A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Tried the fly game today and did ok. Probably should have caught 15 or more if I would have landed all the fish that ate or pursued the fly. Plenty of reds around, no telling how many I got to cast at. On 2 different occasions small trout stole the fly away from reds in hot pursuit. My dad followed me up with the spinning rod and got 2 fish, I landed 2, 25" and 30". Had a group of 3 bulls, probably around 40 inches, boldly pass by the boat and ignore the small fly I was chunking. Fish were in all depths, from 1.5 to 5 ft of water. Highlight of the day was a double hookup on a school of 50 fish in 4ft of water. They were hovering motionless on the surface like laid-up tarpon, glowing ruby red. Fly was a purple toad on a #4 hook, never switched, probably should have. Insanely clear water today, and saw some stuff I will never forget. Good to drag dad back out there.
Last edited by sanblaslayer on April 4th, 2010, 12:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ok. i have a tfo 8wt that seems to be too soft. it can't seem to reach the fish in just moderate wind.... do you know anything about the colton tradewinds rods? i only know that they are im10 and cheap. they are made by a small company in pa. they say the tradewinds model is made for albakore and is xfast action with solid backbone. i'm looking into getting one.
Your problem may not be solved by switching to a different rod. Learning how to double haul on your cast is probably the best way to solve your distance problem. TFO rods are not soft action rods (unless they make a soft model I missed along the way). Nothing wrong with having two rods and a faster rod may allow you to throw extra line but double hauling will allow you to cast in windy conditions and reach the fish.