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"My Goal is to give the enthusiastic angler the ultimate Boca Grande Fly Fishing experience. Whether you are interested in fly fishing for redfish, snook, tarpon or cobia in the blue water's of Charlotte Harbor, my main objective is to give the angler a tremendous visual strike. I offer the best sight fishing experience! It doesn't matter whether you are a novice or and advanced level fly fisher, instruction at any level is always part of the package. I look forward to having you on my boat."
-- Captain Austin
Blog
February 24, 2010
Fall and Winter Redfish and Snook Madness
am I a flyflishing guide in Boca Grande, Florida from October-July and during the summer I outfit and guide flyfisherman in Bozeman, Montana. I got back to Florida a couple of weeks ago and started guiding clients in the backcountry of Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island Sound. After a couple of days fishing I realized that the numbers of Snook on the flats were as good as I have seen them in the last 10 years. The fishing has been great and better yet there are very few boats on the water fishing.
Low fall and winter tides are upon us and the sight fishing for Redfish and Snook could not be better. I am impressed to report that the Snook fishing is the best I have seen in years. The Snook are all over the backcountry right now making there way to their winter lies. As water temperatures fall the Snook will find there way up tidal creeks and rivers where they become perfect targets for backcountry flyfisherman. Falling water temperatures are also good for redfish. As water temperatures drop and bait disperses redfish focus their feeding in the grass and when tides are low they can be found tailing all over the flats. The next few months are the best for tailing redfish. There is no doubt that the fall and winter offer some of the most exciting skinny water sightfishing for big Snook and Redfish of the year. For more information about your Boca Grande flyfishing adventure check out my website at http://www.seaandstre
It's the day before Thanksgiving and I have been fishing for the last 7 days straight. The fishing has been great. Last week I made some videos that I will be posting on my facebook page called
Fly Fishing with Austin Lowder. There are some great visual strikes on Snook and Redfish. The day I made the video I caught and released 14 Redfish and 2 Snook. The redfish were 22 to 27 inches and the Snook were both 27 inches. The water was low, the visibility was great and the fish were pounding the fly. For the last 6 days I have been guiding and the redfish have been tailing like crazy with this low tide scheme. This past Sunday we had southwest wind lots of clouds and humidity and a hard outgoing tide. These conditions were perfect for blindcasting so I ran into some deep dirty water with low visibility and we worked the mangrove shorelines with big topwater baitfish patterns. We hooked 6 snook between 25-30 inches and were able to land two of them one of which was 27 inch 7 pound Snook. Since then, the wind has been calm and the fish have been spooky, but we have managed to catch 3 or 4 nice reds each day sight fishing to tailing fish. The fish have been eating a variety of flies and because they have been so spooky with the calm winds I have had my best success with flies that push water. You don't have to cast a deer hair slider right to the fish and spook him, they feel the fly coming by and swim over with a big wake and eat it on the surface. I feel like the weather has just been too nice lately, the water is warm and food is readily available to the fish making them more wary of flies. We have a cold front headed this way and I think falling water temperatures will help get rid of the live bait and make them more susceptible to flies. When a cold front comes in with some high pressure, good sunlight and north winds the tide stays low and the visibility is great. I expect the fishing to be great over Thanksgiving weekend. The week after Thanksgiving we get back on the full moon tides and this means low tides and hard incoming water which will produce nice catches of redfish and snook. December tides are alway the lowest tides of the year and we will continue to see lots of tailing redfish. I am hoping for some good cold fronts to concentrate the snook in their winter lies so I can start really hammering them deep in the backcountry. For more information about fly fishing Boca Grande, Florida check out my website at http://www.seaandstreamflyfishing.com/ or call me at 941-815-0254. Tight lines and Happy Fishing.
