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The
shallow, salty, water rippled slightly from the early summer morning breeze,
and the warm bay water laps at your belly button. As you shuffle
slowly across the sand flat (toes down to dislodge and gently scoot any
stingrays or crabs on the bottom), you see a series of dimpling and moving
swirls up ahead. With a smooth motion, you cast your soft plastic
twitchbait a meter up current from the swirls, and slowly begin to work
the lure (twitch, wait, twitch, twitch, wait). Suddenly, the swirls
disappear and 
a
large swirl engulfs your lure and runs for the horizon! Welcome to
the sand flats at the northern edge of Choctawhatchee Bay and the magic
of flats fishing. Thanks to the removal of inshore netting in Florida,
the flats bristle in the spring summer and fall with Speckled
Trout, Croakers,
Redfish, Ladyfish,
Mangrove Snappers, Jack
Crevalle , Flounder,
and numerous other fishes. Using and old set of tennis shoes to wade
with, a good set of polarized sunglasses, a long billed baseball cap, and
a waterproof fanny pack or tackle vest, and 6-10lb class gear (or 7-10
weight fly rod) anyone can wade out on the 2-3 foot deep flats to catch
these fish.
The
first aspect on flats fishing here is timing. The fish will only
be on the flats if there is food, and if the temperature, salinity, light
level, and air pressure are comfortable (to the fish!). The best
way to guarantee this is to fish during an incoming tide, near sunrise,
or near sunset. If a cold front approaches, fish before the front
arrives, and stop when it arrives. While a light breeze is aok, a
stiff breeze will hurt fishing. Make sure that the water temperature
is above 75 for the best fishing.
Next,
decide exactly which lures and tackle you really need. You can only
carry out one rod, and whatever will fit in the pockets of a vest or fanny
pack. The lures that worked best for me include silver and gold spoons,
4"-6" floating and floater/diving plugs (red/white, chartreuse, silver),
jigs with curly grubtail jigs, and finesse baits like the Floozy,
DOA shrimp/crab,Sluggo, and Bass/Saltwater Assassin (Very successful)
all work. For baits, use a cast net or buy before wading out, live
shrimp, fiddler crabs, finger mullet (4-6 inches), menhaden, threadfin
herring, glass minnows, or killfishes (bullminnows). Freefloating baits
with a one foot 20lb mono leader above a 2/0 bronzed hook, or the same
leader and hook below a weighted popping cork work well. For oyster
beds, patches of open sand near the grass beds, or near rocks use an egg
weight rig with a 20lb mono leader, a #2 to 2/0 hook, and 1oz weight
will work. Also remember to bring a floating cooler if you plan to keep
any fish (hanging fish on a stringer may attract sharks!), a floating bait
bucket to keep your bait in, a set of hemostats (forceps) and needlenose
pliers to remove hooks. For the fly angler, popppers, chaineye streamers
in silver, chartreuse, and/or white and shrimp or crab flies tied on #2-2/0
hooks will work well. A 6-12lb class saltwater spinning rod
or bass-class baitcasting reel will work, as will a 7-10 weight fly rod
with a moderately sinking line will catch most of the species you encounter.
Finally,
how you wade on the flats, and how you present your lures/baits will determine
what, or if, you catch. The hat and polarized sunglasses
will allow you to look for underwater and surface features, in particular
sea grass, oyster beds, rocks, drop-offs, and schools of fish.
First look for grass beds near drop-offs, since these are the first spot
larger fish will occupy. Position yourself facing the drop-off and
cast up current , twitching your lure as it sinks, then fan casts out from
there. Follow the edge of the grass bed and cast the surface
lures and twitch baits over it and into any sand patches in the grass.
Cast spoons, lipped plugs, and crab flies near the edge of the grass
bed over the sand and retrieve swiftly. Also, cast ahead of any schools
you see and twitch the lure swiftly. Near rocks or near oyster beds
,
cast parallel to the obstruction, then walk out from the bed and cast to
it. For baits, use a popping cork rig over the grass, and use the
egg weight rig over drop-offs, parallel to oyster beds and rocks. (Click
here for an illustration of these methods). Primarily, speckled
trout and redfish
will be
the most likely catches. Usually I pick up the trout over the grass
and the reds near rocks and oysters, but this is not a hard rule.
Occasionally, a Jack Crevalle will decide it wants my twitchbait or plug,
and usually will end up with it after a high speed five minute run, but
they are an exception.
While
on the flats fish aren't the only thing you will see. Diving birds
(like the friendly cormorant pictured below), Bottlenosed Dolphin, crabs,
sharks, and rays will also be out there, and can add to a wonderful fishing
experience!
Eglin
AFB, Shalimar, and Valparaiso Florida
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