Some days have be great with 2 dozen+ fish each for a four hour session with some other days less than a dozen fish each. Best days have been when we can find concentrations of small baitfish. Catching has been a bit more up and down since the storms started rolling in at the end of January. There have been some breezy days and some with calm conditions that would be comfortable for SUP users.
Oddly, on many mornings, the first couple of hours was best regardless of whether the tide was incoming, outgoing, or slack, regardless of cloud cover. On days with bluebird skies the bite has slowed in the shallow water (<8ft) as expected, but on cloudy days the catching in shallows has been good.
Just about any fly has worked though slim baitfish patterns have done better when there is a lot of small baitfish present.
Have mostly been using sinking lines with sink rates of between 3 and 6 inches per second. Much of the time it has been too breezy to use intermediate lines, or if calm, there were no biting fish in the shallower water where intermediate lines are most effective.
For the last month I have been using and old 8' 5wt rod built on a J. Kennedy Fisher glass blank by the late Bill Stroud. It has been a hoot to fish with and even a 10" bass will bend it into the grip during the fight. I have to remember to execute a good strip strike since the rod is too soft to set by swinging the rod, which is poor practice anyway. Sure, the rod is more suited to dry fly fishing for trout, but it is still fun and with a 150 grain sinking line handles small weighted flies just fine.
- A bonefish from a few days ago.
Fish Forage
- Fish Food
