Re: [VFB] DonO, Florida memories

[DonO]

Murf, Like any flyfishing enviornment, saltwater flyfishing is situaton-driven.  You can't be tooled up or ready for everything the salt can throw at you, or you'd have a floating tackle-shop.   What type of saltwater are you planning?  Below are listed a few that I can think of:   Shore wading/casting Flats boat for shallows, mangroves, bayous, inlets: snook, reds, spots, tarpon, etc. Canoes, kayacks: same as above. Heavy inshore-boat:  Jacks, kings, blues, stripers, small tuna, roosterfish, etc. Deep bluewater- pangas/cruisers: billfish, dorado, tuna   All of these take diferent strategies and tackle.  At best, drop your fly in the water and it is immediately taken.  At worst, they just outside your longest cast nd won't come any closer.   Practice casting into your backing with general accuracy.  Distance may be all you need in many situations.  Learn to double-haul straight into the wind and still get an 85' cast.  Learn to get distance with one false cast.  Learn to cast to where the fish are heading, not where they are.  Learn to cast from a rolling deck in heavy seas.  Learn to cast larger, heavier, wet flies.   ANd that's just casting.  Retreive, presentation, setting the hook, playing the fish (rod, reel drag, free hand)- all are lessons in themselves.   DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, July 30, 2004 1:26 PM Subject: [VFB] DonO, Florida memories DonO said- East coast of Florida, around Jupiter and the cape- Dorado, sailfish, schooling jacks, bonito. DonO, Saved this snippet as it relates to many forays off the east coast of mid-lower Florida from Jupiter Inlet area where I caught many a sail/shark/dorado/marlin/king/bonito/cuda from one of my uncle's boats south to Lower Matacambe Key where the infamous "Hump" brings seawater from 600' deep to wading depth about 11 miles out. While I've only seriously fly fished salt on the southeast corner of St. Croix and just below Fredricksted where the leatherbacks hatch, I've "cranked bait" (trolled) from Mexico, through many of the Caribean isles and up the east coast of the USA.  My future hopes are to learn how to cast a fly accurately into the salt much better than my current abilities.  Any suggestions on where to begin the learning curve would be appreciated. Murf