Finding fish: Reason and Random

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GoDoe
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Finding fish: Reason and Random

Post by GoDoe »

Finding fish is the hard part I always say and catching them is the easy.

I spend a lot of time scouting on Google Earth. What a tool to see places that you want to check out and measuring the distance you will have to travel to get there. I also pay special attention to the tides. I like to know the water depth before I make the effort to get to a spot. Over the years I have a battery of info that lets me know the water depth in certain areas depending on the NOAA station reading closest to my spots. This is a must.

These are the reasons I use to pick a targeted spot to try for the day. Also looking at access to deeper water and amount of aquatic grasses for cover and to hold bait. I think as humans we are wired to try to make reason out of pretty much everything, even if there is none. But at least it gives us a purpose and some confidence in making plans.

So yesterday I headed to a flat near a big bay that I know to hold lots of fish with the tide depth in the range of .6-.8. I took a buddy along and we made the 5 mile run in the Solo Skiffs. When we got there the water level was perfect and I figure this will be easy. Well after a half a mile of poling I changed my mind pretty quickly.

I have fished this flat many times but never in March. There is no grass and I didn't see a single fish. So, I applied
a little reason and a little random and poled off the flat and onto the edge of the big bay. Boom, I start seeing fish right away. They are holding on the edge of this big bay in about 2-3' of water, which I am not set up to fish. Everything in my pocket fly box is for the shallow stuff. I cast to about 10 fish but was never able to get my fly down in front of them before they got spooked by the boat.

I fall back to plan B and we motored another mile or so to another familiar flat. Now I am not so confident but it is the only plan I have. After poling a half mile on this flat I had spotted two reds, a stingray and a 6' step ladder ( hurricane debris). The day is warming and so I reason the fish are maybe deciding to come up on the flat with the rising tide.

We pole on and I start to see a few fish. I set up a drift to get a slower look. I fumble into loads of fish, reds ,trout and drum. They are laying around in big bare spots in about 18" of water but are not aggressive enough to chase my fly. It is about 12:30 when I hook the first one. A nice big fat trout I watch suck in the spoon fly then fight for its life a minute or two and come unbuckled. So the reason has led me to a spot then the random has led me to these fish.

We broke for lunch and discussed the warming day and water might produce some fish shortly. It wasn't great but for the next 2 hours we made continual drifts over this small, 500 yds by 500 yds, area on this huge flat. There were lots of targets to cast to but not many willing participants. I got three reds, all slot fish, and my buddy got 4 slots and a nice black drum. The haze had taken over the sky by 3 o'clock so we called it a day. Back home to reason out some more plans.

I guess the moral of the story is it is nice to have a plan but it is way better to see fish. This is why I go hunting fish and don't go fishing. I probably spend on average 1/4 of my time on the water fishing and 3/4 of my time hunting for the fish. The 1/4 I do spend fishing is always in a spot that I have sighted fish.

John
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Cuervo Jones
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Re: Finding fish: Reason and Random

Post by Cuervo Jones »

Plan on giving it a shot this weekend myself.


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kickingback
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Re: Finding fish: Reason and Random

Post by kickingback »

Don't we all! LOL Well said and a good read.
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Drifting Yak
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Re: Finding fish: Reason and Random

Post by Drifting Yak »

Glad you found 'em! And really enjoyed the read so thanks for posting!
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