Second Time’s The Charm

On The Fly Saltwater

February 2024

By Jimmy Jacobs

A few years back, while down in the Port Charlotte area of Florida, the On The Fly South crew had the opportunity to fish with Capt. Les Hill on Gasparilla Sound, just to the north of Boca Grande. That area is famously known for the tarpon fishing in Boca Grande Pass, but we were more interested in some inshore action on the fly.

We had a good day on the water, catching multiple seatrout and getting shots at tailing redfish during the day. The only disappointment was the snook we envied did not show up.

Recently, we again found ourselves on the southwest Florida coast, escaping the winter weather farther north. That provided us the chance to work in another day with the good captain. Les Hill has been guiding the west coast of the Florida peninsula since 1990 and has his finger on the pulse of the angling. That puts him in a good position to assess the fishery from Matlacha on Pine Island north to the Sarasota area over that period and how it fares today.

“The fishery in the area has maintained itself,” the captain noted. “Water quality in Charlotte Harbor has declined in the upper end. Oyster bars are less there.”

When it comes to specific game fish species, he also has an opinion on the status of some of them. “Tarpon in the area are unchanged,” he said “Redfish have decline. We don’t see the big schools.”

For our day of fishing, we met Capt. Les at the Eldred’s Marina dock at the north end of the Boca Grande Causeway.  Once on board, we headed south between the causeway on the west and the old vestige bridges and fills of the Placida Trestle to the east. Those latter landmarks are the remains of the now abandoned Charlotte Harbor & Northern rail line that once ran to the phosphate docks at Boca Grande. The last train rolled over those rails in 1979.

During our ride out, Capt. Les offered some advice on the cool weather fishing in this vicinity. “Winter fishing is temperature dependent,” he said. “For the best fishing  you need air temperatures of 60 to 65 degrees. Water temperature needs to be in the upper 60s or higher. Cool snaps can turn off the snook and tarpon. Below 70 degrees, snook and tarpon head to deeper water, or up the creeks. Reds and trout don’t move: they stay in the same areas and keep eating on through January and February.”

Fortunately, the conditions we were enjoying fit his description of ideal for the season. But, of course, there is one other ever-present curve that mother nature throws at anglers at this time of year – the wind. “The main thing in the winer time is you have to get out of the wind in the lee side of the islands,” Hill confirmed.

As we started fishing, our first targets were white sand spots out on the grass flats in Gasparilla Sound. Our main target was seatrout. We would have to wait for the rising tide to congregate the snook along the edges, as those fish waited for deep enough water to push back into the mangrove roots.

Once we began casting around these lighter spots on the sea floor, we were in for a potpourri of species. As expected, the trout were there, as we picked up several soon after starting to fish. We also boated sand perch, lane snapper and even smaller gag grouper. Then, we got distracted by tails of redfish popping up above the surface nearby.

Capt. Less begin stealthily poling the skiff toward them, but we were soon in a game of hide-and-seek with the reds. Just before we got in casting range, or just after the first cast, they would disappear, only to again surface farther away. As a result, we never really go any good shots at those spooky fish. Finally, we returned to the sand spots where the fish were still feeding.

As the water rose, we eventually headed to those mangrove shores for the snook and possibly some redfish. For this action, the captain had some advice on presentation of the fly. “When looking for snook around the mangroves,” he explained, “cast up on the sand shelf along the edge, then strip quickly out to the drop into 4 feet of water. Let the fly sink, then strip, strip, strip and pause, while quickly retrieving.”

While the reds did not show up, the snook were more than willing to give us a fight. These were not big fish, but here were plenty of them. The ones we caught topped out at about 20 inches, but put up some good fights on light gear, as they often took to the air.

During all this fishing, we stuck with Capt. Hill’s go-to white fly pattern that he ties. He calls it a Schnauzer Clouser. Basically, it is a standard Clouser tie, but instead of wrapping the bucktail neatly in  front of the lead or chain eyes, he lets it extend toward the eye in a bushy silhouette. It sort of reminds you of the snout of a schnauzer breed of canine. The idea behind that enhancement is to allow the fly to push more water as it is retrieved. As noted earlier, it worked well on a number of species.

For details on fishing the Gasparilla Sound with Capt. Les Hill, go to his Facebook Page.