Wednesday, August 28, 2013

WE NEED YOUR HELP....Sciaenops ocellatus (Redfish) and Cynoscion nebulosus (Speckled Trout)

Image via Wikipedia


So as most of you know, the TLTFF Crew will be fishing the 1st Annual CCA Catch & Release Redfish/Speckled Trout Tournament (Red Trout Tourney) in about 10 days down in the southern part of the Bay. For those of you who don't know...now you do.

There is still time to sign up and have a chance at winning some big prizes including a Regal vise, TFO rod, Cheeky Fly Fishing swag and more. All of that aside, lets get down to the nitty gritty...

Neither Luis or I have hooked up on and landed a Redfish or Speckled Trout on the fly. We are both looking at this tourney as an opportunity to not only catch fish and have a blast in our native waters while also trying to win the tournament, but also knock two species off of our FF Bucket List. We read A LOT about both species and watch more video than can be fit into both the original and remastered versions of the Titanic combined. But with all of that research, it still makes us believe that you, our followers and readers, may have more information than we can scrounge up via major fly fishing outlets.

We feel as though, if we lay out the setting of what water we'll be fishing, you may be able to help us with patterns to use and gear to have on board. So moving right along, lets get to it...Crisfield, MD is where Jane's Island State Park is located and where Luis and I will be making base camp for the CCA Tourney weekend. Some of you may have followed us while we fished JI back in May and got into around 100 Stripers but no Specks or Reds. If you did follow us you have and idea of what the scenery looks like, we posted A LOT of photos. Check them out on our Instagram and Facebook if you missed out.

Jane's Island and the surrounding water we'll be fishing is 2-8ft semi-murky water (5ft water clarity depth on a good day). This water is full of eel grass beds and full of back marshes and ditches or "gulches" as the locals call them. The water moves pretty well in and out of backwaters leaving good channels for bait to hang in. The eel grass is anywhere from 12-24" long and filters the water pretty well. As far as food sources, baby blue crabs have been spotted and I'd assume there are good amounts of baitfish in the area from Bay Anchovies to Bunker. We will be fishing the River Hawk (Gheenoe) and have the ability to go super skinny if need be.

Sandy presumably brought the Reds into the Bay pretty heavy last year and most that were caught were in the 16-18" range. This year they're back and all the way up to the 24" range with multiple 30-40" fish caught down south, where we will be. We anticipate most of the Specks and Reds to be in the mid 20" range but always hope for bulls and gators.

Can any of you give us suggestions for ideal fly patterns, leader lengths, rod weights to use?

Boom...The TLTFF Crew

No comments:

Post a Comment