A drastic weather change took place overnight. The wind came to a complete stop here on the Texas coast. It was also much warmer for Brian Iannacchione and I for today with our friend and legendary saltwater fly fishing guide, Jako Lucas. I still wore my fleece jacket to start but I didn’t have my windbreaker over the top and I finally ditched my wool hat.
It was an easy boat ride to the first flat. The glassy calm coastal waters of Texas and its rich blue skies were easy on the eyes. Distant feeding dolphins and water birds working bait in every direction was fun to take in.
While NO wind brings a smile to the faces of most fly anglers because they know it will be easy to cast, making successful presentations is much harder. The problem is that fish that live on the Texas flats experience windless days only a few times a year. They fear such conditions because they are easily vulnerable to all predators. When we first arrived, some fish spooked well before our first cast because they either saw us approaching from a long way back or they heard the boat tracking through the shallows and perhaps also the push pole touching bottom.
When we got close enough to make a cast, almost every time our fly hit the water the fish blew up and ran for deeper water. We switched to smaller lighter flies but often the fly line hit and spooked the fish. Lucky for me, I had my 7-weight Winston Air 2 Max with a delicate SA Bonefish taper rigged and ready.
No matter how ready you are, you still need to make the cast. When it’s essential that my fly lands soft, I take it a step further in lightening everything. Instead of firing my usual overhead cast with a speedy double haul loop, I’ll drop my arm to the side and keep my line and fly close to the water. This makes it less likely the fish will see the line coming their way and the fly drops gently from a height of about three feet instead of ten feet at full throttle. This isn’t a big redfish, but my madness worked and the skunk was out of the boat.
The good news is that eventually a breeze came up. Refracting the water surface just slightly calms down all the fish. They know they become harder to see for eagles and ospreys and for us. With just a slight breeze we can make a few mistakes and we don’t stand out like a neon light when we do! After I landed a redfish, Brian picked up this gorgeous black drum.
The whole time we were challenging ourselves with the morning calmness, we were looking for sheepshead. We saw none. The sheepies have been nothing but elusive. I’m certain it’s because they were our main target this week. At noon when the overhead sunlight was at its best, Jako took us to one of his favorite wading flats. It’s the same place where a few years ago he guided a guest into his first sheepshead on fly.
Like yesterday, I let Jako and Brian lead the way. I back tracked a ways then followed them along giving them good space. Brian got several casts in the first fifteen minutes at a sheepshead school and one of the sheepies may have taken his fly. Sheepies have mouths full of blocky molar like teeth so in addition to the difficulty of finding them and fooling them, they are also hard to hook!
That would be Brians one and only shot. I got one cast at an individual sheepie while playing clean up man but to no avail. We fished these flats on foot for a couple hours. I managed one more small redfish.
We got back on the boat around 3. We were a long way from our boat launch so it was time to call it. As Jako eased us to deeper water to start the motor, I spotted a pair of sheepies and flipped out a good cast. One of the sheepies left his friend and tracked my fly. Honestly, I’m not exactly sure of the best way to strip so I kept doing what I was doing – a slow steady strip. But the sheepshead veered off and back to his friend.
They kept leaving the area but were still close enough for another cast. I cut them off and this time they both followed my shrimp fly. I thought for sure one would eat with the competition in order. But no. They followed and lost interest. That was it.
Fishing was the toughest we’ve had this week but fun, nonetheless. It was a truly beautiful day. We have the sheepshead challenge in full order right now and I love it. Tomorrow is our last day and it’s only going to be a half because we have 6 pm flights. Stay tuned!