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Been keeping an eye on the winds lately and just couldn't resist hitting the beach with the Native Ultimate to look for Silver Trout and other winter species. On Tuesday, the winds were predicted to be 1-2 mph and I headed out at first light. Met up with a buddy I know from Tarpon Seasons past and couldn't believe there was some other idiot on the open Gulf in February. He was throwing a jig and catching a Silver on just about every cast. I was throwing an 8 wt. with a floating line and a 9' leader. Even with a heavy Clouser it was not getting down into the strike zone. Fortunately, I had packed a spinning rig and joined in the fun. Nothing of any size. The largest was 16" or so. Fun to catch, but would have preferred them on the buggy whip.

Called around town and couldn't find a sink tip locally so I bought a pack of pre-fab leaders, cut off the snaps and the swivels, and looped them together. The water out there is 16' so I used 10 two foot long leaders and another 2' of bite tippet.



The homemade sink tip worked like a charm and, once I found them, I was catching Silvers on almost every cast. Also caught a half dozen small Spannies and two Bluefish. Invited home three Silvers and a Mac for dinner.



Conditions offshore today were less favorable today and deteriorated gradually and then all at once. Let's just say I was happy to have the hand bilge on board.

UT

Way to improvise and get that fly down to them, apparently they're not leader shy eh? & How'd it cast? See any tarpon?

Tommy was it a MoJoe 8wt??????Pun intended........Nice day......

It was the 8, Joe. Heavy-handed for the Silvers, but there are plenty of other species out there I wouldn't want to meet with anything less.

Uncle Tommy wrote:It was the 8, Joe. Heavy-handed for the Silvers, but there are plenty of other species out there I wouldn't want to meet with anything less.