K Bo said:

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Thanks!

Though, you know firsthand what happens to my bare feet in the flats.

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Prove it.

You asked for it.

Rick I were fishing a couple months ago and I took every precaution to cover up but what I didn't think about was my feet under the shoes I was wearing. The fish were in super skinny water so we had to wade to them and off came the shoes. I learned, the hard way, to always protect your feet!

K Bo said:

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You asked for it.

Rick I were fishing a couple months ago and I took every precaution to cover up but what I didn't think about was my feet under the shoes I was wearing. The fish were in super skinny water so we had to wade to them and off came the shoes. I learned, the hard way, to always protect your feet!

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From what? Sunburn?!?

Yeah, sunburn.

youch! I have never seen it turn into one big blister like that

Been there with the foot sunburn. Got mine from drinking all day at the lake one Labor Day. Sucked bad.

Jesus Christ dude that's insane.

I go barefoot a lot but I've never had that happen. Use either the Bullfrog gel or the Neutrogena stick sunscreen on top of your feet. I like the stick because it goes on like deodorant and you don't get it on your hands. Just keep it in the cooler so it doesn't melt.

That's funny right there.

NW80 said:

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Finn... you've got shade on your feet the rest of us don't!

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Damnit you ol' sumbeech I laughed at myself. But like a said, a tool like mine needs a roof over it.

Omg. That sh*t is nasty.

How bad is the rod?

Fish pics with the fly still connected

No rod breakage.

I saw a big black something on the other side of a spartina patch. Figured a barge must have pushed a log from the intercoastal onto the flats. Until the tip went under, and came back up. Multiple times, out of sync with the waves. Got closer and saw the slow tail wag of a big ugly doing his own thing.

I waded into position to get a better angle with the wind and started dragging a crab fly in front of the fish. I'd been throwing crack earlier, but had tied some crabbit flies recently and wanted to finally slime one. I was worried it'd be spooky in the skinny stuff so I tried casting further out and working my way closer. Took 4 or 5 shots before I hooked up. Fish didn't bolt, but decided whatever stuck his face wasn't fun and headed back to the intercoastal. Slow, steady, unconcerned, and unstoppable.

Once I realized I wouldn't be able to turn the fish I tried getting someone to get the boat to pick me up to follow it. I was just loosing line too fast for that to work. At about half of my backing left I cranked the drag down and when line still kept going out, I palmed the reel hard. Pulled the fly out. Hook wasn't bent, and usually with rubber lipped drum the hooks stay pretty good. Not sure what went wrong (other than being woefully undergunned).

It definitely looked like it was in the same class as the 43.56lb 43.50" state record fish.

Salt of the water said:

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Good work. Looks like a dolphin took a bite out of this little guy.

I love these stories.

DAMN that turned out pretty nice! Wanna make me one in exchange for a trip on the Waterman?

Please and thank you.

Do you want to test drive this one first then I can make any modifications you want (i.e height and width)? The basket is ~35" tall, I'm 6'2" ish and that's just about the height I need it to be so I'm not banging my knuckles on the rim when I'm stripping line. I can make one taller or shorter for whatever you want.

An idea I also tossed around was to make this style of stripping basket



You make it taller and strip through the low cutout and use the high part as a backboard for your line. I didn't end up going with this style bc
A) that would've required more work on my part and probably would've caused me to have to get out more tools than the hacksaw and dremmel
B) fish aren't always going to be conveniently in the direction of the opening and I for damn sure ain't gonna adjust my stripping basket to point at a fish, and
3) El Naco don't bank shots cuz I gets straight buckets

But if you wanted that style, I could probably do that.

Very nice.

I don't recall but have you posted pics of La Chancla? If not we love skiff pron around here.

Finn Maccumhail said:

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Very nice.

I don't recall but have you posted pics of La Chancla? If not we love skiff pron around here.

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https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2836183

Finn Maccumhail said:

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Very nice.

I don't recall but have you posted pics of La Chancla? If not we love skiff pron around here.

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Don't think I've ever posted any pics of her in this thread, but here she is; the glorified motorized SUP/ nanoskiff I dubbed La Chancla. 13 feet of shallow water redfish hunting fury.



