Flyfishing for bait-pushing Reds on a flat

[jkilday4]

I went out yesterday morning just out from the complex into some more open water to see what I could do. It was a mud flat with mix of reeds & mangroves all along the outside. I copy a link to the location below; I was fishing all along the north side of the bay with those two little islands in it. I think high tide was probably around 8-8:15 a.m. Water was only a foot or two deep and was pretty stained. It was a warmer morning than had been for the last few we were there, and the winds were light to still.

The redfish were pushing bait and swirling on them with boils all over the place from dawn break and continuing until I got off the water about 11:00 a.m. I would troll around on low just following the moving boils and cast at them will all sorts of flies. The trolling motor didn't seem to spook them that much; I would have boils right by the boat at times. I really couldn't ever see the fish but for a couple of times when they must have gotten into more active feeding mode - a couple of times I saw fish dart up to the surface with their noses and then dart right away when they must have realized I was there.

The only luck I had was on floating line with a purple/copper/silver kreelex fly about 2.5" long (it's estaz enshrouded in the different colors of medium-sized flashabou). (I was originally throwing 200 grain intermediate sink line but switched over to floating since they were boiling on the surface and pushing bait.) The lone eat came when there was a wild ambush just boat-side - the reds must have corralled the baitfish into a ball and attacked. I threw my fly right in the middle and one took but I couldn't hook up. Most of the time, I tried putting my fly just ahead of the direction that I thought a boiling fish would be pointing. I was using my seven weight with an eight foot leader to 15 lb fluoro tippet. I even threw a purple demon mirrodine mirrolure on my spinning rig at them as well.

Satelite close-up of the area:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Punta+Gorda,+Palmwood+Court,+Cleveland,+FL&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.826758,66.796875&vpsrc=0&hnear=Palmwood+Ct,+Cleveland,+Charlotte,+Florida+33982&t=h&z=18

Further-out view of the area:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Punta+Gorda,+Palmwood+Court,+Cleveland,+FL&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.826758,66.796875&vpsrc=0&hnear=Palmwood+Ct,+Cleveland,+Charlotte,+Florida+33982&t=m&z=13

While it's exciting to see this sort of activity and throw at them, it's kind of disappointing to not have much success. Any ideas on flies & presentation in this sort of scenario would be appreciated!

John

[Yoda]

I had the same thing happen to me in Destin last week, but with Bonito.

[jkilday4]

I posted same question on Florida Sportsman, and a guy over there said they are not really picky when feeding that aggressively.  So maybe I was just unlucky, who knows.  Also the possibility exists that I was casting at swirling mullet a good part of the time although I was casting at fish pushing bait airborne at times and also at some nice wakes too, so it was definitely predator fish, and I did see reds a few times boat-side.  Question is how do you tell difference between mullet and redfish swirls..I think it would be pretty easy to tell in that a big disturbance that breaks the surface of the water would be a redfish or other predator whereas a smaller swirl might be mullet...

[gaspergou]

I don't know a foolproof way of telling swirling reds from mullet unless they jump or you can actually see them. Had the exact same thing happen a couple days ago, too. It's frustrating as hell, but then it was like someone flipped a switch and I managed to get several to eat. No question if they're reds then! Didn't seem to be any clear tide/weather cues...  Hope you get into them!

[Aquaholic]

if you throw your fly in a big wad of fish that are eating aggressively and they don't take....more than likely mullet.  Reds eat pretty well.

Couple of flies I always have when red fishing....a Terminator Crab, M4 (Mad Mike's Mud Minnow), Copperhead and Copperhead Crab.  If they don't eat those 4 flies, something is terrible wrong.