The Church of the Sedge Islands

The days are growing shorter. The moon is waning gibbous.  The baitfish are being scooped up at every corner, at every turn. 

Winter Anchorage

It was supposed to be a 2-person Wednesday trip but turned into a solo- Monday trip.  The weather forecast was, dare I say, wrong. 

My half-assed original plan was to only take my fly rod.  Unfortunately I'm at a handicap with that plan and wasn't really willing to go there yet.  Confidence is a MAJOR factor in fishing.  If I had confidence in my fly-casting skills I might have tried a "fly only" trip.  My compromise was to bring just one spinning set-up (as opposed to the ten I might normally bring on any given fishing trip). find a consistent bite on the Bass Assassin, then switch to the fly rod.

I found a lone bass within a few minutes.

Typical fall sedges bass

It was a good sign.  I went to Snake Ditch and started to fly cast along the banks.  My fly casting skills are still minimal at best.  That being said, the current was doing much of the work for me, and I was able to work the banks.  I started with a Clouser pattern fly.  I had no hits.

I let the current take me towards the inlet.

ol' Barney

Sometimes there's just too much debris in the outgoing tide to effectively fish Snake Ditch, so I headed back to Horsefoot with the plan of finishing up the day in front of the clam-shack.

I had a few more random Schoolie bass along the way and stopped to cast the fly at a few notorious banks.  I had switched the fly to a shrimp pattern that I had bought at an Orvis shop a year ago.  In a little creek on the way to the clam-shack I pulled over and started fly casting.  It was here that my plan came to fruition.  Within the time-span of an hour, as the sun set,  I must have landed a dozen small bass on the shrimp pattern fly. 

Shrimp fly

Unfortunately the leader was old, and I lost the fly to a fish, so I tied on a super simple pattern, teaser fly and caught one more on the flat in front of the clam shack. 

Sunset, rope, salt air on the lens

Suffice it to say I left them biting.