It’s been a pretty busy and exciting month so far for Native Fly Charters. Beside breaking in the new boat, the fishing has been really good!
Redfish are now schooled up in big numbers in the North Indian River, Banana River, and Mosquito Lagoon. They will cooperate if you approach them quietly and keep your distance. The lure that has been working best for me and my clients is a D.O.A. Shadtail rigged on a 1/8oz weighted hook. Any color will work, but we’ve been throwing whites. Fly fishing for these schools are possible but you need a super long cast to increase your chances, otherwise once the school gets too close to the boat, they will take off the other way. Baitfish patterns have been working well for these fish. For most of my fly anglers, I would mainly target tailing and cruising single fish instead of the schools just to get some one on one action.
Sea Trout have also been abundant on the flats. They are extremely spooky but aggressive eaters. If you can place a lure or fly in the zone without them scooting off, you will most likely get them to eat.
Black Drum have been around one day and gone the next. They have been pretty inconsistent and hard to feed at times. I don’t know what their deal is, but I don’t like it! That’s probably why I love to target them.
Martin from South Carolina joined me earlier this month on a day that never stopped raining on us. But that did not stop the fish from chewing. Some very nice Trout and Redfish were caught and once the opportunity came, Martin whipped out the fly rod and caught a little Red to end the day.
Andrew from Utah got his first ever Redfish this month. It took a while to adapt to the saltwater style of fly casting, but he got it down later in the day and had lots of shots at tailing and laid up redfish.
Mike from Montana also got his first ever Redfish that he worked very hard for. Windy conditions made casting tough, but he managed to feed a few tailing fish a fly.
Dale and Robb had a great day in the Mosquito Lagoon this day. Weather was perfect in the morning then started to get windy later in the day. They caught some hefty Redfish that were tightly schooled up in the hundreds on D.O.A. Shadtails.
Dave and Kim who I’ve met at the D.O.A. Lures events came down from North Carolina to do some camping and fishing in FL. This day started out good, but wind and clouds made things tough later in the day. Always a fun time having them on the boat!
On some days it’s way too windy and cloudy to fish the Mosquito Lagoon, so plan B would be to tuck way back in the backcountry for some small Tarpon and Snook. Mike and Al from the North East had to do just that. Al hooked an fought a nice snook on fly until it wore through the 30lb leader. Both jumped a few Tarpon, had over 20 eats, and finally landed one. That’s Tarpon fishing no matter what size.
Of course I get to have my own fun and fish with my friends once in a while so here are some pics of that.
Christian Yergens
Erin and Billy
Erin
and myself.
Here is a video I put together of when I picked up my new boat from the Maverick factory and taking it for a spin.
I will be down at the Miami Boat Show on Feb. 13 – 16. If anyone has any questions on the new Maverick HPX-S, there will be one there at the Maverick booth along with the other HPX models, Hewes, Pathfinder, and Cobia. I’ll be bouncing around from the Maverick booth to all of the Shimano venders, so if you see me, come say hello and I’ll be happy to answer any questions or just talk fishing!
Have a great day everyone and thanks for visiting the blog!
– Capt. Willy Le
321-303-7805
nativeflycharters@gmail.com
