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Let's
Fish! Wade Knight, Tigertown, TX, opens up the fall gallery with
a serious
Spanish mackerel landed Sept 21. Silver
"Sidewinder" spoons, single hooks, and light-weight spinning
tackle are the tickets for these explosive fish. Our fall Spanish
aren't your typical schooling Spanish mackerel. These guys are
over 5# and will yank the rod out of your hand if you're not
ready. |
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Wade's
fishing buddy Tom Moodie, Grand Rivers, KY, with another beauty
en route to the cooler. These big Spanish are relatively
easy to skin leaving delicious, mild, boneless
fillets ready
for the skillet, grill, or broiler. |
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Red
snapper season being closed Sept 30 didn't bother Pete Roberts,
David Ermer, and Rod Bouchard a bit. They had a ball catching and
releasing
them and brought back enough mangrove snappers for dinner. |
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Margaret
Contento holding a 6 pound triggerfish ten miles out in the Gulf
on a spectacular Oct 2. Click
on the photo to get a better look at this beautiful fish. |
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Back
at the dock Mack Contento with a couple more unusually large
triggerfish. Mack got his wings that weekend and celebrated heavily
the night before our trip, but he was still able to
remain mostly upright in the boat all day. Congratulations, Mack! |
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Timing is everything. Joe Contento with some fine table fare on
the first weekend of the reopened red snapper season. |
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But it was Margaret Contento who landed the fish of the day on
Oct 2. How about THAT for a red snapper! |
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Roy
and Sharon Flanagan came down from northern Alabama October 4
for some redfishing. The wind was howling from the north, so
we
were limited to the south side of the Gulf Breeze peninsula. After
working our way east catching and releasing fish too small to keep
we finally hit the mother lode around a dock in Navarre 15 miles
to the east. To quote the famous line from Galaxy Quest: "Never give
up...never surrender". |
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Glenn Evans, Tulsa, OK, hit the fly-fishing conditions
perfect on October 5. Here's a nice shot of Glenn with his first
pompano on fly. The fish ate a tan/white Clouser minnow. |
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There were a lot more bluefish cruising the beach than pompano,
so we decided to put on some bite tippet and try to catch a few.
Our October bluefish tend to weigh 3-5 pounds, hit hard, jump, and
put up a good fight on 6-8wt tackle. |
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Matthew and HM Nowlin were in town Oct 8 for the second weekend
of the late snapper season, and they went home with a fine box of
fillets. |
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It
was a fine day Oct 11 for Mark Williams, JP Mattingly, and Mary
Osborne. Mark and JP were on loan from the US Park Service working
on the oil spill, and Mary flew in from Lincoln, Nebraska, for
some R&R. Mark started the day off right with this early morning
slot-redfish. |
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Mary was thrilled when this big Spanish mackerel took off for Cuba,
and who wouldn't be?! We slid it into the cooler along with Mark's
redfish. |
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Just before heading to Pensacola Pass JP decided to try one
last live shrimp along the edge of the grass bed, and this lovely
pompano
inhaled
it. The Paradise Bar and Grill did a great job that night with the
redfish, Spanish mackerel, and pompano. Hard to beat eating your
own "fresh catch" with hush puppies, fries, and cole slaw for $8.95
a person. |
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At the pass we caught and released some very fine red snappers,
but this barely-legal (33") cobia was the fish of the day. Mary Osborne
fought it like a pro and was happy to release it unharmed since they
already had plenty of fish for dinner. |
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An
artsy silhouette shot of Atlanta's Stephen Larson with a beefy
Spanish mackerel caught on his trusty 6wt and released October 12.
As long as your reel has a smooth drag and plenty of backing
six weight tackle is ideal for these powerful fish. Always great
to have Stephen back on the boat. |
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Jean-Yves
Marcotte brought son Charles over from Lafayette, LA, for a birthday
deep-sea fishing trip October 16. Jean-Yves
had his hands full with this amberjack which eventually made its
way to the cooler. |
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Excellent
table fare provided by a very determined Charles Marcotte. Good
job, Charles, and happy birthday! |
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More
fun with the big Spanish mackerel... Tom Blair from South Carolina
with a beauty landed on fly and released October 18. |
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Lute Blair was blind-casting along the edges of a grass bed when
this Spanish mackerel hammered his Sidewinder spoon. |
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Pensacola's Russ Shields with a Spanish mackerel
caught on fly. Russ is a gourmet cook who loves eating Spanish mackerel.
