Flyfishing for river reds and snook

Snook Spanker

I've been doing a lot of tree trimming and much needed yardwork lately w/ the nice cool working weather but yesterday afternoon it was especially nice so I dropped the boat in the river in Yankeetown and went fishing. I only had a couple hrs  so I flew down river to see what the Gulf looked like? The river water was 63 and I suspected the gulf would be warmer. At 66~67 I was right but the water wasn't moving much and the tide was bottoming out. I tried a few places I'd been catching them lately with nothing but a couple ladyfish to show for it.
With time running out I headed back into the river and since it wasn't too windy I strung up my 10'-7 weight streamer rod and started casting at some of the likely places. Pretty much casting practice I thought. I was using a all white mallabou  streamer about 4" long and only had one hit and miss so I changed to a weighted yellow mallabou and caught a snookling about 18~17" on the 2nd cast. Moving along the shoreline w/ my trolling motor I caught 3 more snooklings with some being a little bigger and some around the same as the first. I was really having fun as I hadn't caught anything flyfishing in a while. Moving farther up into the freshwater I hooked something a little heavier>>> a 20" keeper redfish on the same yellow fly! By then it was time to leave so I put my red on ice for dinner and got out of there. The noseeumz  were getting worse the farther up river I got anyway.
I know this report isn't anything newsworthy and pretty chincy after reading the reports of the guys slaying the fish on the negative tides!! But it was such a beautiful day and I got to enjoy my favorite type of fishing>>>>>>>  Life is Good!!!

THINKICAN

Don't disparage your report, it's really the honest ones like yours that keep us coming back and understanding that not every trip is a haul of fish or a complete skunk.  Good job!

Salt Cracker

And on fly ... way to go!  Nice report!

Slacker

Those little snook are spunky and everything is fun on the fly

Snook Spanker

One thing I didn't mention is that before I picked up my flyrod, I was throwing 4 spinning rods. One had a gold spoon, one a gold mirrowdine, one a jig and padletail and one a Yozuri crystal minnow. Those 4 didn't get any bites in the river fishing about the same amount of time as I did with the flys??????? That malabou is magic!!!!!

xmuskyguide

Good to see you out there having fun. 👍

Quad32x

Nice report ! Now ya got me wanting to try river fishing.

Moon Shadow

WTG Pete with the fly rod.

permit_me

sweet.
Do you ever try for (successfully) for those big snook cruising to and fro and around springs in clear water?
Saw plenty last week and wondering how to go about catching one of those hogs up in spring runs and near springs. 

Sevenweight

Appreciate the report. Nice work getting the snook and reds on the fly! I mostly fly fish when I’m fishing by myself and conditions permit (my local fishing buddies don’t partake). For sure it’s not a numbers game  unless of course you get into a bunch of jacks or ladyfish 👏🏼. The 16-inch-to-low-20s snook are the main fare for me (out of Chaz and Homosassa) with an occasional bigger one and a few reds and stray tout mixed in. 

nick

Where’s the dang pics!!