Sight Fishing for Redfish in Mosquito Lagoon
Guest Blog by David Caprera
The sport has long been called sight fishing but I have only recently come to understand its intentions. I had naively assumed that the term meant you cast to sighted fish with the intent to hook and capture them. But I have come to believe I have been guilty of “overthinking”, that the term means exactly what it says it means, nothing more nor less, and I am actually becoming damn good at it.
Tonight is our last night of our current trip to Florida, the primary purpose of which was to play bridge (some good, some bad), but I was able to spend several mornings kayaking in Mosquito Lagoon. I caught one redflish on fly but saw many.
How many, you ask? Well, enough to consider myself to be a successful sight fisherman. I made some very good sightings. Admittedly, when a three foot long bronze back projects itself out of six inches of water and shines in the morning sun like a brand new penny, I may not be alone in my ability to sight it. But sight it I did. Many times.
This idea of casting near, but not too near, the fish, hooking and landing it is vastly overrated. It totally overlooks the “banging the paddle on the kayak floor trick”, the “fly imbedded in your thumb trick”, or the “the amazing flying crab fly” where one casts the fly well over a mangrove limb and proceeds to lower the fly from overhead to the unsuspecting redfish who when confronted with a crab from the sky has not since been seen in Volusia County. Add to that the usual bad flies, bad casts, bad knots and hooking your hat, and you should begin to understand what I am talking about.
So a sight fisherman I remain.
Dave Caprera is a tax attorney and fly fisherman now splitting his time between New Smyrna Beach and Denver.
amen.
amen.