Shore Fishing
April 7, 2022 at 1:24 p.m.
Shore Fishing
By Kimball & Les [email protected]
Trying Something Different
Everyone knows that confidence in the lure you’re using is important. We aren’t sure if it’s experience or faith, but it often proves true. Why switch from something has worked before? That’s often why we fish at the same spots, too. We usually start with a 1/16 – 1/8 oz. red or chartreuse CAL jig head with a shad tail on the flats. We carry lots of alternatives but always seem to start off with something that worked before. For flies, we always seem to start with shrimp or Clouser patterns.
We really enjoy kayak fishing on our favorite freshwater spot this time of year as the frog population gets active (read amorous) and can be heard along the shore. That’s when we tie on a 5/0 wide gap hook with a Zoom Horny Toad rigged weedless for bass. Over the years the Watermelon Red and Watermelon Seed colors have worked best but again, that may be because that’s about all we used. On lakes where the bass are spawning this time of year, it’s hard to beat a worm crawling across their bed for some catch and release action. Lately we have been using the tiny 1/32 oz. bullet weights ahead of a black worm. That rig lets us “snake” it across surface vegetation yet dive to the bottom at the edge of the weeds. We go through a lot of black worms.
Occasionally we get the urge to try out new lures and flies. It’s hard to have confidence in any new lure, so we look up a few videos on the internet to see how other anglers work these lures. When we say “new,” we mean new to us, not new on the market. There aren’t many lure or fly designs that haven’t been invented. It’s usually just the materials that change on newer products.
We had seen reports of fish devouring mice along shorelines. These reports were usually about brown trout or pike in chilly water. Lately though, we started noticing tales of bass, pickerel, and gars being caught on mouse flies. So, we ordered a few made of deer hair that looked real. They would make a great cat toy without the hook. Tied weedless with a loop of monofilament to protect the hook, they can run across emergent vegetation before swimming for their lives.
So, after watching edited videos of kayak anglers catching bass with a mouse fly, we put our tandem Malibu2-XL kayak in the Subaru and headed to Deer Prairie Creek. We haven’t used our tandem in a while but for fly fishing, having the angler in the front and a paddler controlling the kayak in the back works great. It is also handy, with fly tackle, for the paddler to hit reverse to help pull a bass out of thick cover.
By mid-day, we had no takers on the mouse and reluctantly switched to spinning tackle and a Horny Toad but had no interest in that either. So we headed upstream where overhanging trees make fly fishing impossible but provided protection from the increasing wind and sun. Up the creek we had strikes on every cast but mostly from gars. Garfish will often grab one leg and ruin the lure. We found that if we didn’t pull too hard, they usually turned loose.
As we started back to open water for some more experimentation with the mouse fly the wind continued to increase. Finally, after a zillion casts with only gars interested, we had a solid strike and hook up with a nice bass on the mouse fly that wound up being the only bass we landed that afternoon. Later, we did have more bass on, but none came to the kayak for their picture.
As the sun got lower, the wind increased and began blowing randomly from different directions. Wind is always an issue for kayak anglers, but it’s even more of a challenge for kayak fly fishers. We were grateful for the tandem kayak, but that became challenging as we were blown broadside across the open water. Casting backhand under branches and into the wind from a kayak being blown around became too great a challenge and we packed it in.
But on a windy day when nothing else was working, we caught a bass on a mouse fly which makes it our new “favorite fly.” When the wind dies down we’re anxious to show mice to snook under docks and along a mangrove shoreline. Stay tuned. Try one, you might learn to like mice, too.
Kimball and Les Beery, authors of Angler’s Guide to Shore and KAYAK Fishing Southwest Florida, contribute these excerpts from both Waterproof books to promote the excellent fishing available in the Englewood area. They are available locally at Old Florida Gallery on West Dearborn, and for download at www.anglerpocketguides.com & www.amazon.com.