishing, dirty canals are beautiful, Marshall Demott

FLORIDA: Bass and a New Weird Species

Posted on October 18th, 2009

Going to high school reunions is a phenomenon we all must endure at some point, and so it was with my 20th down in Florida. I guess we had a hell of a class back in the day, as everyone who came back turned out to be pretty solid. I stayed at my buddy Z’s house out in horse country. When you live in horse country you can have cool wheels like a John Deere Gator that your friends can take to explore the resident fly water. Z also has a center console that he took offshore dolphin fishing on Friday morning. I didn’t get there until Friday evening. I had three phone calls from the boat by the time I landed. Which means…

Tagged: adventures in ditch fishing, dirty canals are beautiful, horse country farm fun, largemouth bass, old and in the way, oscar fish, wicked hangovers from car bombs

TYING: Bendback Experimentation

Posted on August 27th, 2009

Copped this idea when I saw a version on the vise at Atlantic Outfitters. Not sure if they came up with the idea but I’d never seen it before at least. I brought home some Mustad 1/0 O’Shaugnessy hooks to give it a go. It’s not really a bendback because you don’t have to physically alter the hook, but it’s the same principle. I tried something similar with bass hooks a while ago but gave that up because I didn’t like how they swam. I like how these swim so far. Good vertical jigging action with a slow retrieve, and they bounce well along bottom. Now I just need to get down to my Florida ditches for some serious recon. UPDATE: Here is an…

Tagged: adventures in ditch fishing, Atlantic Outfitters, dirty canals are beautiful, mustad o'shaughnessy

Redemtion in Largemouth

Posted on July 20th, 2009

I’ve been with the family upstate. Today I decided to walk a remnant of the canal system and sight fish to carp. The casts fell into place in front of mudding grubbers but the carp shunned every offering. Humiliation forces the reconsideration of options; and the desperate idea of returning to the farm pond. But redemtion needed to come elsewhere, through a group of bass living under a bridge. They’re used to seeing shiners and worms and plastic ad nauseum and just don’t budge for much. But it’s easy enough to pull of the road and jump the guardrail and slide down the embankment. This bass came out of the shadow line and poked and poked and finally committed in a lazy inhalation of my…

Tagged: adventures in ditch fishing, dirty canals are beautiful, largemouth bass, under the bridge

Posts tagged “adventures in ditch fishing”