Fly Fishing with Austin Lowder. There are some great visual strikes on Snook and Redfish. The day I made the video I caught and released 14 Redfish and 2 Snook. The redfish were 22 to 27 inches and the Snook were both 27 inches. The water was low, the visibility was great and the fish were pounding the fly. For the last 6 days I have been guiding and the redfish have been tailing like crazy with this low tide scheme. This past Sunday we had southwest wind lots of clouds and humidity and a hard outgoing tide. These conditions were perfect for blindcasting so I ran into some deep dirty water with low visibility and we worked the mangrove shorelines with big topwater baitfish patterns. We hooked 6 snook between 25-30 inches and were able to land two of them one of which was 27 inch 7 pound Snook. Since then, the wind has been calm and the fish have been spooky, but we have managed to catch 3 or 4 nice reds each day sight fishing to tailing fish. The fish have been eating a variety of flies and because they have been so spooky with the calm winds I have had my best success with flies that push water. You don't have to cast a deer hair slider right to the fish and spook him, they feel the fly coming by and swim over with a big wake and eat it on the surface. I feel like the weather has just been too nice lately, the water is warm and food is readily available to the fish making them more wary of flies. We have a cold front headed this way and I think falling water temperatures will help get rid of the live bait and make them more susceptible to flies. When a cold front comes in with some high pressure, good sunlight and north winds the tide stays low and the visibility is great. I expect the fishing to be great over Thanksgiving weekend. The week after Thanksgiving we get back on the full moon tides and this means low tides and hard incoming water which will produce nice catches of redfish and snook. December tides are alway the lowest tides of the year and we will continue to see lots of tailing redfish. I am hoping for some good cold fronts to concentrate the snook in their winter lies so I can start really hammering them deep in the backcountry. For more information about fly fishing Boca Grande, Florida check out my website at http://www.seaandstreamflyfishing.com/ or call me at 941-815-0254. Tight lines and Happy Fishing.
Boca Grande Fly Fishing Report
Sight fishing has been awesome lately. Changing weather conditions and cold fronts have been making the fish very predictable. Snook are staging up in their winter lies and the redfish have been tailing aggressively. December brings some of the lowest tides of the year and the redfish are tailing most every day on the right grass flats. We have also been sight fishing them on the sand and catching them very consistently. We have had very little boat traffic and the fish seem to be very happy swimming in super shallow water and striking flies aggressively. I fished two days with a gentleman and the first day it was slick calm, overcast and hotter than blazes. The tides were great and we cast at fish in a muddy bottom creek and every redfish we threw the fly in front of smashed it. We lost what little light we had so I took him to find the tailing fish. After casting to 30 tailing redfish with a variety of crab, shrimp and baitfish patterns we could not get them to bite anything. The next day we went out after a nice cold front came through and the water temperatures dropped ten degrees and all the tailers we through at ate the fly or chased it. We boated a 33 inch redfish and two 28 inch redfish and missed and lost several others. I feel like when the water temp drops the food availability to fish diminishes making them much more susceptible to fly presentations. In other words cold fronts are good for fishing and it is nothing but a myth that fish don't bite when it is cold.
I fished with another gentleman on a half day right after a cold front and we caught 25 snook, a Small 8lb Tarpon and and an 8lb redfish yielding him a grand slam in just a morning half day. My afternoon clients managed to nail 2 big tailing redfish in the after noon making that day a great fishing day.
Yesterday, I fished with Sam who loves to catch big Snook. We went out and the conditions were mint. Calm winds and glarey skies made visibility tough but the fish were ther in big numbers and we cast to two snook gliding down the shorelines in a foot of water. We cast to the lead fish, a 35-40 inch snook and he refused the fly and the two fish swam into a shady corner. We waited for them to come out of the shade and when they did they swam around a log and Sam fired a fly right past the first on and left it for the second snook, he stripped and the fish automatically popped the fly right on the surface and the battle commenced. We landed this 30 inch Snook and proceeded to catch another 27 incher and then we landed a 37 inch Snook all within the hour. We managed to catch 3 redfish and lose 3 more nice snook that day. I have posted the video of our adventure on this blog.
Overall, I think Boca Grande fly fishing is as good as it gets right now and should continue to stay good through the month. The tides are low and there are lots of fish to cast at. You just have to feed them.
Check out the videos below and you will see what I mean.