Not exactly fly fishing - but in the wheelhouse;

Did y'all see this? That's a badass dog.

https://instagr.am/p/BXGIwZbgjeU

Thanks to some coordinates from Salt I managed my first keeper red ever and on a fly I tied.

https://instagr.am/p/BXIgXwdjt8_

" ..... fresh water's for drinkin ... and salt water's for fishin..."
Capt. Chris Phillips

Got away for a little bit to fish yesterday. Tide was already up and still incoming when I launched and a stiff SE wind was giving the assist on stacking water up in the marsh. I decided to fish way back in some usually turbo skinny water in hopes of finding some hungry reds. After a short run, I shut down near the fork of two drains in the marsh. The wind carried the sounds of pops and crashes from behind the spartina grass of the left fork while I could see shrimp getting herded and tossed about a short distance down the right fork. As I debated which direction to go, the words of Yogi Berra echoed in my mind "When you come to a fork in the road, take it..." and that's exactly what I did.

As I poled down the drain, I quickly noticed a wide wake pushing it's way towards me a little ways off the opposite bank from me. As the fish got closer he pushed up onto the shallower water scattered with tufts of spartina next to the bank and revealed his bronze back. I fired off a cast at him and I misjudged the wind. The cast went a bit long and landed in the grass behind him. I tried to gently ease it out in front of him, but the fly ended up popping out of the grass and slapping the water hard right next to the fish, spooking him off the bank but not blowing him out. I quickly picked the fly up and put it right back in front of him. This time he inhaled the it. After a game of tug of war, he took the invitation to board La Chancla.

https://instagr.am/p/BXeLr5vhWph

After a quick selfie and release, I poled up to a shallow cove where I was hearing some pops and splashes. Upon further investigation I found another red backing among the scattered grass, sending little shrimp scurrying as he weaved in and out of the grass stands. I threw my fly into a little opening just as the fish made his way out of the grass and after a short tick, I saw the tell tail sign of the fish purging water out of its gills as it sucked up the fly. I hit him with a hard strip and he blew out of the cove leaving a streak of black mud behind him. This one was not wanting to come to hand as easily as the previous fish. We did battle, and eventually the fish started showing signs of fatigue. I grabbed my leader and went to grab him but the face, but he had one more trick up his sleeve and cartwheeled over liberating himself and giving me a face full of warm marsh water. After wiping my lenses off, I noticed my hook was also bent out, guess he earned that quick release.

A little while later, I met up with a fellow Ag that Salt of the Water connected me with and boarded his gheenoe. I poled him down another part of the marsh hoping to find some of the success that I had gotten to experience earlier. By this time the sun had gotten up a little higher and the fish started acting a little wonky. They weren't feeding hard anymore and they would move up into the shallow grass areas for a split second then quickly move back into the deeper water where we couldn't see them, not really presenting any good shots. Either way we gave it hell but just couldn't connect again. The weather might have had them a little messed up too but I suspect that it was the near full moon that was out all night. I think I just might have gotten lucky being out there early and catching the tail end of the all night feeding frenzy.

A little after noon the wind really picked up and we could see a storm building. We pulled into a little cove for a beer and to hunker down to wait out the rain both agreeing that we hadn't seen any lightening so it should be alright. As it neared the clouds starting getting a lot darker and the lightening started, my phone started buzzing with alerts going off for lightening within 5 miles of my position. It was go time. The storm really picked up speed and by the time he dropped me back off at my boat and we started booking it back in, the rain hit us hard. After what seemed like an eternity of a butt clenched ride, we thankfully both made it back to the ramp safely. When I checked my phone back at my truck I had an alert of a lightening strike 2.2 miles away from my position aka waaaaay to close for comfort. Looking at the animation from the storm it started as small little cells over the gulf that suddenly just built up into a huge storm right as it moved over our position. I try to be extremely cautious on the water but that storm really snuck up on me. Shout out to the weatherman though that had predicted 60% and 80% chances of rain on Friday and Saturday respectively with barely a drop either day only to predict 20% chance yesterday and we get a deluge.

On a positive note, I do think I found a good solution for backing fish. It's a pattern I started messing around with awhile back and have gotten a lot of positive feedback from a couple of guys that I've tied for in the past. It's kind of a cross between a super sized Simram bonefish fly and a crack fly. I normally tie it with a craft fur tail but I tied a few downsized versions with arctic fox to better represent the small shrimp backers are commonly going after or even go for a crab since it's general enough. It rides hook up, lands soft and gets down quick. The top one is the one I caught my two fish on.




I'll post up an SBS for it if anyone is interested.