Went fishing with my friend Baz who is a fly fishing guide (http://www.gulfbreezeguideservice.com) in late September. No clouds and a light northerly wind. This always makes a trip to the Gulf enticing. We went out through the Pensacola Pass and turned west. The Gulf can be flat in such a wind and it was. Close to the beach there tend to be deeper pockets of water with a channel to its southwest. These pockets can be around football field size. We were using Baz’s flats skiff and just beached the boat.
On first sandbar casting into the first trough
Just jumped in and waded barefooted in the warm water. Then we saw that each of those pockets held a school of Bluefish. They tend to be cooperative, so we opted for a small white popper because surface takes are spectacular. We had 5 rods strung up and ready but as it turned out we only used one rod and only the one popper (we have hundreds of flies) and took turns casting. We use a short multi-strand wire because of the Blue’s sharp teeth.
Bluefish on beach ready to be released
We caught the Blues by sharp short strips and then we paused for a moment to give them a chance to grab the fly. They attacked it from the side and half out of the water they turned down and tore into it. I strip strike meaning I keep the rod down and give a sharp pull with the line hand then I raise the rod. It was just wonderful to be out there witnessing these takes. After a while we had a snack and as we were relaxing a Bald Eagle circle above us and higher up another one. It was just a perfect end to a great morning of fishing.
Wading the sandbar, fishing the first trough
