"Cold" weather fishing

The cold weather you folks at home in New England have been having has also invaded south Florida.  Although "cold" here is a bit different than cold there.  In any case, the Gulf water temps are around 60F and the fish are sluggish.  They like 70F and above. The best places to fish are the back country shallow water around mangrove islands and water discharge areas of power plants.  On Friday Stan and I rented kayaks and fished the inside islands near the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers. This is across San Carlos Bay from Sanibel Island. It is the closest place for us to do some fishing and a place we have been wanting to try.  It was fun kayaking through narrow mangrove tunnels and looking for fish.  We had a few hits in some of the deeper channels between islands, but no hookups.  Then on the way back we were fishing the deeper boating channel and Stan had a couple redfish follow to the kayak and take a whack at his fly, but still no hookup.  I had the same thing with a good-size snook, but still no hookup. It was a fun trip and we'll be back when the water warms about 10 degrees. Next time we'll try the Orange River near the power plant discharge area.

Marlborough Show

Anybody going to the Fly Fishing show in Marlborough?  My guiding partner Jim Norton is giving our new presentation today at 1:00; Saturday at 2:00 and Sunday at 1:00 in the Destination Theater.  If you go to the presentation, be sure to introduce yourself to Jim.  (Click the blog title for the show program.)
I always enjoy going to these presentations to hear about both local and remote fly fishing locations.  I have planned a lot of trips based on information I got at these shows.  Southwest Montana, Delaware River, and Farmington river are some of the places I was inspired to travel after viewing FF show presentations.  I also like to see what other people say about places where I have fished.  Sometimes you can learn a lot from the "Grip-and-grin" fish-porn.  Let me know if you see anything interesting at the show.

Reporting from Florida

Today was the first day I was able to get out and sample the local fishing.  Stan and I departed at 6:30AM for the canals along the Tamiami Trail (US41) in the Everglades.  We hit some of our usual spots and a couple new ones.  The day started out a little brisk (53F) and warmed up to a little over 70F with a bit of a breeze.  We started in the big canal at the end of the Everglades National Park volunteers RV camping area. As we were rigging up I saw a couple snook and some bass cruising around in the shallow end of the canal.  My small crab pattern drew some immediate interest and  brought in a 12-inch bass.  Many follows and some short strikes, but no more hook-ups there.  We checked out a new spot I had spotted on the satellite view of one of the online mapping programs.  A few follows and short-strikes from bass, but no hook-ups.  We then moved down to the maze of canals behind the seagrape visitor center.  As always, lots of manatees and a few 'gators.  We thought we saw a few tarpon roll.  I caught the smallest snook I ever saw and Stan got a small, but respectable, redfish. That is the first redfish I have seen caught in these canals.  We hit a couple other places, but the wind picked up and the fish weren't cooperative, so we knocked off early.  This week I think we'll rent some kayaks and fish the Orange River. Here is a video of the seagrape canal.  Watch for a couple manatees surfacing.