Theresa and I shot down to Florida for a quick Mom visit. That's her above carrying an Orvis Access 9wt, pretty cool, but she was lugging it for me. Jumped on a plane at the airport which is about 2 miles from our house. On the way down I reacquainted myself with Bob's book, Fleye Design. Between this
and PopFleye's you can truly appreciate the innovation in his work. You really have to tip your hat to him, and it's not only from his stuff 30 + years ago, but it's how it has influenced so many of the tiers and fly fishermen of today. It also shows how timely, or not, things can be, or become. Just look at the Beast Fleye. That originated back in PopFleye days, but may be more popular today due to the abundance of bunker, adult bunker, that we see during the spring and fall runs now each year.
Mom's down in Bradenton which is near some very good fishing. About 10 years ago I came down and fished with Dave Choinard who lives near Tampa Bay. I hadn't fished down there before while visiting but this time I made it a point to do that around lots of good food and drink, and of course,
an Ash Wednesday mass where we got our ashes. Unfortunately I didn't start Lent off well as I couldn't pass up a legit Cuban sandwich while we were driving around Treasure Island. I just plain forgot.
I made sure I got some type of license and went cheap for the three day pass. We found a tackle shop that had a fly section and I picked out a few offerings for the inlet.
We decided to hit Coquina Beach and not long after lunch I tied on a fly and took a walk. I had heard rumblings of a red tide underway and when I looked I could see some dead fish floating in the water and up on the beach. It was the start of incoming tide, with a SE wind which was blowing into the beach.
The water was pretty enough in some places and I found an old salt who was casting metal for Spanish mackerel. He told me about the red tide and that there was no fish around. I saw something swimming by and got off a bunch of casts without a look. As the tide pushed in I made my way back to
So as I walked past the beachgoers, almost down the line, people started to cough and sneeze, almost like it was an act. People quickly started packing up. It didn't take long for my respiratory situation
to kick in and it was game over for me. I can't imagine how people with asthma or COPD do when this hits. The SE wind definitely pushed the irritants onshore which worsened the problem. All in all, nice visit, nice to see my Mother, get a little sun, and glad to be back, believe it or not, in the cool weather in New Jersey. Five days away till the back bays and rivers open up. Next up, got my Simms waders back from my warranty submission. Wait till you get a load of that.