TR: Keys fishing

My son Glen and I just got back from 5 days in the Keys, intending to fish for
bonefish. A smarter fisherman would have checked the tides and realized that
last week was the worst tide combination for flats fishing. We made the best
of the tides and the incessant wind by fishing for barracuda on various flats
from MP30 to MP80.

I've posted pictures on ABPF of a couple typical fish. We had some bigger ones
swing at the flies, and Glen had a true monster take his fly.

Glen had started to wade out to a flat that looked good, but the water got to
about 3 feet deep on the way out when he saw the shark fin 60 feet in front of
him. Fortunately the fish was lying quietly on the bottom facing away from
him. The dorsal fin poked out about 2 inches in the trough of each wind wave.
The fish looked to be about 18 inched wide in the body where the fin was, he
didn't have an estimate of it's length, but it was yellowish, so we're guessing
it was a Lemon shark. He quietly backed up 100 feet until it was ankle deep,
and stopped to gather his whits. We had seen lots of small sharks, bonnet
heads and nurse sharks, all under 3 feet long, this brute was different. We
moved up the beach a bit and cast about catching a couple small cuda, and then
Glen got the strike. The fish hit hard and jumped. I looked over to see this
fish over 4 feet long, five to six feet in the air, and traveling 10 feet on
that jump. My first reaction was that it was a king salmon, it was fat enough,
but too long and too high in the air. It ripped out all the fly line and 100
yards of backing with the reel making a noise neither of us had ever heard.
When it stopped, Glen started gaining a bit on it, and then it swam right at
us. Actually it had tangled in the weeds and escaped, Glen brought in a wad of
weeds. No pictures of this guy, but neither of us will ever forget it.

Chas
remove fly fish to e mail directly

"chas" wrote
(snip)

.. It ripped out all the fly line and 100
yards of backing with the reel making a noise neither of us had ever
heard.
When it stopped, Glen started gaining a bit on it, and then it swam right
at
us. Actually it had tangled in the weeds and escaped, Glen brought in a
wad of
weeds. No pictures of this guy, but neither of us will ever forget it.


great story.

yfitons
wayno

On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 21:10:33 -0500, chas wrote:

My son Glen and I just got back from 5 days in the Keys, intending to fish for
bonefish. A smarter fisherman would have checked the tides and realized that
last week was the worst tide combination for flats fishing. We made the best
of the tides and the incessant wind by fishing for barracuda on various flats
from MP30 to MP80.

I've posted pictures on ABPF of a couple typical fish. We had some bigger ones
swing at the flies, and Glen had a true monster take his fly.

Glen had started to wade out to a flat that looked good, but the water got to
about 3 feet deep on the way out when he saw the shark fin 60 feet in front of
him. Fortunately the fish was lying quietly on the bottom facing away from
him. The dorsal fin poked out about 2 inches in the trough of each wind wave.
The fish looked to be about 18 inched wide in the body where the fin was, he
didn't have an estimate of it's length, but it was yellowish, so we're guessing
it was a Lemon shark. He quietly backed up 100 feet until it was ankle deep,
and stopped to gather his whits. We had seen lots of small sharks, bonnet
heads and nurse sharks, all under 3 feet long, this brute was different. We
moved up the beach a bit and cast about catching a couple small cuda, and then
Glen got the strike. The fish hit hard and jumped. I looked over to see this
fish over 4 feet long, five to six feet in the air, and traveling 10 feet on
that jump. My first reaction was that it was a king salmon, it was fat enough,
but too long and too high in the air. It ripped out all the fly line and 100
yards of backing with the reel making a noise neither of us had ever heard.
When it stopped, Glen started gaining a bit on it, and then it swam right at
us. Actually it had tangled in the weeds and escaped, Glen brought in a wad of
weeds. No pictures of this guy, but neither of us will ever forget it.

Chas
remove fly fish to e mail directly

The heck with the bones, that's a very cool story.

Flyfishing shallow-running flies for 'Cudas is a freaking riot, the
way-over-eager missile launch takes can be spectacular!

Landing one is a bonus - and a tricky one at that. I wouldn't want to try
landing a bigger one solo, those teeth are *freaky* huge on a 4+ footer.

I had help with this one, thankfully...
http://home.comcast.net/~day_trippr/...da_at_dock.jpg

/daytripper

"Wayne Harrison" wrote:


great story.


Thanks Wayne

Chas
remove fly fish to e mail directly

daytripper wrote:

Flyfishing shallow-running flies for 'Cudas is a freaking riot, the
way-over-eager missile launch takes can be spectacular!

Landing one is a bonus - and a tricky one at that. I wouldn't want to try
landing a bigger one solo, those teeth are *freaky* huge on a 4+ footer.

I had help with this one, thankfully...
http://home.comcast.net/~day_trippr/...da_at_dock.jpg

/daytripper

That's a nice fish, I'm guessing those are 2x4 deck boards and it's about 30
inches? Twice the fish we managed to land, and even those had me concerned.
When the big one came back towards Glen, he hit for dry land only partly in an
attempt to keep the line tight.

Thanks

Chas
remove fly fish to e mail directly

Damn Chas!
I bet it was one of those elusive Glacier Pike, on vacation....
M
T

Mark Tinsky wrote:

Damn Chas!
I bet it was one of those elusive Glacier Pike, on vacation....
M
T

That's it! I knew there was some explanation for the missing pike.

Thanks so much Mark,

Chas
remove fly fish to e mail directly

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 11:01:15 -0500, chas wrote:

daytripper wrote:

Flyfishing shallow-running flies for 'Cudas is a freaking riot, the
way-over-eager missile launch takes can be spectacular!

Landing one is a bonus - and a tricky one at that. I wouldn't want to try
landing a bigger one solo, those teeth are *freaky* huge on a 4+ footer.

I had help with this one, thankfully...
http://home.comcast.net/~day_trippr/...da_at_dock.jpg

/daytripper

That's a nice fish, I'm guessing those are 2x4 deck boards and it's about 30
inches? Twice the fish we managed to land, and even those had me concerned.
When the big one came back towards Glen, he hit for dry land only partly in an
attempt to keep the line tight.

Those are what's left of 2x6 decking atop the dock on a 6" pitch.

http://home.comcast.net/~day_trippr/...da_at_dock.jpg

I'm 77" tall, that fish was over 40" and pushing 20 pounds.

I had no idea cudas that big lived on the ****ant little submerged reef we
were fishing over, the other 20 cudas we caught that morning were all 18-24
inch "axe handles"...

/daytripper (Them's fun, but not fun *and* scary like their granddaddy ;-)

daytripper wrote:
On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 11:01:15 -0500, chas wrote:
That's a nice fish, I'm guessing those are 2x4 deck boards and it's about 30
inches? Twice the fish we managed to land, and even those had me concerned.
When the big one came back towards Glen, he hit for dry land only partly in
an
attempt to keep the line tight.

Those are what's left of 2x6 decking atop the dock on a 6" pitch.

http://home.comcast.net/~day_trippr/...da_at_dock.jpg

I'm 77" tall, that fish was over 40" and pushing 20 pounds.

I had no idea cudas that big lived on the ****ant little submerged reef we
were fishing over, the other 20 cudas we caught that morning were all 18-24
inch "axe handles"...

/daytripper (Them's fun, but not fun *and* scary like their granddaddy ;-)

Wow, I blew that one. Scary indeed!

Thanks,

Chas
remove fly fish to e mail directly