Low Tides

Capt. Rob Ottlein
January 11, 2009
Flagler Beach - Saltwater Fishing Report

For the past month we've been plagued with extremely low water. This is caused by a combination of the moon and wind. When the wind blows here for any lengthof time out of the west it pushes the water off the flats and the ICW. For this reason I have concetrated my fising on the ICW and the deeper canals off the ICW.
Dispite the low water conditions the weather, other than the wind, has been beautiful. The warm weather has kept water temps in the mid to upper 60's. Because the water is hoovering in this range we are still getting snook and tarpon.
Most of my fishing anymore is done by fly. I have been getting a lot of rat reds and the occasional keeper. The snook of course are out of season but I'm still landing ones that go from 8" to the mid to upper 20' range. I've been landing these fish on a fly that I tied that consists of a #8 hook, 1/64 dumbell eyes, gold chenile, beige polar fiber and beige bucktail.
I use a floating line with a 9' ft. leader and a 20lb flourocarbon bite tippet. I'll cast up to the shore line and strip it very slowly. I'll pause between strips and let the fly sink. These fish are hitting very softly so i'll wait to see if the fly line starts to get pulled down. When it does I set the hook and the fish is hooked up. Yesterday I landed a rat red and a 16" and 20" trout using this method. I also had numerous hits and lost another good trout when it spit the hook.
Other people have been landing snook and trout on Rapala X Raps. these plugs have also landed a few tarpon.

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