The other day I received a copy of a new fishing magazine, Destination Fish. After reading through it I started thinking about all the places around the world I would love to fish. Many of these spots are in exotic locations with swaying palms, white sand beaches with gin clear flats that few people have ever fished. Go offshore fishing where you can catch twenty sailfish in a day or two and three marlin and only be twenty minutes from the dock. Sounds good doesn’t it? There’s only one thing stopping me, and a lot of other people for that matter, from living this dream - a lack of time and money.
Here are some of my dream destinations I’d like to fish before the man calls me to the big pond in the sky. As far as freshwater fishing goes I’d like to fly fish for large rainbow trout in New Zealand, salmon in Alaska, trout in the Patagonia region of Argentina, dorado in the Ibera wetlands of northern Argentina and plug fish for peacock bass anywhere in Central or South America.
When it comes to saltwater fishing the list is too long so here are a few from the top of my list: fly fishing for bone fish in Los Roques, an island off the coast of Venezuela. Bones, tarpon and permit in Belize. Ascension Bay, Mexico for bones and permit. Bone fishing in the Bahamas and bones in the Sychelles located in the Indian Ocean. Offshore would be the Pacific coasts of Mexico, Guatemala and Panama and the east coast of Venezuela.
I know I’ll never get to all these places but rest assured I will make a couple of these trips. Hitting the lottery would sure help to fulfill my dream but yet again another dream. Next month I’ll settle for fishing one of my favorite places in Florida, the Everglades for snook. If you have a dream destination I’d like to hear about it and maybe share it with the readers. Email me at captrco@cfl.rr.com.
Locating schools of reds in the flats is still hit and miss. I spoke with Capt. Chris Herrera the other while he was out fishing with a buddy and he did say things were slow. Two hours later I got a phone call from Chris saying they landed a couple of 27” reds right after he hung up with me. Both fish were caught on artificial baits.
Trout are still on the bite but remember trout season closes February 1st from Flagler north to the Georgia boarder. Matt Struhar and his buddy Mike Brady landed some good trout recently. Matt had one that measured 32” and weighed 9 ¾ lbs. Mike had a couple that went 3 and 5 lbs. All were caught on live mullet.


Photo: Capt. Chris Herrera holds up a couple of 27” reds that he and Tommy Hunt caught using Rip Tide 3” plastic mullet on a Rip Tide pro jig head.

All the reports about reds on the flats have been the same, slow. If they do find them the fish seem to have lockjaw. However, on Tuesday Bob Broadwater and Peter Davis fished with me and the first spot we hit was the flats. We got there on an out going tide. I jumped up on the platform and began poling while looking for signs of redfish. After about a half hour of poling and Bob and Peter throwing gold spoons I noticed some slight activity on the surface of the water. I told Bob, standing on the bow, to cast fifty feet at twelve o’clock. As soon as he began his retrieve he was hooked up. I then told Peter to cast to the same spot and he immediately hooked up. Both men did a fine job of working under and around one another to land their fish. Both fish were boated and each measured 26 inches. I photographed them with the fish but unfortunately for some unknown reason the pics did not register on my digital chip. Sorry guys!
After the guys hooked up the rest of the school took off. I estimated that the school probably held about 30 fish. I continued to search for them but could only locate one other loan red that was 23 inches. A kayak was fishing in our vicinity that was operated by foot pedals. He was moving along at a pretty good pace trolling some kind of rig behind him. We saw him land 2 reds using this method, very interesting.
We had to leave the flats as the tide was falling. We then went to look for some trout. The duo caught lots of trout between 14 and 15 inches but only kept one 19” fish. They also had bluefish, flounder, mangrove snapper and ladyfish.
If you like to fish for sheepshead now is a good time to do so. I’ve been getting reports of fish up to 8 and 9 lbs being caught at bridge and dock pilings. Scrape the barnacles off the pilings for chum and use fiddler crabs for bait.
The pier and surf continue to produce whiting and redfish. Use shrimp and fish bites for whiting and shrimp or mullet for the reds.
Last week I had the opportunity to attend a free three day fly fishing class in Punta Gorda, Fl. It was offered to me through the Florida Guides Association of which I am a member. Our instructor was Jack Montague. Jack has been fly fishing for fifty years and is an incredible caster. To watch him is like watching poetry in motion. Seeing him cast out 125’ of fly line and put it on a dime is a thing of beauty. I learned a lot from him, mostly that I was doing everything wrong. All I need to do now is practice what I’ve been taught. It’s like any other sport, if you want to get good at it you have to PRACTICE. It’s like Jack says, do something wrong long enough and you’ll do it perfectly wrong.

After a two month closure trout season is once again open south of the Flagler county line. Our trout season from the Volusia–Flagler county line north to the Georgia border remains open until February when it will close for the month. During the closure you can still catch trout but they must be released.
Presently the ICW is loaded with lots of small trout. You’ll have to go through the small ones until you get a few keepers. Live lining shrimp will work but since glass minnows seem to be the main forage for trout during the winter I find small diving plugs worked with an erratic retrieve work best. The majority of big winter trout are caught on plugs. Work the drop offs in the ICW, deeper canals and deep holes in the backwater. Trolling diving plugs along the drop offs of the ICW can also be an effective method of catching trout. Berkley gulp jerk baits on a 1/4oz jig head also work quite well along the drop offs and in deep holes.
The flats have yet to show any signs of large schools of reds. I did however hear from one person who ran across a school of about forty but the bite didn’t last long. It seems someone came by in a canoe and ran right through the middle of the school. The canoe proceeded to stake out and cast into the middle of the fish once again spooking them. All you need is for one fish from that school to spook and the whole school spooks. When casting to a school of reds work the outsides of the school, the fish will come out to grab the bait, rather than casting to the middle.
The surf and pier are producing whiting, blues and the occasional oversized redfish. The whiting are being caught on fish bites or shrimp that are fresh dead or frozen. The blues and reds are taking live, frozen or chunks of mullet.
Roy’s Bait House reports Brandon and Robbie Pressley had 32 whiting between the pair. Gene Davidson, 7 years old, had a big whiting and a weakfish. John Craig and Jason Longfellow had 7 weakfish. Derrick North landed a 5.03 lb sheepshead.
Jake’s Highbridge Bait and Tackle reports reds coming from the backwaters around Highbridge and the Tamoka basin.


Photo: Kathy Routh Sanchez of Palm Coast and her brother Randy Routh from Washington state show off a couple of flounder and trout.