super_fly
Moderator - Flyfishin
Group: Members
Posts: 378
Joined: Jan. 2004 |
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Posted: Dec. 15 2004,10:32 |
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Hey Jimbo,
Okay, in reverse order:
b) Could be retreive. Could also be fish. Are there fish where you've been fishing? That often seems to be my problem. If so, can you see the fish? Watching how the fish react to your fly helps if you can arrange it. Look for ponds with bream, cichlids, bass or peacocks that you can see. Then you can get a feel for how your fly swims and how the fish take it. It varies, sometimes a fast strip seems to be all that works; some days slow and bouncing on the bottom. You just have to play around. If you're in saltwater try and find a school of jacks. Conditions like the day we hit Rattlesnake would be perfect for it: a willing & stationary school of jacks.
a) the gheenoe...well I took the gheenoe out for it's first real fishing trip. We drove up to St. Lucie & put in at sandsprit park. Started working the flats & channel just north of there. Some boat traffic but everything was alright. We decided to run over to the sailfish flats (didn't look that far on the chart!). As soon as we turn north in to the IR the wind & waves kick way up and we get soaked. Probably ran about a mile north and decided it was to rough, time to go back to the protected canals. Cross the sandbar, run south in the side channel and WHAM! Nail a sandbar. Many things happened at this point...the motor cuts out...the boat stops...I notice we've taken a lot of water from the waves...the boat is really squirrely...we tilt sideways...i fall out. Unfortunatelly my ugly stik was in the vertical rod holder to my side...no more ugly stik. Fortunately we were on firm sand in 6 inches of water. One amazing point, as full as the boat was with water, plus me, my friend, gear and the motor, it was still floating, that's why it tipped, it was off balance due to the water. So now what do we do. The only things we had at our disposal to bail with were the bait bucket and the glad sandwich container holding the pbj's my wife packed. Dump the shrimp into the gheenoe, take out the sandwiches and get to work. Bailing only took about 20 minutes.
We get back in, paddle and use the trolling motor off of the sandbar, get back into the channel and get the outboard going. Figured out that going slowly over the ways works a lot better than being on plane. Now the fun part, we have to go through the channel crossroads to get back to the canal. The waves are now behind us and bigger. I get to experience the joy of running a shallow water boat through 2-3 ft rollers while not letting (many) of them come in over the transom. While working sideways. It's scary but going pretty well, until I hit another sandbar! Trolling motor gets us onto the sandbar where we're somewhat protected from the swells and into a calmer spot where the outboard shoots us across the channel. Due another (smaller) bailing and fish. Caught a nice jack on a 3" redfish tsunami. Learned a lot. The gheenoe is a tough little boat and versatile. It has a tough outboard, works well with a trolling motor, a push pole and a paddle.
To make this fly fishing relevant, I did have my fly rod but the wind was brutal so it mostly stayed in the rod holder.
Important points: we lived and it was a good thing we hit the first sandbar. Running those rollers with the water in the boat would have been bad. So, in summary, Lord, thank you for having me hit the sandbar!
Ken
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, although sometimes a popper will make something move even in the slack between tides.