Fly Fishing World Headquarters- Angler Reports about Flies, Lodges, Guides & Gear

We got an update from our friend Capt. Jim Ross of Fineline Fishing Charters who guides anglers in the Space Coast area of the state. Capt. Jim is a native of the area and has been fishing it all of his life. Capt. Jim is heavily involved in the fishery on many levels, a weekly radio show, an activist in the conservation of the habitat and founder of the Indian River Fishing Academy just to name a few of the areas of his interest.

The weather here in Florida has been a bit tough on the fishing with colder than average temperatures and high wind conditions accompanying most of the fronts that have been moving through the state. Capt. Jim gives us the following report of a trip he ran on Thursday 2/25.

We finally got a day without 20 plus knot winds and had a chance to use the buggy whip on a few black drum here in the Indian River Lagoon near Kennedy Space Center.  The black drum were schooled up pretty good.  We had multiple shots at three different groups of fish that held between 250 and 300 fish in each group.  Most of them are in the 7 to 10 pound range, but we did manage one that topped the scale at 14 pounds. The best fly was a black colored 1/0 Redfish Candy tied by Dan Johnson.  This fly is larger than I normally use for drum, but they wouldn’t hit the usual offerings.  Between fly and spin gear we ended up with a “Drum Slam” consisting of redfish, black drum, and speckled trout (which is actually a member of the drum family).  Total catch for the trip was 4 redfish, 3 black drum, and 5 trout.

A nice mid winter day on the space coast.

A very nice Black Drum taken on fly

Thanks for the report Jim, we know that a lot of anglers suffering with the record snow falls in many parts of the country are making plans to escape the frigid north for a few days of milder weather here in Florida, are glad to see that we can have great days of fishing in spite of the challenging conditions. Visit Capt. Jim’s website at www.captainjimross.com.

Diana Rudolph & Kim Bain-Moore

The week started with overcast skies and winds roaring around 25 to 30 miles per hour, a true test of your casting skills. Oh well, you have to make the best of what you have! I’ve done a ton of TV shows over the years including “Fly fishing The World”, “Spanish Fly”, “Fly Fishing America” and sometimes you just have to “go fishin”. I did one show with Jose Wejebe in Belize and I know that the wind was blowing over thirty. We were laughing when we left the dock thinking this was going to be a first in TV fly fishing. You literally couldn’t stand up without spreading you feet out to compensate for the wind…it would blow you over. Well, we actually caught fish! Jose caught 3 I think and I caught one. I remembered the advice, keep the wind blowing over your left shoulder. The weather for this show wasn’t that bad but it was tough for the ladies and the guides too. Kim had the advantage as she was using spin gear. Kim is an excellent angler and is the only woman on the Bassmaster Tour at this time. She did very well over the course of the four days using only artificials. To be honest, in the Bahamas, I think that the fly angler has the advantage. Diana, world record holder and fly fishing celebrity, fought off the temptation to go to spin gear and stuck with the fly rod the entire time. The first day was a struggle but she landed several bonefish that not many anglers would even have tried for.

Leaving the dock for a great day on the water

Kim and one of many bonefish she released.

Capt. Clint and a couple of nice bonefish

The second fish in the SLAM. Photo by Kim Bain-Moore.

Catch and release of a beautiful permit! Photo by Kim Bain-Moore

Our friend and Peacock Bass enthusiast Marcel de R. from Rio de Janeiro has had a busy summer of fly fishing in the Amazon with the completion of two trips this year. His first trip was to the Austral Amazon Basin, specifically to the Aripuana River where he had landed a 21 lb. Peacock Bass last year.

A nice bass taken from the flooded Amazon

The trip was almost a disaster; the water was too high due to the annual flooding conditions. The river was at a 50 year high, cresting at 19.8 meters over the normal level. The people who live along the river live in floating houses or on the few high ground river banks that can be found in some areas. Nature is on a pristine stage in the Amazon with an awesome array of animal life that is encountered around each bend of the river. Marcel and his group travel for 18 to 20 hours upriver, really very far away from any other humans or their civilization.

A black barred on the left and a tiger on the right

On their trip last year they encountered a black Jaguar swimming across the river. In the surprise of seeing such a beautiful animal so close, they couldn’t manage to find the camera they had stowed out of the weather until it was almost too late. Unfortunately it was late in the day with poor light and a blurry image was the result.
When the rivers reach such a flood level, the fish move up into the “woods” and feed voraciously on the fingerling’s and other small bait fish. They could hear them up in the jungle cover crashing baits all day long. In 5 days of fishing, 10 hours a day, only 11 fish were landed all under 4 lbs. That action was a result of a school of fish hanging near a rock in the river and then it was over! The next 4 1/2 days without a bite. It was devastating, but that’s the Amazon!

A tackle busting black barred peacock

Three weeks later he was there again this time on the Sucunduri River, this trip much better! No trophies but the fish were cooperative and they released 147 fish over 5 days of fishing with biggest fish weighing in at around 14 lbs. As they brought their hooked fish to the boat they could see a lot of some very big fish swimming just beneath the hooked ones looking for an opportunistic meal.  He saw some very, very big fish especially on the spawning beds. These encounters helped take the sting out of the first trip.

Two more nice fish

Marcel uses a variety of toad flies that John Baker ties for us. He finds that the bass prefer them to any other fly he has tried. He has used both the foam and the standard fiber head toads in a variety of standard colors, a thickly tied marabou tail, tied on both 1/0 and 2/0 hooks.  Marcel likes a clear or ghost tip line and 12 to 14 foot leaders that he hand ties using “heavy mono” to help get the fish out of the heavy cover that he sometimes finds himself in.
If you’re planning a trip to the Amazon to go Peacock Bass fishing you can’t go wrong with the selection below.

Another valued customer of the store, Brad D. on a recent trip to the lower Keys with two of his fishing buddies had a great time pursuing the Key West Slam on fly. To qualify for a Key West Slam on fly an angler has to catch and release a Tarpon, a Bonefish and a Permit all in one day using a fly rod. Although Brad and his buddies didn’t achieve that goal, they came close and had a great time in the effort. Here is Brad’s story.

Lower Key's Bonefish

Lot's of tailers

Lower Keys junior tarpon

The lower Keys offers a tremendous opportunity for great fly fishing action year ’round but it’s especially good during the early summer through late fall. Often overlooked for the more heavily promoted areas like Key West and Islamorada, the lower keys from Marathon down though Sugarloaf Key offer the best opportunity for a Slam. The heart of that area centered around the gulf side flats north of Big Pine Key has it all. From April through October the area offers plenty of tarpon, bones and permit for a fly fisherman to pursue. In my guiding career, I spent many many days putting my clients on shot after shot of all three. Granted it’s hot and there is the almost constant threat of storms be they local or of the more threatening tropical variety, the majority of the time it’s ideal conditions for fly fishing. Light winds, calm seas and good tides are the hallmarks of the summer season.

The area around the Content Keys north of Big Pine Key

It’s a big area and it’s a hard area to fish without good local knowlege so if you’re interested in giving it a shot, give us a call at the store (904-997-2220) and we can give you the names of some of the guides that work the area year ’round that I know can show you just how great the fishing can be.