Panhandle Fly fishers

Panhandle Fly fishers July 2009 You can see the big smile on Lennie Anderson s face after catching his nice redfish. Lennie was fishing West Bay from his kayak and the picture was taken with a special mounted camera on his Kayak. More pictures of fishing reports later in the newsletter.

Message From The President- To quote a friend of mine from Texas.. You live in Paradise where you can fish for Trout and Redfish in the mornings and then fish for Bonita inshore or Tuna, Marlin or whatever you wish for in the daytime With the warmer water temperatures here one can fish for about any species of fish that he wishes to pursue, which makes this time of year great in one aspect...but the holdrums of the hot summer is upon us and the water temperatures have soared to bath water temperature and along with it comes the june grass and seaweed. With the hot days one must think of night, early morning or late evening fishing. We usually take July off from club meetings but it seems to slow the club activities and interest level down and with the Destin traffic being somewhat navigational, we will be having our first July meeting in many a year. This month members have decided to hold our Flytying meeting at Orvis Sandestin at our regular time. We also will be having a Flyfest on July 11 th pending our meeting Thursday night. I found a few days ago that our scheduled Master FFF Flycasting instructor will be out of town for Personal / Family issues so we have to discuss whether we will be postponing our flyfest or continue on with it as planned. Want to say thanks to Ryan Hawks for doing June s flytying session tying the Sea Habit pattern which he nicely done. He also brought versions of a toad patten he was tying. Depite the heavy destin traffic we had a good turnout. With Ryan doing an offshore/ inshore beach pattern it is great for this time of year as you will see later in the newsletter. Unfortunately our June meeting our guest speaker, capt James Whitaker wasn t able to make the meeting due to mechanical failure of his boat trailor while returning from his guide trip but James as asked to come to our July meeting so we welcome him Thursday night. July and August also brings in tourists, families visiting, Block Buster movie hits ( Transformers, Harry Potter ) and the 4 th of July. Remember what the 4 th means to you and celebrate it and embrace it. Prayers for our soldiers deployed overseas. Spend time with Families and Happy 4 th of July to you. Congrats to Tammi Hawks for catching a Submitted IGFA World Record Red Snapper. Now Ryan has a challenge... Don Chattin, President Meets 1 st and 3 rd Thursdays of each month at the Destin Community Center at 7:00 PM. Contact: Any officer or member for details. Our mailing maiing address is P.O. Box 1006 Destin, Florida 32540 For more info see our webpage blogspot. http://panhandlefly.blogspot.com or contact any officer or member. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 1006 Destin, Florida 32540 President: Don Chattin- broglin@aol.com 850-218-9309 Vice President: Len Anderson Secretary: Dennis Curley Treasurer: Debbie Mast Librarian: Bill Streitz Historian: Cody Wells Club Guillies: JimWaters ; Al Mast ; Tony Angelino and Cody Goodwin Club Sponsors: Corporate-Orvis Sandestin- Consulting Master Flytyer- Greg Mehieve store manager, Jason Silar and Fishing Dept mgr. Brook Kilpatrick. Program Director- Bill Streitz

