Almost too windy to fly fish today

[GoDoe]

Almost too windy to take the fly rod today but that is the only reason I come down here so we loaded up and off we went.

We started fishing just after 10 this morning. Had to let the haze burn off some and let the heat index get on up there to keep our old muscles and bones working.

The fish didn't seem bothered by the wind but they weren't all that motivated to take the fly either. In the first 30 minutes I had already put my fly in front of 3 reds and over a dozen black drum. Nobody was interested.

It was about and hour before I got my first fish on. I saw a big black tail sticking out of the water. It looked like the hand of the creature from the black lagoon waving at me. He stayed in the same spot long enough for me to wade to within 12' of him. The water was all mucked up from him digging around and it was about 14" deep.

He was laying in that dark cloud as I stood there trying to find him. I didn't have to cast. All I had to do was dangle the fly right in front of his nose. He sucked it in and bolted when he felt the metal pierce his lip. It was a good fight in a very confined space. They are like being hooked on to a truck. Not a lot of running but a good hard pull and they are hard to get turned on the fly rod. We were hoping for some drum for supper later this week so on the stringer he went. 21 inches.

The rest of the morning was about like that. Fish not very interested in the fly but I did manage to get 1 more 20" drum and I finally got a nice red to eat too. I spotted this red crawling along in water only deep enough to cover about 2/3 of his body, vertically. I laid the fly 20' in front of him and as he approached it I barely moved it. He liked that and gulped it in and the fight was on.

Fortunately my buddy was close enough to take my picture. I get tired of pics of fish laying on the grass by my rod.

We surrendered to the wind and heat about 2 o'clock with 5 reds and 6 black drum between us. If you saw a fish upwind today it was just about impossible to cast to it. We feel lucky to have gotten the few we did.

John

[Prof. Salt]

Nice job fighting the wind to make it happen! I’ve been finding a lot of fish lately that don’t want to eat.

[Kayak Kid]

GoDoe, it's never too windy to fish (mostly).

For many years, I was convinced that I couldn't cast a fly line into a stiff wind. I missed a great deal of opportunities due to my hesitation to cast to an up wind fish.

Around 2006, I was fishing for permit out of my favorite Yucatan lodge. Ascencion bay was its usual windy self. My guide, with whom I had become friendly, on previous trips to the lodge, put me with a greal deal of effort on his part, onto a large permit at ten o'clock, about thirty yards out...,directly up wind. He whispered, in Spanish., "cast, he's a good one and he's feeding". I looked back at him, shook my head no, and muttered a somber, "No puedo in este viento".

My guide politely told me to sit down, that he was moving to a different spot. He proceeded to move into totally unprotected water, and anchored the boat with his polling staff. Afetr descending from his polling tower, he asked me to give him my rod. Standing on the bow, facing the stiff breeze, he looked at me and asked. "Is this what you can't do?", and proceeded to lay the line forty foot straight out, directly into what I estimated to be a 12 knot wind.

He spent the next thirty minutes (I'm a slow learner) teaching me how to cast into the wind. By jove, I finally got it. Thereafter, He manipulated the skiff so that every fish he put me onto was directly upwind. I caught a delightful number of bonefish that day, along with a twelve pound Permit...,the largest I have ever landed with a fly rod, before or since.

I had a great, ego enlarging, time teaching several of my fellow Pack members the secret of upwind fly casting. They were amazed, as was I, by how easy it was...,once you know how.

[ben_beyer]

Nice report!