We had a temperature drop and very strong storms here on the Nature Coast and Sunshine Coast. I guide where the two converge. Anclote Key is north of Tampa Bay off of Tarpon Springs. I had two clients onboard. One from Colorado the other from Alabama. Two old college budies that love to flyfish. We headed out of Hudson Creek and headed south for about 12 miles to the Key. It was a very cloudy morning at 7 AM. I staked us out at the north end of the key adjacent to Shark Alley and started looking for big reds. The tide was low and we couldn't work into the inner portion of the key until latter in the day. It didn't take long until a few reds meandered up onto the flat. Then it started. It was the snub of snubs. The nice sized red, about 8 lbs. charged the fly and at the last possible moment turned away, rejecting the offering. Usually when a red makes a charge to a fly you're going to hook up unless you are asleep. There was bait on the flats but not a great deal so just about anything should of looked good to a hungry red. No this was a proven pattern that I have caught numerous reds on in the past. Well we just shook our heads and kept fishing. A 3 pack of 8-9 pounders came our way and they both made very nice interceting casts righ in their paths. The reds charged and broke it off and the last possible second again. Man! What is up with that? I moved us around to the west side of the key and staked out in hopes of some hungry fish. Well it wasn't long and some surprisingly huge reds in the 12 to 15 lb. class came cruising onto the flats. It was beautiful. The wate was a blue as could be over the white sand. The sun was starting to show through the clouds and things were looking up. The reds got all giddy about our offerings and charged like a freight train barreling down the track with a wide open throttle only to disapoint us again. You can imagine the some of the words that flowed across the flats on that one. Then things improved. A few more nice size reds made there entrance into our liquid world of disappointment and frustration. The lead red headed the attack and the others followed incase he missed his markd. He made grab for the fly and didn't quite hit the mark. He continued the chase as the fly was approaching the reds vision area to see the boat but no matter. He continued the assult and jumped on the fly again. Still no hook up and they then saw the boat and went on their way. This pattern continued all day long. Not matter we did, the reds kept playing the same game and messing with our minds. The excitement of the reds at first sight of the various flies reminded me of the dog treat commercial where the pooch goes crazy about bacon. The difference was these reds had that Excuse me, but I'm not really hungry attitude that drives us all crazy once in a while. It was a great day on the water and we got onto plenty of fish so there was no lack of excitement or beauty. Tomorrow we get them.