Here's his recipe: simply sprinkle them with some Williams-Sonoma “Potlatch
Seafood Seasoning”, a little lemon juice and brush them with
a 50/50 mix of melted butter and Greek olive oil. Stick them
under the broiler for about 11 minutes. Delicious. |
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October
22 was the first day the big redfish showed up along the edge
of the Gulf, and Aaron and Stevie Mier were there for the fireworks.
Here they are with the first "double" of the fall season. We sight-fish
for these bulls in 4-8' of water with light spinning gear, 15#
PowerPro
braid, and half ounce SPRO bucktail jigs. |
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Aaron Mier with a perfect black drum caught drifting live shrimp
through Pensacola Pass. |
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James Hoskins got into the redfish sight-fishing action with Aaron
and Stevie on Oct 22. James and Aaron are with the US Park Service
and
were in town to supervise from an environmental perspective the oil
clean-up efforts. Thanks for being here, guys. |
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It
was an executive retreat for Jim Burke, Don Wilson, and Kurt
Richardson on October 23. The Paradise Bar and Grill on Pensacola
Beach
prepared a redfish feast for the group that evening... |
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October
26 was just one of those incredible days for Pam Hatcher and
Sandy Loveless when everything turns on and the weather is perfect
for inshore fishing. They caught thirteen species including flounder,
scamp, cobia, redfish,
black drum and red snapper. Here's Pam with an impressive flounder. |
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Sandy was happy to slip another flounder into the box. |
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We stopped for lunch by some shallow structure, and Sandy landed
this pretty, slot-redfish on a live shrimp. Check out the blue in
the fish's tail. |
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After
lunch we drifted the pass and landed some fine red snappers,
a black drum, a cobia, and this cool 17" scamp...the inshore
boat record. |
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Sandy
Loveless with the fish of the day on October 26. Back in April
it was Pam who caught the monster redfish on light tackle.
This time
it
was
Sandy's turn..."all comes to he who waits.." |
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Brent
Searly and "Spud" Matulka, October 27, with a couple impressive
Spanish mackerel. In one week Spud and Brent were shipping off
to Afghanistan. |
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Fred
Matulka, Lincoln, Nebraska, on October 27 with the boat record
Spanish mackerel released unharmed after a hard fight and photo
session.
For some
video on the fight click here |
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Here's
another shot of Spud Matulka with a late-afternoon redfish caught
in Pensacola Pass. |
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On
Friday, October 29, red snapper season was open, and Zane
and JP Mattingly took full advantage of the situation. That evening
the Paradise Bar and Grill worked their magic on the fillets... |
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Later in the day we found some trophy redfish along the edge of
the Gulf and Zane coaxed this fish to eat a SPRO bucktail jig. |
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JP caught this barely-legal redfish drifting live shrimp through
the pass. |
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We
were close to shore west of the pass looking for redfish when
a huge school rose to the surface within casting distance. Problem
was they wouldn't eat any of our favorite redfish lures. That's
about when we realized they didn't have spots on their tails!
It was a school of giant black drum, and they were happy to eat
live
shrimp. We landed two like this before the school drifted down
and disappeared. |
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Pensacola's
Roger Orth on October 30 with his first bull redfish landed on
fly. Roger's a changed man... |
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We
were poling the shore east of the pass November 1 when Jonas
Magnusson spotted this redfish and dropped the fly right on target...240gr
sink tip line, tan/white Clouser. |
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Dave
and Mark Walters came to town Nov 4-5 for some brotherly R&R.
On the second day the famous Walters luck kicked in...the sun
came out, the wind stopped howling from the north, and the fish
turned on in a major way. Plus, it was Friday and snapper season
was open!
Here's Dave with the first Pensacola Bay red snapper on the way
to limiting out. |
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Mark landed the biggest snapper of the day...a
ten pounder.. |
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Dave
got extra points for boating this nice Pensacola Bay gag grouper...his
wife Anne's favorite. |
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With the cooler full of red snappers
and grouper we headed out to the Gulf in search of redfish. We found
some fish east of the pass and Dave and Mark scored this "double"
on light spinning tackle. |
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Shortly
after that we got a call from Capt Clif Jones (www.alabamaflyfishing.com)
that
the bull reds were on the surface west of the pass, so we took
off in that general direction. As we crossed the Caucus Shoal
there they
were...hundreds of them on top. Dave grabbed his 12wt prerigged
with one of son Ben's streamers, and hooked up immediately
with this brute. We took some fun video of Dave putting the heavy mojo
on his fish while others swam all around the boat. Thanks to Capt Clif
for the "heads up". Click
here for the video. |
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Mark
hooked and landed this beauty while Dave was fighting his fish.
