Intro with requests

[ccorneli]

Long time tourist to the forgotten coast here. I reside in Atlanta and vacation on Cape San Blas every May. Most of the year I am throwing flies to the brown trout, shoal bass, and stripers that reside in my home waters, the chattahoochee river. Unfortunelty every time I visit and fish the gulf I become more convinced that I need to move closer to the salt. I'm counting the days until my next fix. I was hoping to get some advice on fishing st Joseph's bay as far as effective patterns (I have tied up a bunch of the usuals, clousers, decievers, EP baitfish) and tactics for catching some reds on the fly. I always have success with specs and Spanish, but have yet to land a red down there. PMs are certainly welcomed. Thanks, and for your troubles...











Some Georgia reds





Some shots from last years trip to your backyard.

[Shorewalker]

Welcome aboard. Of course your instincts and current patterns make sense.

Without getting into the political side of whether it is / is not a fly, spoon flies are popular with some for targeting redfish.

Also BK has had some success with poppers if I remember correctly - note BK is a teensy bit bitten by the topwater bite bug though .

[Traveler1]

Same situation here. 85 days.

You have an excellent list, so there's not much to add. I use poppers like the one pictured via the link below. I did tie up some spoon flies, but have not tried them yet. Mostly, I use Clousers of different weights, all with a #2 hook. I also use bendbacks because they are nice over the grass. Mine are a little sparser than the one in the linked picture.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pop ... 4E&first=0

http://www.gofishsc.com/fly%20fishing/B ... %20Fly.htm

For reds, try fishing the spartina grass on an incoming or high tide.

Good luck!

[BearsFan]

Learn to sight fish.

[ccorneli]

What a novel thought.

[abcarias]

I like to find reds with a top water on my spinning reel . You can take off the hooks so they dont spook. When I get a hit I throw a popper with a small rattle on my 8 wt to them. Too much work for me to blind cast an 8 or 10 wt for an hour or more out of a yak and I cant see them normally cuz I cant standup in a yak. I have my best luck with reds on a fly early mornings with the incoming. They dont seem to be as spooky. Try SGI for reds, they are all over the island. Cant wait to catch some browns, brooks and bows this summer! Nice pics!

[bk]

i love throwing poppers at em. if i sight fish, i'll use some sort of sinking fish/shrimp imitation.
however, i throw sitting in the kayak, which makes sight fishing tough. secondly, i prefer to fish muddy, coffee-like stained shallows that make sight fishing impossible.
so, i throw poppers at em mostly. basically, i'll fish the same way i would with conventional tackle.

some fly folks frown upon non-sight fishing for reds, and i see their point. and i've done the sight fishing bit and really enjoyed it. i just prefer dirty water popper fishin.

[BearsFan]

What a novel thought.

Hey, you're the one who asked for advice.

If you are fishing st. joe bay and catching trout and spanish you are fishing too deep. Fly selection is the least of your worries at this stage. Sure, there may be reds in the area but you sure as hell wont catch many, if any, while sitting in 4-6' of water blind casting. Move shallower and find a redfish you want to cast to. Then again what do I know, I just live down here.

[ccorneli]

Thanks for the advice guys.

BF, that second response is what I was looking for. From looking back at some of your posts I know you know your stuff down there. I wish I had the time/$ to learn the area on my own, but until I do I appreciate any advice that will help me hook up. This maybe asking too much but would you fill me in on these salty stripers you have down there?

[BearsFan]

I told you the same thing in the first response and you mocked me.

Our striped bass are quite remarkable. They survive the summers in deep pools of the fresh water rivers where they can lose up to 60% of their body weight because they generally do not feed due to the warm water temps.

[ccorneli]

That's cool. The gulf strain was used as brood stock for the fish stocked in the various impoundments along the chattahoochee river. Pretty cool to think that before all the impoundments those fish would run all the way to north Georgia.

[abcarias]

CC I think you got a bite