With several cancellations this past week I was only on the water one day - and that was just after the coldest night of this winter season. Even a day later, water temps were nearing 51 degrees as we ran across Whitewater Bay (and that was after a late start, we deliberately started at 8Am to allow the sun to do its magic..). I was fishing Keith Millman and his son Matt that day, Dad using the fly, son with spinning gear. Our first stop was a trout spot in Whiitewater, and that first cast was a fish (usually it's find trout.. the bites are almost immediate. Keith managed this nice trout on an 8wt rod, using my favorite cold water fly, the Blacklight Special....
We caught and released nice slot sized fish for a few minutes then left them biting... In cold water conditions we slow down and fish black flies or small jigs with Gulp tails. Here's a pic of that Blacklight fly, it's a mix of natural and synthetic materials on a #1 or #2 hook...
If you look closely you'll notice that every fly has wire weedguard - a pretty good idea in the backcountry....
As we moved to the west, Matt caught this nice small snook in a lot colder water than you'd expect them to bite in....
We went on to find a few redfish in really shallow water that we missed our shots at, then worked our way back into Whitewater and began poling some really shallow areas that were sheltered from the wind. Here's the good news... we found more than a few spots with big laid up snook sunning themselves to warm up. The bad news is that we spooked them - usually before you could see them at all (big snook will actually bury themselves in soft mud bottoms in shallow protected coves during cold spells). If you can spot one and work a fly or small lure very close by you'll occasionally get a bite and a great shot at landing a real trophy. By the end of the day water temps were up to almost 59 degrees in some areas. That day they left us wanting... We'll be back.
We're finally in a true winter pattern now after a much warmer than usual six weeks. I'm looking forward to it. When everyone up north is only dreaming about a day on the water - we'll be in fish all winter.
Tight Lines
Bob LeMay
(954) 435-5666