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I got the chance to fish with Marcos Enriques again today. It started pretty slow, with way too much cloud cover, but around 10 am it started to clear up. I ran to several spots farther down the bay than what I have been fishing lately just to see how fall was shaping up. That proved to be little more than a sight seeing tour. Marcos caught one small red early, we checked 4 or 5 different spots, then headed in the direction where all of my pets have been hanging the last few trips.
Eased up onto the shoreline to find that there was a some good clarity and a little bit of water missing. That was about all that we could ask for. We didn't see more than a handful of tailing fish today, but that didn't stop Marcos from catching his share. Everything was singles or pairs, and most were close range shots due to the lack of tailing or other feeding activity. We probably poled down a solid mile of shoreline, all together after getting to the better area. I think that Marcos was on about his 8th or 9th fish, about 12:30 and I talked him into lettingme take a few shots.
We had already seen way beyond 50 reds, and in the last half an hour or so, spotted 8-10 large trout. They were layed up, in water a foot deep or less. I love catching reds on a fly rod, but they don't even come close to the shots at big trout. Right as I got to the front of the boat, I was re tying a leader that didn't look safe to test. Marcos says, you better hurry up captain, there's a tailer at 12 o'cock and about 60 feet. I scramble to get rigged and then turn to look at the fish, this was not your average shallow water red. We couldn't tell just how big but she was way over 30 inches. I made 3 cast that didn't quite hit the mark for her as she swam lazily away from the shoreline. She felt the boat and turned away, and we lost her momentarily in the sun. We eased back around and I saw her. It took two more casts before I got on that worked. We both watched this behemoth red suck down the little shrimp fly, and I stripped the line tight. She never made a huge run, mostly just acted like she was agrivated by the sting. She came back at the boat then shot under the bow. I got lucky and she came out the left side but continued towards the back of the boat. Some quick scrambling and I managed to keep her out of the prop. I was by no means in control of this fight, she was way green at this point. She surged away, then changed her mind again and shot right back at the transom. This is where things got ugly. There was no way to stop this fish, and Marcos was trying to get a picture. She shot right under the transom and surged hard. My 8 weight TFO couldn't stand the strain and snaped into 3 pieces. Expletives flew, but she was still on. That didn't last long either, and the tippet popped a couple of seconds later.
I guess that fish wasn't meant to be. It was by far the largest red that I have ever sight cast. She was in about a foot of water, and when she was right at the boat several times, we could clearly see that she was in the 38 to 40 inch range. It was a crushing blow to loose that fish, but we recoverd quickly. I grabbed Marcos' 7 weight and went back to work. I think that I landed 7 or 8 in just over an hour. I also had good shots at 2 trout that we easily over 28 inches. One was within 15 feet of the me, neither seemed to take much interest in my shrimp fly that the reds like so well.
We got Marcos back on the bow for two last fish. I think that the total was around 15 or 16 reds most on the shrimp fly. We went 0 for 15 on the big trout. We saw somewhere in the range of 100 reds, and 15 to 20 trout over 25. 5 of the trout were clearly in the 28 to 30 plus class. Painful but fun.
I will be back later in the week to hook one of them next week, and maybe take a shot at redemption on the giant redfish. She is swimming around right now with my fly on the left side of her jaw and about 10 inches of 10 flourocarbon leader trailing behind.
Eased up onto the shoreline to find that there was a some good clarity and a little bit of water missing. That was about all that we could ask for. We didn't see more than a handful of tailing fish today, but that didn't stop Marcos from catching his share. Everything was singles or pairs, and most were close range shots due to the lack of tailing or other feeding activity. We probably poled down a solid mile of shoreline, all together after getting to the better area. I think that Marcos was on about his 8th or 9th fish, about 12:30 and I talked him into lettingme take a few shots.
We had already seen way beyond 50 reds, and in the last half an hour or so, spotted 8-10 large trout. They were layed up, in water a foot deep or less. I love catching reds on a fly rod, but they don't even come close to the shots at big trout. Right as I got to the front of the boat, I was re tying a leader that didn't look safe to test. Marcos says, you better hurry up captain, there's a tailer at 12 o'cock and about 60 feet. I scramble to get rigged and then turn to look at the fish, this was not your average shallow water red. We couldn't tell just how big but she was way over 30 inches. I made 3 cast that didn't quite hit the mark for her as she swam lazily away from the shoreline. She felt the boat and turned away, and we lost her momentarily in the sun. We eased back around and I saw her. It took two more casts before I got on that worked. We both watched this behemoth red suck down the little shrimp fly, and I stripped the line tight. She never made a huge run, mostly just acted like she was agrivated by the sting. She came back at the boat then shot under the bow. I got lucky and she came out the left side but continued towards the back of the boat. Some quick scrambling and I managed to keep her out of the prop. I was by no means in control of this fight, she was way green at this point. She surged away, then changed her mind again and shot right back at the transom. This is where things got ugly. There was no way to stop this fish, and Marcos was trying to get a picture. She shot right under the transom and surged hard. My 8 weight TFO couldn't stand the strain and snaped into 3 pieces. Expletives flew, but she was still on. That didn't last long either, and the tippet popped a couple of seconds later.
I guess that fish wasn't meant to be. It was by far the largest red that I have ever sight cast. She was in about a foot of water, and when she was right at the boat several times, we could clearly see that she was in the 38 to 40 inch range. It was a crushing blow to loose that fish, but we recoverd quickly. I grabbed Marcos' 7 weight and went back to work. I think that I landed 7 or 8 in just over an hour. I also had good shots at 2 trout that we easily over 28 inches. One was within 15 feet of the me, neither seemed to take much interest in my shrimp fly that the reds like so well.
We got Marcos back on the bow for two last fish. I think that the total was around 15 or 16 reds most on the shrimp fly. We went 0 for 15 on the big trout. We saw somewhere in the range of 100 reds, and 15 to 20 trout over 25. 5 of the trout were clearly in the 28 to 30 plus class. Painful but fun.
I will be back later in the week to hook one of them next week, and maybe take a shot at redemption on the giant redfish. She is swimming around right now with my fly on the left side of her jaw and about 10 inches of 10 flourocarbon leader trailing behind.
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