Perfect weather leads to perfect fishing

Palm Coast Observer
Opinion

We’ve had some great weather this winter here in Flagler County.

The past week has been awesome. With bluebird skies and temperatures hovering in the 70s, who could ask for anything more?

Actually, I can think of one thing, and that would be great fishing.

And guess what? That’s exactly what we have going right now. Redfish, trout, bluefish and flounder are all ready to accept your offering. I’ve had days when I would lose count of the number of trout or redfish that were brought to the boat.

Some of the best trout fishing has come in the evening from about 4 p.m. until dark. This is when they seem to go into a feeding frenzy. You can see them busting on glass minnows and small menhaden. If you’re going to throw artificial baits, I would suggest such small lures like the YO-Zuri Pins Minnow. A Berkley Gulp jerk shad fished on a jig head or a weighted worm hook are also effective.

I know most people don’t fly fish, and you might get tired of me writing about it, but my favorite way to catch trout — or any other fish for that matter — is with a fly.

Steve Carl called me about a week ago to tell me that the evening trout bite was going off, so we made plans to head out the next day. We met at the boat ramp, armed with just fly rods for tackle. When we pulled up to our destination, I told Steve to tie on one of my new white trout flies I’ve been tying. He took my advice and we started fishing.

It started out a little slow, but as the sun became lower in the sky, the fishing picked up. At one point, we were hooked up on almost every cast. The action was off the charts. We lost count of the trout we boated and released. It had gotten dark and difficult to see where we were casting, so we finally had to call it quits. It also didn’t help that in the dark, my fly line had got eaten by my trolling motor propeller. Not a good thing to do to a $75 fly line! But still, even when we left, the fish were still biting.

On another trip I did last week with a few people from Nebraska, we had the same type of action, but with redfish. It was the middle of the day, and I had them fishing on the Intracoastal Waterway using live shrimp. We came upon a 20-foot-wide section along the bank and didn’t leave it for two hours. It was nonstop action — one fish after another.

Get out and enjoy this weather while it lasts!

For more of Capt. Rob Ottlein's column, click here.