{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Christmas bass

One of my favorite things to do when I visit my parents in Florida is to fish the ponds on their golf course. There are plenty of big largemouth, and they rarely see a fly. There are usually some hassles to contend with -- like not pissing off golfers, or getting too close to people's back porches -- but I realized on Christmas morning that it was the one day of the year when the course was closed to golfing, and therefore all mine. So I hopped on my dad's bike with the 8 weight and made my way through most of the front nine, riding on the cart path and hitting up whatever ponds I wanted to. 

It can be tough to move the bass in these ponds in December, but it's been so mild here lately that they were readily taking flies (just not poppers). There's about ten feet of brush between you and the water, so when you hook one you need to hoist over the reeds with your rod like you're on a Sunday morning bass show. Per usual, I lost a bunch of flies in said reeds; there's a resident gator in most of these ponds, so I'd rather sacrifice the streamers than wander into the thicket. Largest bass I caught is the one I'm seen holding in the pics.

The salt was a bit tougher this week. My parents live in Fort Myers, and I got out to fish on Monday morning near Sanibel. Caught a lot of specks on the 8 weight at first light, then moved onto the island to poke around for snook. They're still schooled up on the beach due to the mild weather, but they're awfully finicky at this point and were tough to fool with the fly. The snook pictured was caught on the spin rod at sunset (hope the photo isn't a violation of board rules). All in all, not a bad way to spend the holidays.

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