It's a conch paddleskiff made by R&R Boatworks. They originally intended it to be a tender for some of their bigger boats but I figured it'd make a decent little marsh marauder. I wanted something simple that could fit in my garage, be launched virtually anywhere, had more range than a kayak but could still get back into the same skinny and tight places that most boats couldn't easily get into but a kayak could. The conch paddleskiff ticked all of those boxes. There's lifting strakes on the bottom which help it not track like an inner tube and she handles rough water a lot better than I expected. I've crossed West Bay on many occasions in less than ideal conditions and always have gotten home safely. Maybe not dry, but safely. Probably the biggest issue I have is that it's so light that it gets blown around very easily. If the wind is up in the time it takes me to transition from push pole to fly rod to take a shot at a fish I can be blown out of range of my target.

Rigging is a constant iteration of finding what works and what doesn't to try and create the most optimal setup but it's a fun money pit process. I haven't taken many pictures of her recently but this picture and the one SoW posted a link to are on the first iteration.



As you can see, it's incredibly cluttered and for whatever reason that day I decided polling from the bow was best (generally that's not the case). I came to the realization not long after than trip that by bringing all of that stuff I was being counter productive to the program that I originally intended for the boat. So I've been working to simplify and organize everything. One of the biggest challenges on my skiff is there's no dry storage. I used my yeti as dry storage for awhile but it's not ideal bc of the weight. So last fall I picked up this guy from Orvis on clearance when they were discontinuing them.

It weighs a fraction of what my yeti weighed and actually has more storage than it did. It fits all my usual gear with room to spare. I usually pack my fly box, a spare reel, tippet, camera, sunscreen, spare boat parts/tools, small first aid kit, rain gear, a couple of RTIC bottles and a small lunch box. About the only time I bring my cooler now is if I'm planning on keeping fish or I'm going flounder gigging. The rest of my gear which can get wet (life jacket, bruce anchor, wading boots, brush for wading boots, etc) is in a milk crate that I put under my little bootleg casting platform that I made. My new stripping basket will take up more room now and will likely be a little heavier that my grab rail setup but at the end of the day it'll be a whole lot more functional and that's the give and take. I've lost / missed shots at a lot of fish due to the poor planning and flaws of that grab rail setup that I'm hoping to eliminate with the new setup.

She's not for everyone, but for what I want her to do she does just fine.

Nifty little rig.

Great story!

This is my drum caught on an 8wt.
Came in at 42 lbs, but this was in LA.

First of all, thanks to all who have given advice on this thread over the past few years. I'm a much better angler because of it! AytoSiks gave me some very generous intel on the west coast of Florida for next week, but I just realized I'm staying in a hotel on Ft Lauderdale beach tomorrow! Has anyone surf fished this side of florida or even that beach? Would love to kill some time tomorrow if its worth the trouble. Thanks and gig em in advance!

Rick - honestly a sprint through the shin deep flats, didn't occur to me until after I cranked my line back in. I was too mesmerized by my doubled over rod, spinning spool, and singing drag.

Other things I thought about that I could have done differently:
-Get a better angle for more leverage to turn the fish
-Straight stick the rod and fight with the butt instead of the tip
-Hit the fish with a couple solid hooksets when it ate before the line was out and had more stretch. Probably would have buried the hook better.

But I ain't even mad. I had a solid moment that'll stick with me for a long time.


K Bo - I started fly fishing for the beauty of it and the challenge of something new. I had no clue that what would really turn it into a passion would be the stories.

The long rod has changed my perception of what a good day on the water is. I used to be concerned with how many and how big of fish I caught. Now I enjoy a day pushing the skiff around with some good company, going on an adventure, marveling in nature's beauty, and making some stories. Cooperative fish are just a cherry on top.

Stuck boats on low tide, feet straight out of a Paul Prudhomme recipe, wind knots, blown shots, fish that come unbottoned, days when the skunk ape visits, all can be frustrating if you let them. But they can all become good stories too, and they make the times when everything comes together and the fish eats, you do battle, and it comes to hand that much sweeter.

If I had to boil all that rambling down to a single phrase: Fly fishing; less fish, better stories.

That's a beautiful big ugly! You have to chase it down in a skiff or were you able to whip it with just the 8?