I was hooked up and ready to go at 9 and when the skies cleared at 10 I was off. Put in at 10:30 and made a short run to the starting spot for the day. My plan was to fish the mangrove jungles in the LHL. Those places that few men dare to go and that a kayak needs to be greased on both sides to slide into. It is like a maze in there but I figured I could hide from the wind.
I got a couple of shots on small reds in the first thirty minutes and each of them swam up and hit the fly but didn't eat it deep enough for me to get hooked up. That is kind of unusual for the smaller guys. They are normally more aggressive eaters than that. Oh well, I figure it is a good sign. Turns out that wasn't the case either.
I poled and waded for the next two hours without making a cast. I was poling thru a skinny little river, that is what we call the little canals that connect the small mangrove lakes, when I saw a red cruising in a cul de sac off my trail. I was able to lay down the push pole, pick up my rod and put the black toad fly out in front of this fish. He hit it like he was mad at it and took of running. I jumped overboard, in 14" of water, to fight him afoot. I made short work of it as there was trouble everywhere around. That is a bad thing about the jungle. Flooded mangrove trees and roots line every shore. Anyway, he was 21.5 but my calibrated eye would have thought him to be shorter. May need to get that checked. It is 5 minutes after 1 at this point.
At 11 minutes after one I was laying my second red, 19", on the tape. Wow, 2.5 hours of nothing then two fish in 5 minutes. Go figure. I sat down and ate my lunch and sent out a bragging text to my buddy that couldn't make it back down to fish this week.
I got my last fish at 1:54 wading a bare bottomed back lake not far from the lunch spot. Saw this red milling around in the cord grass heading my way. I put the same black toad fly 10' in front of him and when he noticed it he showed it who was the boss. It bit him back and I had a 25.5 incher on the reel. As I waded him over to the Solo I answered a call from another TKF fly fisherman. Told him I was busy and would call him back in a few.
I spent another hour poling and hunting before surrendering to the relentless wind. Everything was getting blown up all dirty anyway so I headed back to the truck.
Pic of the 21.5 incher. Cute little dude all spotted up.
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