Not all fly fishing in salt water is outfits that cost thousands of dollars and hard work searching for difficult species. For just good fun you need a 9 or 10 weight outfit with a reasonably smooth drag and a intermediate sinking line. Compliment this outfit with some number 2 and 1/0 clouser minnow flies in white, green and white and yellow and white and you should be ready to fish. I like a 15 pound tippet and you are ready to close the deal.
Your targets in the fall can range from ladyfish, bluefish, assorted jacks and mackerel along beaches , inside inlets and around near shore navigational aids to bonito, tuna or mahi offshore. Always bring a couple of boxes of chum and a box of glass minnows for firing up the bite. In all situations, birds will usually start your game. On your best days the birds will be wheeling and diving over foaming water and baitfish. In this situation it is best to drift down on the action with your engine off if at all possible. At least approach at low speed, but use a fast retrieve in the boiling action.
When the surface action is slow, anchor upstream of a fish attracting structure of submerged reef or artificial reef. Hang a chum bag off the boat and spice your chum with occasional pinches of glass minnows. Blue runners, bonitos, mangrove snappers, yellowtail snapper and mackerel may soon appear. Frequently a very slow retrieve with small twitches of the fly will produce good action fishing in your chum line. Jacks and mackerel may want a fast retrieve.
Offshore you are targeting mahi and tunas. When you find mahi, it is very important to keep your fly out of the water till you can keep it away from the mahi. If a couple mahi swim up to your fly, and it doesn’t try to escape, then that school of mahi will not try to eat that fly. You HAVE to play keep away when dealing with mahi.
For tuna, generous chumming spiced with glass minnows will frequently bring assorted tuna to your boat. Let some birds show you where to start, then run against the current for a quarter mile, shut down and start chumming with your ground chum spiced with glass minnows.
In almost all these situations we are targeting fish under 5 pounds and the action is just good challenging fun, but when that giant bull mahi, amberjack or kingfish shows up, it will be a dream catch.
In almost all these situations, you can improve the game with a livewell full of small pilchards. Don’t over chum with the live bait. You can fill the fish up before they fall for your fly.
Capt. Bouncer
CaptBouncer@bellsouth.net
(305) 439-2475