If you’ve spent any time on the waters around Matlacha and Pine
Island, you know that our flats are home to an abundance of redfish, and
December is one of the best times of year to chase them. If you’ve tried catching one with a fly rod
then you also know that we have an abundance of very tricky redfish, maybe some
of the most difficult to fool in all of Southwest Florida. There are several reasons for this but none
of them are obstacles for fly anglers that can’t be overcome with a modest
amount of local knowledge and time on the water.
Fly fishing for redfish basically means sight fishing for
them and that is a big challenge in this area.
Unlike the Florida Keys, our shallow flats are rarely clear, especially
during the summer. Matlacha Pass in particular
looks like a freshly brewed cup of coffee for most of the year and Pine Island
Sound only brightens up once the temps drop into the lower 70s. These tannic stained waters wrap themselves
around our copper colored redfish and even when you’re standing on the deck of
a skiff they appear and disappear right underneath you in the blink of an
eye. Just getting your eyes locked on a
cruising red long enough to get a good cast off is often a serious
struggle.
The dense grass on our flats is also the perfect camouflage
for redfish, which are primarily a bottom foraging species. The turtle grass blades in Pine Island Sound grow
over two feet long and redfish burrow through them like prairie dogs. During a rising tide it’s not uncommon to
float right over a big red, completely hidden in the grass until the shadow of
the boat blows them out in a huge swirl of water and cloud of mud.
Fortunately, late fall and winter brings us some of the
year’s lowest tides in Southwest Florida.
During December, huge expanses of flats are exposed during these
negative lows forcing the shrimp and crabs that reds crave down into the mud
for shelter. Once the water starts
flooding back in the redfish will follow with their noses on the bottom and
tails in the air. These are the famous
tailing tides that all the TV shows love to film and fly anglers love to
fish. Given the right conditions, our
local reds will tail for hours until the water deepens enough to cover them
completely.
The right flats to go looking for these tailers can be easy
to locate with a navigational chart and tide table. Any area with a controlling depth of less
than one foot is likely to become exposed during a negative low tide. If the tide bottoms out within a half hour of
sunrise that is an even better situation.
This gives you at least three hours of excellent light that actually
illuminates the bright orange tail of a redfish when it pokes above the
surface.
When you’re out on the water at low tide, look for any area
near the mangrove that holds a lot of birds.
Wading herons, white pelicans, and dozens of cormorants mean that the
grass is full of food and redfish will follow the rising tide after it becomes
too deep for birds. Wading birds usually
move along shortly after the flood tide begins so don’t worry that their
commotion will spook any possible fish.
The reds are used to feeding alongside these guys.
Since our local redfish will rarely tail in water more than
two feet deep, you obviously need a shallow drafting boat to chase them in these
conditions, especially with a fly rod. If
you’re new to the Pine Island area, a lightly powered skiff such as a Gheenoe,
or even a kayak, is one of the best platforms to get you out to these fish
safely without grounding yourself for several hours.
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