That's a Facebook shot if there ever was one... |
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Ted
Freese, USN, was in town for some training and his dad Leon flew
in from Monticello, MN, for some father/son fishing.
Here's an unusual red snapper/redfish double right out of the chute
on our first stop in Pensacola Bay Nov 6. |
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Later
we sight-fished along the beach, and this redfish cooperated
after Ted made a nice cast and put the perfect action on the
bucktail jig. |
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Late
in the day we ran back across the shoal to see if the fish were
where they'd been the day before. To our delight
they were there in spades and in their bright
orange spawning colors. Leon and Ted caught them non-stop until
we ran out of time and left with the fish still biting... |
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On
Nov 7 the Rocket Man (Greg Speer) from Ft Collins, CO, scored
once again with a 40" redfish on fly. We were poling the beach
and this big single appeared 60' from the boat in about 5 feet
of
water.
Rocket was using a floating line on his 8wt and had to put the
fly well up-current, so the fly would sink down in time for the fish
to see it. We took these four short videos of the fight, the fish,
and the release. Video
1, Video
2, Video
3, Video
4 |
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Rich Defeno from NYC on Nov 8...the first day
the redfish came to the surface in Santa Rosa Sound officially starting
the "Running of the Bulls". Rich landed this gorgeous fish on his
first cast. Looks like a billboard advertisement for Pensacola
Beach... |
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It
was another spectacular day with light winds and bright sunshine,
so we headed out to the Gulf for some sight-fishing
with light spinning tackle. After landing this fish Rich took
a call from New York and found out it was snowing back home... |
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It
was a day of doubles for Jim Epik and Trudy Berlin on November
9. Here they are with a couple of slot-sized
redfish headed for dinner at the Paradise Bar and Grill.
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But
THIS was a double of a totally different order of magnitude!
There were more redfish on the surface in Pensacola
Bay than we've seen in years. Hard to imagine redfish being more
beautiful than these. Click
here for a short (amateurish...sorry)
video of Jim and Trudy during the hot action.
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We tried our favorite Spanish mackerel spot
again November 10, and Bob Korose was rewarded with this "knuckle
buster" on his 8wt. |
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We never found the redfish on top that day,
but Bob was able to find them down deep using a fast sinking line. |
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Here's another shot of Bob Korose with his
second giant redfish on a beautiful, glassy-calm November 10. |
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View from the stern...or maybe of the
sterns. Tommy Scranton and Captain Baz on a perfect incoming-water
drift sight-fishing for redfish close to Pickens Point. The bow
of the Mako
21 is an ideal
casting platform..same height as the poling platform on the Hewes flats
skiff. |
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Don Ball, Bruce, MS, and a nice redfish caught
drifting live shrimp through Pensacola Pass on November 12. |
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John
Brasher, also from Bruce, MS, with the catch of the day November
13. We slid this Pensacola Bay gag
grouper into the cooler along with the redfish, red snappers, sheepshead,
and black drum we'd caught earlier. |
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The
big redfish came to the top November 12 for Preston Quillen,
his dad Jesse, Don Ball, and John Brasher. We
lost count of the number of fish landed, and the fishing was so
frantic we only stopped for a couple photos. This shot of Preston
showcases
the
colors
of these
beautiful fish. |
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Jesse Quillen, Mobile, AL, and Capt Baz hamming
it up with another bull redfish on November 12. There were football
field sized schools of redfish on the surface that day...amazing
numbers of fish. |
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Greg Catalano, Acton, MA, and his old school
buddy Jack Sinnigen were here November 14 for an incredible day
of fishing...Greg on fly and Jack using spinning tackle. We were poling
a shallow sand/grass flat when this pompano appeared
out of nowhere and slammed Greg's tan/white Clouser minnow. |
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Later
we found the redfish on the surface west of Pensacola Pass, and
Greg got to break in his 12wt. Nice
bend in that fly rod... |
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Wow!
What a redfish. Simply outstanding. Congratulations, Greg. |
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Jack
Sinnigen with the biggest fish of the day November 14...cool
colors, too. |
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Jay
Walters, Opelike, AL, was here November 20 with a couple buddies
on the last weekend of red snapper season. The Gulf was
blown out, so we limited out using light tackle in Pensacola Pass.
