Haven't had a chance to update the thread after my second day on the water. While I had a good day on Thursday, Saturday was epic. My personal best saltwater fly day - I stopped counting after 15 fish at the boat. Lightbulb went on on how to feed black drum. Caught a bunch of reds too. So many great eats. What a special fishery, all I can think about is how to get back on the water. Fish trying to eat the fly line, lunging and attacking the fly, and falling for our traps as they exit the grass.

Prior to these two days I was in a little slump. Had fished two days in Rockport and got zero eats, was grinding it out. But Saturday, the weather started out cloudy, had to battle a couple of showers, but then after they broke up the sun came out and the wind laid down - slick as glass and tails were everywhere. It was glorious. Could not get a small red to eat because he was doing a headstand. Finally caught him after 4-5 shots and he spit a crab out in the boat. What a trip!

I love the whole setup - both the rod and reel and the line I'm using right now. You guys know better than I do, modern fly rods tend to be pretty fast, so it's taken me some time to learn how to feel the rod and to adjust timing depending on whether I'm making a short or long cast (still have a lot of learning to do).

The rod is a T&T sextant, 9 ft 8 wt. Reel is a Tibor Everglades custom in frost silver. They pair perfectly together. Line is a Rio flats aqua/orange/sand pro WFF 8 which is great in hot weather/water.

It finally clicked my last few trips and I'm beginning to make some long casts w decent accuracy. The key for me has been staying short w my up cast, making a good double haul w my haul hand coming all the way back up to the reel during the up cast, and feeling the rod to let the rod make the cast and not trying to muscle the line forward on long casts. That, timing (don't come forward too soon) and a tight loop allows you to punch a tighter cast into the wind. I practice 2-3 days a week when I can. Stand on a small cooler in the yard the size of a casting platform and put out cones at different distances.

And then there's the fact that I cast left handed, and on the middle coast w wind and sun, 70% plus of my casts are on the left side of the boat and forehand casts are a no go. I started w overhead and cross-body casts but could not make those work for distance and ended up rocking the skiff. My fishing buddy who is a much better caster got me to switch to a traditional backhand. It was a struggle to learn to backhand and haul, but I'm getting it.

My first caught fish on Saturday was early, sun wasn't up, so he spooked from the boat pressure out to my left (10:00) but not real fast. I would never have had a shot at that fish but w my backhand and a good double haul I laid out a 60 foot backhand cast in front of the fish and got him to eat. Definitely my personal best backhand. Asked my guide how long it was and he confirmed the distance.

Crazy how much line these modern graphite rods will pick up off the water too. No problem lifting 40-50 ft of line off the water into an upcast if you know how to let the rod work.

Time to take the plastic off the rod handle brochacho.

C'mon man, don't come at me with that weak sauce. That photo was taken the day I test drove the rod down at Gordy and Sons and picked up the custom reel. You don't take the plastic off until you're sure you're gonna buy it! Brochacho....more like Teddy Brosevelt....Brotato Chip....Brohein......

Hit Port A last Sat
Caught a bunch on the fly but my ******ed stepbrother caught only one. Also caught a bunch of bull reds on a cut mullet fly.

Catching a sheepshead on fly

Day 1- Biloxi Marsh

Plenty of sunshine today! A bit too rough to make it out to the Chandies today. Explored the Southern Biloxi Marsh and had an action packed day.

My fishing partner connected with a nice red. I was poling in an area that was super calm. The fish just appeared and was suspended in the water. He made a perfect cast the the red exploded on the fly and was a good fight.

Later In the afternoon, we were near the end of the day when we got new to schools of black drum (deeper water, didn't know if black or red drum). Finally connected on this big guy that was 43" long with a girth of 31" (calculator estimated near 46 lbs).

Cloudy with light rain tomorrow. Not getting up early, may grab some shrimp and catch a few dinners in the afternoon!

LRHF

Biloxi Marsh- Day 3

Slept in until 6 am since the wind blew all nights. Low was in the upper 30's and the wind was howling! We launched out of Hopedale and ran to some protects lakes (ie about 25' on the leeward side).

Poked around and had a very aggressive sheepshead eat. The redfish were hungry and caught quite a few fish for table fare. Caught a small bull working the shoreline that was headed straight for us as we pushed along there bank.

We caught plenty of fish today but the big ones eluded us. Had a monster blow up about 20' from the boat around 4 pm when the sun was terrible.

Happy for a great day in the Marsh when we were concerned that the wind could have other plans.

Hoping my standby flights tomorrow at least get me to ABQ tomorrow night! (Then a short drive back to Durango, CO).

Nice pics.

I took a day and went on Friday but got skunked. Was hoping the pre-front fishing would be on but the water was super high before the dump and I'm pretty sure the reds were feeding all night in the warmer weather and full moon. We saw a lot of fish but they were all hugged up on the bottom and only saw them blowing out and taking off.

Oh well, better than being in the office.

Ok - quick photo dump while waiting on my flight. This was a trip out of POC end of October. 2.5 days. Weather was excellent day 1, marginal day 2, terrible day 3. We caught 9, 4, and 2. All reds. Had some good eats. Fish weren't super active. Had to grind all 3 days. A great few days w my buddy on the water. Sunrise out of Little Mary's. Pelicans cruising. Saw a nice little 8 hanging out on the flats. We got within 20 yards of him bc we were poling before he saw us. Pretty cool.

Interesting story from last week. Fishing around Galveston and came across this sucker sitting on a point in about 10" of water. We cast everything we had and he wouldn't eat, but he never moved. After 5 min of literally hitting him in the mouth, we poled over and caught him in a net. Just a touch over 34". Looks like he was on the losing side of a battle and was up shallow to rest.

Went down to Hopedale a couple weeks ago. The first day was tough, day 2 we didn't go out due to weather. Day 3 was pretty good. My fishing buddies are newer to fly fishing, so we could have had more fish.

I caught the gar and had a bigger one on later that came off.




Day 4 the weather was perfect and we made the run to the chandys.




We got into some nice fish and had a couple doubles. The jacks were still around too.

Hopedale, LA- Trip Report

The fish are a tad scattered. Didn't find any schools and occasionally went hours between seeing fish. Had amazing sunlight and generally good conditions.

Caught a few but not what we were looking for. A small pod of black drum rescued our afternoon yesterday.

I did manage to take a tumble from the poling platform, definitely some excitement! Went head first into the water, thankfully it was around 4' deep Glad the wind was light, the sun was out and somewhere north of 60F!









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