Up The Creek In Apalachicola

Fishing deep for a mixed bag

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On The Fly Saltwater

November 2025

By Craig Riendeau

The Atlanta Fly Fishing Club had a Fall trip to Apalachicola Bay, Florida. Due to high winds on the big bay, we chose to fish in East Bay, instead of the flats off St. George Island. Even more so, up the many rivers that flow into it.

As the water cools late in the season on Apalachicola Bay, the fish that roamed the flats during the warmer months have two options. They can either head out to deeper water in the bay or Gulf of America or go upriver to more protected, stable waters that the rivers provide. Up these rivers is where a lot of the bait fish head to also, making an even more favorable option for the game fish.

The author with an East Bay redfish. Photo by Rick Lee.

Strong winds and an unsteady barometer made fishing challenging, but this is river fishing 101. Even though we were targeting redfish and seatrout, I used the same techniques as if I were chasing river smallmouths. The only thing missing was rocks.

While the Apalachicola River held plenty of fish, we found the smaller creeks were more protected from the winds and easier to fish. Places like Cash Creek, Whiskey George Creek and Doyle Creek are narrower and have some tree line protection. If you get a Top Spot map of the area, it’ll show you all the places you can launch a boat. None of these rivers are wading areas, so some type of boat is required. Anything from a kayak to a center console works, you just have to be aware of the depth because there are many extremely shallow areas.

While there, our group had an epidemic of boat issues that knocked us off our technological advantage over the fish and were forced to do things old school. We didn’t travel fast or far, and our eyes became our fish locators. This is when you find out just how well you understand your target species.

As we cruised down river, we looked for places that held what the fish came upriver to find. Some depth for stable water temperature, some cover or structure to break the current for an easy place to hold, and most of all bait with a nearby ambush point. An ambush point is either a shallow flat, a pocket or inflowing cut. It’s something the game fish can herd baitfish into where escape is difficult. Yet these shallow feeding areas tend to hold bigger fish if deeper water access is nearby. The good fish are wary.

The mouths of inflowing cuts are places to target. Photo by Jimmy Jacobs.

On the first day of fishing, bait fish were everywhere. There were even fish blowing up on bait right along the shoreline grass. They didn’t appear to be large fish though. My fishing companions targeted these fish with floating fly lines and lightly weighted flies with minimal success. While the others cast to the shoreline reed bank, I concentrated my casts to cover the break line where the 3-foot deep flat broke and dropped into deeper water. Here I found the seatrout hanging just below the break looking up for any bait that made the mistake of drifting off the flat.

To get to these fish in 6 to 10 feet of water I used an 8-weight rod rigged with a Type V full sinking line and a weighted fly to get down to their level in full tidal current. Typically, I use a 45-degree upstream cast allowing the fly to sink until the line became perpendicular to the boat before I began a strip, strip, pause retrieve. There was no mistaking a strike. Many times, depending on how my partner positioned the boat, I’d make a straight upstream or downstream cast paralleling the break line. This kept the fly in the strike zone for its entire length and was also productive.

The second day thunderstorms and boat repairs kept us off the water most of the day. When we did finally launch for the last couple hours of the day, we found the bait fish schools broke up and elusive. Quickly rechecking the areas where we caught them the other day proved only slightly productive with a lot of short hits. Things changed and we hadn’t the time to figure out how.

The third day the weather cleared, but the wind continued to blow hard. The bait was even less visible than the day before, so we chose fishing spots by structure, not activity. We searched for current breaks, depth changes and cover. I’m guessing the influx of freshwater rain had caused the river to clear from what it had been. This probably also changed the salinity level of the water and that affects the fish too.

The fishing turned out to be mixed bag action. Photo by Rick Lee.

There was some very shallow water activity going on, but it proved to be mostly ladyfish, needlefish and flounders. Once again as my partner casted shoreward, I directed my casts toward the deeper water on the outside of the flat. Using my redneck depth finder (my fishing rod) I discovered the pocket had a hard sand bottom. Then from several fly swings across the deeper part of the flat I found several obstructions on the bottom by hanging up in them. This place proved to be the ticket. Multiple fish chased the fly all the way to the boat without striking. I found that once I started a fast and irregular retrieve, while still keeping the fly deep that they would commit to hitting. This was especially true when the tide went slack. This was triggering rather than feeding. Staying aware of where and what each of your cast is doing pays off in dividends. When you know what you did to produce a strike, it’s easier to repeat.

The river held all kinds of fish species. We caught spotted seatrout, redfish, white trout, flounders, Spanish mackerels, ladyfish and needlefish. Although I fished 7- and 8-weight rods rigged with Floating, Hover, Type III and V sinking lines, all the better fish were caught on the Type V full sinking line. I prefer a SA Sonar Titan Taper Int/Sink3/Sink5 line. The leader was just a straight 4-foot piece of 20-pound fluorocarbon. I experimented with at least a half dozen different flies, but only two produced fish. Both are creations of mine and unconventional. The Split-Tail Wiggler in electric chicken did most of the damage. Then when it got really tough my Road Runner jig knock-off, the Mach I fly in white and chartreuse helped trigger a few nice bites. See my fly-tying column in this issue for how to make your own Split-Tail Wiggler.