Lights On, Nobody Home

In life and fishing, sometimes the things you plan might not go exactly the way you envision them, but if you improvise, adapt and overcome, you can go from scratching your head.... to watching your rod bend with a fish on the other end.

Keith and I paddled out to a string of docks that I found lighted on a scouting mission earlier in the week. The plan was to concentrate on the docks that were sticking out into the incoming tide and hopefully locate a few snook.

The problem was....someone forgot to tell the folks who live there to turn their lights on for us. It was a bit like Halloween. Several residents actually saw us out there and turned their lights off! I asked Keith to go knock on a few doors and ask them to turn their dock lights on, but he wouldn't do it. These same docks were lit earlier this week....I need to remember to bring the rolls of toilet paper and burning dog shit bags me thinks.

Now, I understand why some folks might not want folks fishing around their docks. I get it. A few errant casts clanging off their boats, fishing line draped across their boardwalks, and hooks left laying exposed to bare feet. I get it. A prudent fisherman needs only to realize a bit of respect to not do these things and to remember that you're literally in someones back yard.

Ok...back to the fishing part.

Conditions were just PERFECT. The sort of night that brings on a sense of Zen peacefulness...no wind, slick, flat calm seas, painted skies, and less humidity than you'd expect for an early September night in Florida. I could have just laid back and took a nap if there wasn't fishing to do. The water temperature is a bit cooler for sure.

So lights out on the docks we planned to hit.


We paddled into a clover leaf of docks in the inlets. It seems the lights were out more than on, but we could see feeding activity along the lights that were lit. The pattern was whomever got into position and got a cast off was almost guaranteed a hook-up.....cast....plop....thunk....tension....fish! Trout were everywhere. I started with a 9 foot leader and had to keep trimming it because it would get frayed. It's probably about a 5 foot leader now. The larger specimens really tend to put up a fight and I had a few that actually leaped free of the water. There seemed to be a lot more schoolie sized fish than the last time, but we were getting a few that were in the 18-20 inch range.


We came upon a submerged amber colored light that had quite a bit of feeding activity around it. I pulled a few decent fish out and just sat back to watch the them interact with each other. I often enjoy just observing the fish as much as catching them. What was strange was, I could see the trout, who were mixed in with a gaggle of sail cats, just lazily swimming on their side. A few of them looked like flounder and would require a bit of a double take.

The last dock that we hit had a light that was placed about 10 feet above the water. There was surface action everywhere for about a 100 foot radius around this light. You could cast in any direction and immediately have a fish on. They were feeding on finger mullet, greenbacks and shrimp....but I think you could have tossed a frying pan and it would have received a strike.

Black Friday Camping Trip at Hillsborough River

Went camping out at Hillsborough River State Park after Thanksgiving with Julie, Her son Chris and my dog Lacy. It was Lacy's first camping trip at a family campground. I've taken her backpacking with me before but this was a different experience for her. She loved it.

It was chilly (40) and good campfires were needed. We were snug in our new sleeping bags though. Thankfully, they zip together.

Got out the longstick and was chasing small bass with a purple and black bendback. Had a few chasers but no takers....and of course, hung up my favorite crease fly on a brush pile across the river.

We made a nice dinner one night consisting of steak on the campfire, shrimp kabobs, and potato salad and of course, the always popular S'mores.

Lacy did something really funny. After she ate, she scratched at the door of the tent, so I let her in. She laid down on the air mattress and went to sleep. It was so funny.

Also, the families with kids all left on Sunday, so we pretty much had the whole park to ourselves Sunday afternoon on.

It was a good trip and great finale for a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Fall Fly Pattern

This is a basic Double Bunny pattern. It can be used to imitate one of the most prevalent baitfish in salt water everywhere. The alien looking Toadfish Game fish love toadfish and this pattern is easy to tie. Bead chain eyes are an option to help get the fly down to the bottom. Toadfish like to hang around oyster bars and backwater estuaries and are a perfect bait for fall and winter gamefish. A slow darting presentation is essential to imitate a toadfish since they don't travel very far or fast to avoid predators.

It can also imitate a smallish shrimp or mullet.

I tie them size 1 to size 2/0.

The "Gear" Guy

I'm sure that we're acquainted with a "Gear" guy....you know the type - the guy with all of the new gear/bag/stripping basket/rod/reel/hat/high tech clothing....and he isn't afraid to talk about it.

What I find funny about the Gear Guy is, none of his gear help him get on fish any better than me or you. It's not as if the gear is a fish attractor....because, as my friend Scott likes to say, "The fish haven't read "In Fisherman" yet this month".

That's me in the photo, and I'm pretty geared up because we were quite a ways from the car and we were walking a fairly long stretch of beach.

I can remember being Gear Guy. When I used to bass fish, I'd always drag out 3 HUGE tackle boxes, and 4 rods just to hit a golf course pond. I can distinctly remember being out fished by my buddy one day, me with all of my gear and he with a Wal-Mart spinning rig and a few bags of plastic worms.

I usually don't carry all that much gear with me when I fish unless it's "expedition" style fishing....or I'm REALLY far from home. 90 percent of my gear isn't name brand gear and most of it isn't fishing gear at all, rather other gear "converted" into fly fishing gear. I'm not trashing anyone outfitted head to toe, I'm just saying that it doesn't work for me. I'm not going to list everything I take, I'm just mentioning the fact that I'm a minimalist of sorts.

Ken Morrow can be a gear guy too, but he uses everything....(just kidding Ken)

Take for instance, the gear guy at Long Key State Park. There were several of them sighted on this particular trip, but the guy I'm speaking of was a Gear God on a scale of gear-guy-ness. This guy looked like he just walked out of a fly shop that day, knocked off all the price tags, and started fishing....new wading shoes not even sandy yet. I was wading back to the campsite as the tide was almost gone, tired, spent and thirsty....my two 32 oz Nalgenes empty, I see this guy walking along the shore, and says to me "I can't see anything to cast at" to which I responded "you just have to wade and blind cast", opened up my fly box and gave him a few hot pink Sweet Ernies I had tied that morning...and he just sort of wandered off down the beach. It was necessary to blind cast because the 30 mph wind made it so. I couldn't see anything and I was getting hit.

Just like "softball guy", People of Wal-Mart and the always popular "boat guy", Gear Guy will always make me chuckle a bit.....

Camping trip and fall gorge fest

Ok folks!

After much editing of the blog and an exceptional absence, I'm proud to announce an upcoming camping trip the first weekend in November that will get this blog rocking again. Even though it's only out to Hillsborough River State Park (to which I've been countless times), the chance to get out into the woods and build campfires and possibly fish the river for bass is almost too much for me to contain! I'm hoping to get the camera sorted before then as to have some new images to add.

I'm also itching to get out on the flats because the fall gorge fest that the reds and snook take part in before winter. As soon as the water temp drops, I'm hoping to hit a few ambush points along the mangroves with some new flies I've tied....the small pinfish imitations and toad fish look alikes should work fine.

Got a new Pflueger 12 weight reel from wflies a while back and never got to try it out before the end of tarpon season. It's very well built and I'll be pairing it with a Wild Waters 12 weight rod. These are really nicely made 4 piece 9 foot rods. Google them and see what you're missing out on.