tried to look this up on my own but not finding much encouraging info. Search feature for the forums runs so slow now.
Anybody have any advice on surface signs during high tides on flats? im having a hard time deciding when to cast a fly outside of the times i see a tail. figure most every jump and wake i see are larger mullet–more v shaped, moving in indecisive directions. very rarely do i see a straight travelling, rounded, thick wake that looks like a red unless im on top of it and have spooked it. i see bait schools splashing around so much that its hard to believe reds are in the area just because of that. People talk about nervous water. not sure what thats supposed to describe. Also not comfortable distinguishing sound of a jumping mullet from a crashing red.
I don’t know that I have any good advice for you but I can tell you I’ve seen some pretty nice reds come out from under some very small “pushes” and wakes.
Nervous water can be something as simple a ripple, or ripples, in the water when the rest of the surface is calm or a serious of ripples that are moving in the opposite direction of the current…anything out of the ordinary.
Reading water isn’t something that most people pick up in a short period of time (some people never pick it up at all) and I don’t know that it’s something you ever stop learning how to do. If you don’t learn something every time you hit the water, you’re simply not trying hard enough.
Earn it everyday
If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.
Never shoot a large caliber man with a small caliber bullet.
Spend some time in the dead of winter when water clarity is at it’s best to learn the pushes of fish. You will get plenty of shots with the fly rod on sunny, calm days November-March. As you observe these fish moving, you will get a better feel for identification from movement and mud-puffs, therefor, when visibility is lower, you will know what you are throwing at even though you can’t see them.