With Joe Mahler
Sanibel Island Diaries Part 2
Read Part 1 – The Schminnow
The spring in New Jersey has been one of the coldest on record, we did not get the ice conditions I had hoped but once spring hit, the thermometer did not rise. Heading down to Florida for some saltwater action seemed just the cure for my post winter malaise. This is our second trip down to Sanibel Island, last year we headed down to celebrate Mark’s 30th, this year it is a party for Mark and Jourdan. On the debut trip I was able to hook a Gulf Toad Fish on the fly and some nice fish on bait, this year I committed to Fly Fishing only.
Saltwater fly gear is considerable weightier than the Sage 4wt, my primary weapon against Trout. You also have to practice making longer casts, or at least achieving proficiency with throwing a Schminnow in the forty to fifty feet range. In order to make sure we used proper technique, I contact Joe Mahler, one of the top fly-casting instructors in the United States. Brenton, Jourdan and I were set up for several hours of lessons.
Joe is an excellent and patient instructor, he worked with Brenton on his double haul, Jourdan and I on our rod death grips. To achieve long casts, I had fallen victim to the fallacy that you need to exert your whole body. In reality, letting the rod do the work does the trick for a perfect shooting cast. These lessons set us up nicely for dock light fishing a few nights later.
After half an hour casting in the grass, we were anxious to follow the rest of the guys out on to the beach. For perfect conditions on the Gulf of Mexico, you need very little to no waves; something akin to glass is perfect. According to Mark, Beach fishing is generally better towards the summer and peaks in October. That being said, we wanted to taste salt and Joe indicated, though conditions were not perfect, tourists had caught some large Saltwater Fish by braving the choppy seas.
Fish cruising the beach will be located in the trough which runs along the beach in between the first sand bar or on the sand bar’s far side drop off. The perfect cast will land in front of an incoming wave, that wave will not be so large as to develop a white froth. Joe discusses keeping your fly “in the zone” in this very informative article http://www.joemahler.com/#!__surf-sand-and-snook.
The beach cruising fish prefer flies that mimic the Glass Minnow and other small, semi-translucent bait-fish living in the trough. A good way to locate bait-fish is to follow the birds. Mark is very helpful by carrying his cast net everywhere along the beach. Throw the net out real quick and you get an immediate picture of the subsurface bait-fish school’s size and coloration.
The day ended well, a quick lesson and all the newly minted Saltwater Fly Fisher people caught a fish. Mine was a Stickleback but a large one. I later found out, like most Ocean fish, they have terrible spikes. Do not touch them or get stung…
Don’t worry, the big feesh are coming out to play…
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