We liked the way Jay color-coordinated his T shirt with
the red snapper. Thoughtful... |
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Jay's buddy David Warren with another yummy
snapper the following day. |
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But it wasn't all about red snappers... Jay
with a redfish caught just outside the pass on November 21. |
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Wade
Knight and Tom Moodie came back for a return engagement November
22 and had fun with the redfish
in Pensacola Pass. Here's Wade with the first fish of the day. |
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Tom
Moodie with another example of the redfish from the deeper waters
of Pensacola Pass. Interesting how redfish
can change colors from near-silver to deep orange. |
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Barkley Gaines (aka "Tooter") joined Wade and
Tom on the boat that day and battled this fat grouper to the boat
and into the cooler... |
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The next day Tom and
Tooter stayed behind, and Wade brought his wife Casie along for
what turned out to be one of the best days
of the fall season. Wade put this 26 1/2" grouper in the box, but
then it was Casie's turn...
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Talk about a beast, Casie
Knight with a seventeen pound red snapper landed on spinning tackle
in 32' of water. Casie was incredibly patient waiting for the bite,
and then fought the snapper for fifteen minutes. When we pulled
back up to the spot, she immediately hooked another similar sized
fish which she also landed. You can't believe how hard these big
snappers fight, and on light tackle it is indeed the "whole enchalada". |
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That
afternoon we found the bull reds on the surface, and both Wade
and Casie caught them on small baitcasting outfits they'd brought
with them from Texas. It's always fun to give your own tackle a
major
league workout on these magnificent fish. |
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This
photo of Casie in her "Fight Like a Girl" breast cancer awareness
T shirt makes a fine advertisement for "The Cause". |
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Charlie
Forrest and Nicky Phillips, St Paul, MN, came to town to visit
pal Taylor Curry and were on the boat November 27 for our best-ever
day
of false albacore
fishing on fly. The extremely-selective albies were turned on
to
the #6 clear gummy minnows, and we drifted in the same school
for hours. Our best guess was that we landed and released around
fifty fish that day. Click
here for a short video
of the explosive action. |
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Taylor Curry with one of many false albacore in the 6-8 pound range |
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We couldn't believe our eyes when a school of big redfish rose
to the surface right in the middle of the albie melee. Nicky Phillips
landed this fish on the "Sidewinder" spoon she was casting to the
false albacore. |
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Taylor Curry with his redfish-of-a-lifetime on fly...at least so
far. |
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Might
as well hang it up, Charlie, because you'll never catch a more
impressive redfish than this on fly... |
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The wind picked up the following day for Ken (Cowboy) Shireman,
Fayetteville, AR, making it difficult to reach the false albacore
west of the pass, but we
found
a few pods close to shore. Cowboy put the gummy minnow right on this
fish's nose, and we were off to the races |
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How sweet it is! Cowboy Shireman with a trophy redfish on fly November
28. The fish took a chartreuse and white "Go-meaux" from Deep South
Outfitters, Birmingham. |
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Terry
McCormick and Tom Finkle from the Northwest Florida Fly Fishers
club were on board December 3 with the goal of catching
their first false albacore on fly. The timing was right, and we
found some small pods of fish in very shallow water east of the
pass. Sitting
on the inner bar in 2' of water watching an approaching pod of
albies slashing the surface and leaping clear out of the water
is one of
the best thrills we have to offer our fly-fishing clients. This
is Terry with his first-ever albie on fly. |
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Tom
Finkle who spends most of his time at home in Maine was amazed
at the power and speed of this 8# albie. The fish on the inner
bar were willing to eat the gummy minnows, but when we drifted
through
a huge school a quarter mile offshore the fish wouldn't touch the
fly... FA...frustrating albies...fickle albies. Fickle albies
for Tom Finkle... Sorry 'bout that, Tom. |
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Ben
Raines and his dad Howell came over from Fairhope, AL, December
7 to hunt for false albacore, but the conditions east of the
pass were so nice we decided to sight-fish first for redfish along
the beach. Ben used a 240gr sink tip line to get the tan/white
Clouser down
to this fish which ate the fly and ran well into the backing.
As Ben got fly line back on the reel we noticed there was
another redfish swimming with
his fish. Howell
flipped
his
fly to
the other fish, and for a short time we had a redfish double on
fly. That was until Howell's fish threw the hook.... |
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Author
Howell Raines closes out the fall gallery with this fabulous
false albacore. Look at the size of this fish's eye.
It's no wonder
they can be so doggoned particular! Fly casters who've not read
Howell's books should check out Fly Fishing through the Mid-Life
Crisis, and The One that Got Away...both are wonderful
books. |
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