- November 25, 2024
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Being at the right place at the right time makes a lot of good things happen. In fishing, timing is everything.
When fishing, you can take in such factors as tides, barometric pressure and moon phase. Don’t get me wrong—all those factors help; but if you’re not at the right spot at the same time when the fish are biting, you lose. I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about.
Two weeks ago, I was out fishing on a picture postcard kind of day. It also happened to be the day before the full moon. (The three days leading up to the full moon are my favorite times to fish.) I pulled up to one of my favorite trout spots this time of year and, after casting my fly for a half hour and no takers, I decided to move on. The next place yielded the same thing: nothing. So it was on to the next spot.
The third spot proved to be a charm. I was in the right place, but my timing was off. I should have been there an hour earlier. As I pulled up to the place, I could hear fish crashing on bait. As I turned the corner there were trout jumping out of the water, busting on shrimp and mullet. It was a sight that I have seen maybe one other time when it comes to speckled sea trout.
I knew it was going to be difficult to catch a trout on a fly with that much bait in the water, but I gave it my best shot. Heck, it probably would have been difficult even if I were using artificial or live bait.
After casting my fly numerous times, I was finally rewarded with a 20-inch trout. After releasing that fish, I made a bunch more casts and had a couple of hits but no takers. By this time the current had slowed down and once it did, the mullet disappeared and the fish stopped biting. A lone kayaker then passed me and asked how the fishing was. My reply was, “You should have been here an hour ago.”
Contact Capt. Rob Ottlein at 439-2636 or visit www.flaglerfishingcharters.com.