We received a nice letter, certificate and some shirt patches for club members supporting this years Boy Scout Jamboree. Several Members have applied and are awaiting for an answer to getting certified to assist and teach the boy scout merit badge. Dennis is our POC for this and he has done a great job. For members interested in this, contact Dennis and he can get you the paperwork and details for this. Every year the Pensacola club attends the Boy Scout Summer Camp and teaches the boys on the Flyfishing Merit Badge. Guest Speaker- As mentioned before, Capt James Whitaker wasn t able to make the June meeting but he graciously has asked to speak at our July meeting. SO try to be there 7 sharp so we can get started with his presentation and then proceed with our business meeting. Capt James Whitaker is owner and guide for the Blue Bay Outfitters and a lot of know James when he was a young sprout working at the old Orvis store, Blue Bay Outfitters. His presentation will sure be a good one since he flyfishes our area. Fishing Reports - Wow, what a summer its starting our to be. I got to go out with my son fishing offshore and we caught everything you could think of but sitting back and letting him reel the fish in was my best memory. It was fathers Day and I enjoyed it tremendously. I got to see him catch his first Amberjack ( it kicked his butt) and we had a great time together. On our way in 6 miles from the pass, your not going to believe it, but we saw a Blue Marlin. It was grey hounding our of the water chasing Bonita. Damndest thing I ever seen. I went fishing yesterday and we pulled up on a wreck and with some other friend along we were looking for table food and they dropped down some cigar minnows on the bottom...i thought to myself I will just go to the front of the boat and do some long side flycasting to see if I could hook a king, Bonita, or Jack crevalle. I heard my friend say, oh, it s an amberjack so I made another cast and let my pattern sink down a foot and then started stripping fast and wow, the Small amberjack were all over it. I hooked an amberjack and he headed south straight down going well into my backing on my 10 weight. My friend, Zack who brought his 10 weight also, grabbed it and put on a cigar minnow type pattern also started casting and he hooked up on a Amberjack...From there on it was pandemonium for 2 hours. We caught amberjack and Red Snapper on our fly rods. Zack really zoned in on the red snapper with a Teeny heavy Dept Charge line getting it down 10 feet or more to them. The redsnapper would come up in the water column to about 4-6 feet below your fly and look it over. We had amberjack chasing our flies, catching snapper and his wife was bottom fishing for snapper. We seen a 9 foot Hammer head Shark who came over to see what all the commotion was and the kings and Remora also made their appearance. I hooked a remora ( they became a nuisance after a bit ) and brought him to the boat and they sure look like a cobia. The action was so savage that we didn t have time to grab cameras but we did get a few pics from Zack s wife taking the time to snap a few. At the meeting I will tell you the technique we were using to catch them on the flyrod. The fish were keyed in on cigar minnow type patterns...

Amberjack with pattern used...owner hook Baitfish- Cigar minnows that we were trying to imitate We also hooked up on live bait, kings, bonita, black snapper, but we were in heaven for several hours with the boat on one spot. You can never say you have enough flies tied as the kings bit my leader twice and had to resort to 50 lb Mason monofilament bite tippet. Amberjack on the Fly... Hell of a pull and run. You can see me on the right using both hand s on 10 weight Small

Don Chattin with Amberjack, beautiful water 5 miles out from pass. Zack, with red snapper caught on his Sage rod and Tibor reel. I caught all my fish on my new Orvis Zero Gravity flyrod, Tibor reel. You can see the pattern I used. Zack used a similar pattern but with heavier epoxy head and dept charge line. Lennie Anderson went fishing in west bay and I believe will be going Thursday with Capt James Whitaker...Here is Lennies pics and report. Ryan Hawks has been fishing ( everywhere ) and has been catching TONS of redfish in Louisana. He also has been catching specks, redfish, mingos around the lighted boat docks at night especially from Kayaks. No pictures yet from him but I believe him to his word. Capt Hugh Smith- Capt unk- Unk sent me this report and technique that he has been using to fish the beaches with... This may not be news but I've been just outside East Pass and Pensacola Pass several times lately when the conditions are OK (read safe) for an 18' Flats skiff. If you can get out there, bring six and eight weights, 30# bite tippet and lots of energy. Idle along the beach until you see a pod of fish, breaking, flashing or just a big dark spot...even on your sounder if you have one. Then cast in the general area, strip hard twice...then hold on! The action has been continuous. Ladies, blues, spanish, three kinds of jacks, the occasional redfish and small kings. In three or four hours you will loose track of how many fish. Here are the flies I tie/use for this rodeo fishing (go to 200% for a better look) 34007 #4, diamond braid body and your favorite flash for the tail. Pearl and chartreuse seem to work best. Synthetics stay together longer with the toothy critters. Yeah, I know...pretty simple. But nothing complicated seems to ever get into my fly boxes. Capt Unk Corbett Davis- Corbett and Chico are headed to Ascension bay to fish for bones, tarpon,etc...he will have pictures after their return. Fishing Report from Cody... Last Saturday my son-in-law and I caught 6 ladyfish and 2 blue fish off the beach at Henderson Park. Also, I saw a nice school of red fish running the beach traveling east. Not a lot to brag about but at least its a fishing reportha. Cody

