Fly Fishing Report - 12/31/11

This is our resident Fly Guy, Dave Dinklage's, fly report for January 2012
   
I spent the month of November and a good part of December at the marina wall in downtown Port St. Joe. It’s so nice after a year of wading and boating about the countryside to have your truck right there just a back cast away. So nice to be high and dry several feet above the water and to be able to pitch that feather duster a country mile. Taking a break, having a coffee, watching the water, the birds. Monitoring Talk radio, taking notes for my next book. I must be settling down a bit.
    As reported previously the kings were in close until about the week before Thanks Turkey and to tell you the truth those big nasties are so much fun it didn’t matter to me how many casts I had to make to get smacked. As Brent over at the Bluewater said; Dink, I’ll bet you could have died and gone to heaven.
    I was still pitchin’ and wooin’ those fish when they had most likely already cleared the Cape and were halfway to Tampa. But what a very special way for a fly rod obsessive to finish up the year; three kings from the ‘beach’ to near thirty pounds. Certainly more than enough for this fly fisherman.
    But amazingly, the year didn’t end there. Certain I was pushing it with the kings and about to hunt up some other prospects out in the back country the reds moved in. The big reds. The really big reds.
    Sitting in the truck thumbing through the latest issue of Gap, (long rod edition), I watched a bait fisherman (sand trout, sea bass)hang something. I watched, he fought. He fought, I watched. I finally had to leave the comfort of my jeep to go and see. Of course, and predictably, he panicked and screwed down the drag and busted the fish off. But in the process he had horsed the warrior to the surface and I did catch a glimpse of a three foot glow of bronze under the noonday sun.
    Very casually (sprinting))back to my rods and tackling up and stumbling back down the rocks to my pitching station over the next week or so I managed to land, photograph and release, ‘in good shape’, two bruiser reds of 41-42 inches. True ‘bulls’ (but most likely cows).
    Fishing for those already departed kings with a mid water speedy retrieve I have a feeling that I may have very likely been 10 or even 20 feet over the heads of reds that might have been going by while I was still thinking kings. Changing tactics and bouncing bottom with 4 inch dumbbell eyed blue and silver herring looking clouser types drew the first fish fairly quickly…maybe only seven hundred and sixty seven casts. And the second big red less than a week or so later. No fuzzy logistics in that fishing, right?- blind casting into 40 foot of turbid water hoping your fly crosses the nose of a giant cow red at the precise moment of her passing. Just you and she at some infinitely unlikely cosmic convergence. Me all the way down from New Jersey, she all the way over from Texas. What if my fly had been some other color or shape and I had never known that these big mommas had nosed them aside? By the way, even though 4/0 in size, both flies had been deeply sucked in and if they hadn’t been barbless they could easily have caused some life threatening damage in trying to get them out prior to release. As it was, there was no evidence of blood or hook caused trauma but just what appeared to be self sealing pinholes.
    And talking about releasing fish back into the wild, the IGFA (International Game Fish Association, for those in Rio Linda)has recently introduced an entirely new world record category to foster ‘catch and release’ of trophy fish. Catch it, measure it, release it! Simple as that. You don’t have to weigh the fish. Terrific! One of the requirements for booking a record catch is that “the fish must be released in good shape!” Good on ya, IGFA! I never think in terms of contests, or records, but again, good on ya IGFA.
    And, as would be expected, along with “the fish must be released in good shape” ruling, and in keeping with the IGFA’s conservation ideology - plus their surely having the high rate of mortality of hook and line released fish statistics in hand - the IGFA has, in the best interests of the fish, of course, (who else?) mandated the barbless hook rule, the no treble hooks rule and the no stinger rule. Not! Hmmm, what am I missing here?
    Let’s all hope the feathers in the hair craze peters out soon and that the redfish have an exceptional spawning year. Happy oh twelve!

Older Fishing Reports

12/31/11-Fly Fishing Report
12/03/11-DECEMBER PLANNER
11/11/11-Veterans Day Report
11/04/11-November Report
10/05/11-OCTOBER HOT BITE
10/04/11-Dink's Fly Report
09/23/11-Mid September report
08/03/11-AUGUST PLANNER
07/14/11-Dave's Fly Report
07/06/11-Scallop Season 2011
06/07/11-JUNE PLANNER
05/19/11-Letter From GEORGE DUREN
05/11/11-May Planner
04/23/11-HOTEBITE
04/02/11-April Planner
03/17/11-HOTBITE, 03-17-2011
03/01/11-March Planner, 2011
02/16/11-February Update, 2011
02/01/11-February Planner, 2011
01/18/11-Update, 01-18-2011
01/04/11-January Planner, 2011
12/15/10-PLANNER UPDATE,
11/30/10-DECEMBER PLANNER, 2010
11/02/10-November Planner, 2010
10/03/10-October Planner, 2010
09/29/10-HOTBITE, 09-29-2010
09/10/10-September Planner, 2010
08/23/10-HOTBITE 08-23-2010
07/29/10-August Planner 2010
07/22/10-HOTBITE, 07-22-2010
07/14/10-HOTBITE, 07-14-2010
07/07/10-HOTBITE, 07-07-2010
06/30/10-July Planner, 2010
06/23/10-HOTBITE, 06-23-2010
06/17/10-HOTBITE, 06-16-2010
06/14/10-SCALLOP SEASON TO OPEN 06-19-2010
06/09/10-HOTBITE, 06-09-2010
06/01/10-June Planner, 06-01-2010
05/25/10-HOTBITE, 05-25-2010
05/06/10-HOTBITE, 05-06-2010
04/28/10-May Planner, 2010
04/21/10-HOTBITE, 04-21-2010
04/14/10-HOTBITE, 04-14-2010
04/08/10-HOTBITE, O4-08-2010
03/31/10-April Planner, 2010
02/03/09-SHEEPSHEAD