Fishing Monday and Tuesday

After our three days last week, John and I were to fish Monday and Tuesday to finish out our pre-Gold Cup time. The weather was sour, and while we found a few fish each day we were unable to make much of our time. Here’s the blow by blow.

Day One:

After fishing water last week that we knew we were likely going to visit in the tournament, we decided to look farther away for some value that might pay off in the event. Our first stop yielded nothing, and our second was the best of the day: two large fish on maybe ten shots played ball and ate the fly. The first was a tough head out of the water bite that didn’t result in a hook set, and our second bite was from a very large fish that turned as it ate. The fish made a short run against a hard hook set, and John even hopped down from the platform to give chase before the fly fell out. Sad times, on the skiff.

Following this we ran to another place, finding nothing. We had a few shots at some passing schools in the afternoon, and fished until we were interrupted by a pair of neat folks who had sailed their small sailboat directly onto the flat. We advised them to wait for the tide to come in, deciding not to rip them off of the sensitive habitat they were pressed up against.

Day Two:

We left the areas we had been fishing and went after some new places, and this day we were joined by Ian Slater (of recent video fame).

We started off not finding anything, then moved elsewhere and found the same. Our third stop yielded a number of large fish that were hidden by the glare and cloud cover, and while we had a nice shot at a slow-rolling giant we never had confidence that we were presenting the fly properly. We left these creatures (grudgingly) for a shot at some fish over white sand, and there we got only a single shot before moving on. The fishing was sucking the life out of us, and in an effort to right the vessel John took us to a shoreline in pursuit of some small tarpon. We had a great number of shots at small tarpon: I caught one, Ian caught one, and John missed a bite in typical O’Hearn fashion before we left for some more frustration.

At our next and final destination we had a number of good shots at fish, all giant, all tough. In the clouds and rain we threw our flies, and fish looked happy to see them, turning and following but never cracking open. The frustration grew and continued until we were unable to take it any more, and we headed home in the rain.

On the drive back home, Ian and I stopped for a short run at redemption, and Ian jumped a nice fish in a pond to make us feel like hunters once again.

Sunday with Simon, Tuesday with John and Ted Margo, and Friday we start prefishing for the Gold Cup.

 

Reports to follow,

 

nathaniel