Here is a report and details from Bill Streitz on Tammi Hawks on her Pending World Record IGFA Red Snapper... Kami Hawks caught a 2.9 pound Red Snapper with a flyrod using 8 lb. class tippet, and has submitted the fish for the IGFA Women's Fly Rod Record in the 8 lb. class tippet category. She caught it on a Sea Habit fly from the M/V "My Share", a Galati Yacht, just east of Destin. Captains Matt Condon and Bill Berry assisted, along with Ryan Hawks and Bill Streitz. Kami Hawks is a member of the Panhandle Flyfishers, Destin Florida. Speaking of good patterns I have used a gummy minnow a lot to catch bonita and I know of guides using the larger gummy minnow to catch Black fin Tuna. This is one fly that I like to buy cause its difficult to tie trying to manage the material... Fishing off shore we were 25 miles out and sitting on the edge of the boat I seen about 8 small baitfish swim to the boat...they looked like glass minnows or the baitfish that the bonita seem to focus on along the beaches when they are bunched up into dark patches of sea weed looking things that move along the beach...as you read above what Unk says about the dark spots along the beach...speaking of the inshore offshore the sea grass/ sargassum is starting to bunch up and I have this article from the Saltwater Sportsman Dec 2006 issue that explains the food chain...her e is a reprint of the picture... As you can see starting with the smallest of the food chain, amphipods to crabs, shrimp to small baitfish right down to small dolphin, big dolphin to wahoo, Marlin and to shark... Most fisherman know when they are off the beaches or off shore to even fish a floating crate or crab pot cause bait can be on it and also have mahimahi or other species of fish. Always fish both sides of a weedline. I caught a 47 lb dolphin on a fly right next ( zone A) to a weedline, while I was fishing for some calico Jacks. The dolphin came up to see what all the splashing was about... Always use sharp hooks and strong hooks that can take a pull and stress from large mono or wire bite tippets. As I heard Nick Curcione say... Have your leaders ready and flies tied...dont wait til you see the fish to tie on a fly or start to construct your leader...

Flies used to micmic these baitfish depend on the fish your targeting...have several fly rods rigged and ready with flies tied on.. Also the size of the fly isn t as important as the presentation and the depth you want to take the fly...so leader size, weight, and flyline type is as important. This scenario or food chain is similar to what also occurs around bridge pilings or docks; The one item left out of this picture is the dolphin or porpoise aka Flipper...They seem to disrupt the entire food chain but that and jet skis is a different subject Reprint from Saltwater Sportsman December 2006 Bonita patterns above Picture of speckled Trout Patterns

Lennie, Here is the pic of the knot many use to tie heavy mono bite tippet to bimini called the Slim Beauty knot. There are other knots one can use depending on sizes and species targeted... Speaking of fishing and patterns being used, there is a pattern that guides in South Florida use to fish for tarpon that the tarpon love and guides have kept kinda of quiet. The fly is called a Gordon s Stiff Worm which is tied after the Palolo Worm. We don t have it here but who says it may not work...if tarpon migrate from south florida to here then they know what it is..who knows it could be the key to catching them here...after seeing Permit being caught here nothing would surprise me... Here is some basic info on the palolo worm and what it looks like. More on this in next months newsletter after hearing Capt Whitakers lecture and more fishing reports. There have been reports of the tarpon being here and guides catching them...the go to fly has been the TOAD Fly which Andy Mill has made popular with his article on catching Tarpon a few years ago. A recent flyfishing magazine had a detail history of Tarpon fishing and some nice pictures of the flies used over the years pursuing them. As Capt Bob Quarles said the tarpon fishing here in the NW Florida is a hot subject... Pictured above is Gordon s Stiff Worm... A pattern for the Palolo worm

Flytying- Special Thanks to Ryan Hawks for tying the Sea Habit for us. The variations are numerous and somewhat to your imagination as to combination of materials and colors...we had a good turnout of members and Ryan brought along a friend who also demonstrated a Shrimp fly he tied. Jason Silar brought a nice Bass Pattern he had tied...good Day we had. Above are the steps we tied the fly...beautiful looking fly. Great Baitfish Pattern Bass Fly tied by Jason Silar Group Tying the Sea Habit Shrmip Pattern tied by Ryan s Friend

The Scheduled Club/Orvis Flyfest is scheduled for July 11 th however, our FFF flycaster had to cancel due to person reasons so as to whether or not to continue with it will up to the members. If you cant make the meeting Thursday night then be sure to call us to confirm if we are having it or not. Top left: Tom Wall with his Kayak and on right is Tom Lee working with a kayak to explore before he buys. I cant end the newsletter without having a picture of my son, Brogan Chattin with his first Amberjack..we went out 25 miles and he caught it..we also were over a site that had 100 spadefish...i hear they are good to target..maybe soon...lets hope