South East FL fishing
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Headed to fort pierce for 8 or so days of whatever the hell we want to do. We’ll be staying in the bay about 8 miles from the inlet. A friend of mine is bringing his 22’ CC boat with a 200 so we’ll be able to fish offshore on calm days. He has been doing it here for years with conventional tackle and has caught everything from reds to sailfish. I want to target the tarpon around the beaches, false albacore around the inlet and Snook wherever we can find them, on a fly. Ohh he also said barracuda will be an easy target.
I’ve already tied up various clousers, baitfish and crab patterns. I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions for the fish I mentioned above that I don’t have covered. Also what colors. Do darker colors work better then lighter colors? Also what size works best. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I’ll be packing alot of tying material in case I have to match the hatch when I get there.My go to color for saltwater is chartruese. It will work on about any species but cobia. I’m on the Gulf side, so it may be a little different that Ft. Pierce, but not that much. Here is a list of my favorite patterns for different fish.
Snook: chartruese and/or white clousers, decievers and gurglers. These three flies will cover the entire water column. Tie in sizes 1 to 3/0 depending on what they are feeding on. I also like Sar mul macs, but you have to like to tie them. The snook are on the beach right now and are feeding on glass minnows (at least on the Gulf side), so I would have a couple of small white flies also.
Redfish: Various colors of Prince of Tides bendbacks. I usually try to have a chartrues/white, olive/beige, and black/red. I tie them on 1/0 hooks. Crab imitations are good to sight cast to tailing reds, but you have to put it right on their nose. I don’t like clousers for redfish because the eyes catch grass and you have to get the flies down in the grass where they are feeding. Gold spoonflies are a good prospecting fly, but they are a pain to cast and invariably put a twist in your fly line.
Speckled Trout/Weakfish: Same as snook. I tend to like topwater poppers or gurglers if they are feeding on the surface. They are attracted by sound, so a deerhair fly like a muddler that moves a lot of water is good.
Cobia: Black and red conehead bunnies with long tails. 1/0 to 3/0.
Tarpon: Conehead Tarpon Bunnies on big hooks, 3/0 + depending on size. Tie it is a variety of colors, just make sure you have some red on it. Snake flies are also good.
Shark: Big bright flies with lots of flash, preverably in red or orange. Something that will piss them off. You have to get the fly right up against their eye and annoy them with it. I find tube flies with wire leaders work very well.
Jack Crevalle and ladyfish: Throw whatever you have, they will eat anything. A good way to get rid of your beat up old flies.
Bob Thanks a bunch for the input! You cleared up alot with this post. I’m going to post it over on my site so I can save it for future use.
One more thing what line do use most often? I’ll be bringing a wide range of sink tips and rods from 7 to 10 wt. My floating and intermediate lines are few. If you were gonna be sure to have one backup line what would it be?
I primarily use WF floating lines and fish with either a 6wt or an 8wt. My preference is either the SA Mastry Bonefish line or Redfish line. They both hold up well to the heat. I use a 9ft tapered hard mono leader with a 25# fluorocarbon bite tippet. I don’t use a bite tippet for redfish or trout.
To get deeper, I uses a ghost tip, sink tip line with a relatively short fluorocarbon level leader (about 5 to 6 feet), with a 12# tippet and a 25# bite tippet (if necessary). I don’t use sinking lines for inshore and I don’t fly fish offshore, so I can’t help you there. In my opinion, if you are going so deep you need a sinking line, you are better off using spinning gear.
Also, for false albacore, a bonita bunny is a great fly, as is a Sar Mul Mac.
Cool I just acquired a Sage equator line for my 9wt and its pretty darn sweet. It makes that Xi a casting machine. I’d been casting a cheap Bass Pro saltwater line and it performed like poopy on that rod. Glad to see it wasn’t the rod. Thanks again. Bob I don’t know about saltwater but around here all I fish is sink tips unless I’m trout fishing with a dry or nymph an indicator. Do you just not like casting them?
You just rarely need any kind of sinking line for inshore stuff unless its in the surf where they can be nice, I’ve always used a sink tip for ‘poons of the jetties too.
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