Went to my only really good spot yesterday 2.5 hours before high tide. I found 2 HUGE reds and a couple more in the slot tailing. Sometimes they even had their backs out of the water. In less than a year of saltwater fly fishing this was a first for me!!! They were aggressively feeding on the bottom and I was able to get within 10ft of one. The flat had a “pond” that has that annoying ankle high grass all over the bottom-no bare mud areas. My fly kept getting stuck in the grass and I couldn’t get a good presentation. Even when I put one between 2 heading straight for each other! I was using a black bruiser with red dumbell eyes. What would you do in this situation? How do you handle areas with tall and short grass? Should I have used a less weighted fly? A spoon? Or am I still too green and just need more experience? This site is a wealth of information and I appreciate any help y’all can give me!
You need to use a weedless fly. I have a lot of luck with the copperhead weedless fly. You want to cast over the fish and strip your fly within 6-12" of the tailing fish. I’ll cast in knee high grass w/ this fly.
Thanks for the advice hotsauce, but the fly did have a weed guard.
Nothing you can do here that you didn’t do. There is no way to really “present a fly” to a red in thick grass.
You have to try and hit open spots with your fly and hope that they find it. This will be MUCH easier at the end of next March when the grass thins out over the winter.
I primarily use merkins (crab patterns) with lead eyes and very stiff weedguards. This fly will give you the best chance of pushing down through the grass and will fish as weedless as possible. Use a good leader of 50% (40 lb) 25% (30lb) 25% (20Lb) so that when you hook one you can extract him from the spartina.
i am moving away from dumbell eyes and going more to bendbacks. this limits the kinds of flys you can throw but i think the eyes tend to wedge more than they are worth. flouro leader gets almost any fly down(even poppers on the strip) and if you weight the bendback you can get it to stay upright for shrimp/minnow looks. also it is a challenging terrain to fish in so stuff will happen. the yak has been letting me get really close so there isnt as much line out and casting is easier. once the fish is on it is more difficult to control the fish but right now this is my favorite.
he’s pretty white for a fly guy
Good luck with the flouro, I have had nothing but break offs with it.
I do use it when Permit fishing in Belize where I think it could make a difference.
I switched over to a 6ft leader of 20# mono and a 2ft tippet of 12lb-15lb flouro and have not had a break off since. When I use longer flouro I see breakoffs but the mono gives me the “shock absorber” and the flouro gives me abarasion resistance and clarity. Everyone loves those leaders wiht 8 knots in them… I hate 'em… TOO many knots to fail and now you have 8 knots to grab grass and snag on stuff… I have gone to bead chain eyes for weight, they still get down in the grass and make a softer presentation. I do like the idea of the bendbacks Hutch, maybe even wrap the shank wiht lead wire for weight… gonna have to hit the vise here real soon 
“Paddle faster boys… I hear banjo music!”
SC Chapter Coordinator- Heroes on the Water
http://www.HeroesOnTheWater.org
Charleston Director- SCKayakfishing.com
Tarpon 160os
im actually using a larger weight to get them in the thicker salad. a catch 22 for sure, but with a longer leader just cast it past them and drag it into view…it’ll look like a crab swimmin that see’s a predator and scurries down into the grass to hide. i got extremely frustrated this yr with them swimming under my flies that were hung on grass blades b/c they didnt have the weight.
and the catch22- im with you Nikon- the lightweight flies are hella mo fun to fish 
I use alot of small brass eyes. They give me enough weight to get down, while still giving me a quiet presentation. I use these small hourglass brass eyes on about 90% of my flies. I use some heavier larger eyes, and lighter bead chain eyes in the other 10%. I am with you on the flouro leaders and the many knotted leaders. I have gotten to where I will use a 7.5 foot abrasion resistant leader (non-flouro) and 20lb tippet. I start off with about 18 inches of tippet. I usually tye on a new peice of tippet when I start out the day. This makes the tappered leader last quite a while. I have really had no issues with refusals to push me away from the 20lb mono tippet. I also use a titanium weed guard on 90% of my flies. It usually lasts longer than the flies, and I have had no issues with hook-sets with it. Where I fish ankle high grass is perfect for catching tailers…I generally do not see a whole lot of bare mud patches where I typically fish. I will occasionally have issues with my fly hangning up in the grass on the margins where the taller grass meets the wadable flats though.
John
JohnH0802
I’ll take a little bit of a different view for contrast. I fish largely non weighted flies, especially when sight fishing. The heaviest weight I use (the majority of the time) are bead eyes. For thick grass I’ll use a seaducer pattern with a mono weedguard. Picking an open area where you think the red is heading, putting it in the back of this area, and then gently pulling it in front of his nose as he comes through has been best for me. Using heavy weighted flies to get down in the grass and ambushing him while he’s tailing always turned into a spooked fish for me. Sometimes I’ll even use a subsurface slider/diver to purposefully keep on top of the grass. The spun deer hair helps keep the hook moving through the grass without getting hung also.
Just an opinion. Take it for what it’s worth.
Alex V
Deer hair… hmmm… sounds like a good idea. I hate spinning it, my wife hates it even more 
Sounds like a solid plan tho… I guess it’s like all other fly fishin… make sure you have more than just a hammer in your toolbox
“Paddle faster boys… I hear banjo music!”
SC Chapter Coordinator- Heroes on the Water
http://www.HeroesOnTheWater.org
Charleston Director- SCKayakfishing.com
Tarpon 160os
quote:I am with ya. Much rather catch half as many with crushing topwater bites, than just come tight. Just gotta fish the right short grass to make it work best.
Originally posted by fishbrainsI’ll take a little bit of a different view for contrast. I fish largely non weighted flies, especially when sight fishing. The heaviest weight I use (the majority of the time) are bead eyes. For thick grass I’ll use a seaducer pattern with a mono weedguard. Picking an open area where you think the red is heading, putting it in the back of this area, and then gently pulling it in front of his nose as he comes through has been best for me. Using heavy weighted flies to get down in the grass and ambushing him while he’s tailing always turned into a spooked fish for me. Sometimes I’ll even use a subsurface slider/diver to purposefully keep on top of the grass. The spun deer hair helps keep the hook moving through the grass without getting hung also.
Just an opinion. Take it for what it’s worth.Alex V
Wow, thanks for all the advice guys! I guess I’ll have to add more variety to what I’m trying to fish! I’ll get it figured out eventually. Right?