This shrimpy – crabby back country fly pattern is something I developed over the past 8 years. It’s tied whistler style with splayed grizzly hackles, bucktail and some flash. Works great on dark bottom and grass flats. I use bead chain eyes but small dumbbells work well too. Usually tied on #1- 1/0 hooks and always with a weed guard. Redfish and seatrout eat them up. Also have caught mangrove snapper, jacks, and several other species on it. Works best with a short strip and pause. One of my favorite flies in Matlacha Pass and Ding Darling Refuge.

The original Schminnow was created by Norn Zeigler a journalist and fly shop owner on Sanibel Island in 1995. It is a widely used fly throughout Pine Island Sound, Charlotte Harbor and most of Southwest Florida.

My version has a small Estaz body and tail of both bucktail and synthetics. I tie these flies with mono, bead chain or dumbbells eyes to allow them to be fished at varying depth. Hook size ranges from #2 to 1/0. The fly is easy to cast and fishes well at all retrieve rates. Though the Schminnow was designed to catch snook, it will catch seatrout, redfish, jacks, tarpon and even flounder. By the way, Maine striped bass and bluefish eat them too.  

Conditions: We will have extremely low morning tides this week. Water temps will be cool in the mornings but warm up in the afternoon. Pine Island Sound, Ding Darling, and areas around Sanibel and Captiva will have poor water quality due to the record level of discharges from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River. Even Matlacha Pass will see some water issues this week. The upper Harbor, East and West walls will provide better fishing opportunities.
Bait the fish are feeding on: Some whitebait in the upper harbor, pinfish, ladyfish, shrimp, crabs
Species to fish for this week: Snook, Redfish, Seatrout, Jacks, Ladyfish
Fishing Tactics: Typical winter tactics include taking advantage of extremely low water levels by fishing edges and structure. Cool water requires fishing slow and deep. As the water warms on the mud and grass you can speed your retrieves back up.
My fly fishing tip of the week: Slow presentations along the edges of oyster bards and banks with crab or shrimp patterns should produce this week. Use weighted flies or sinking intermediate lines to get down to the fish.     
My spin fishing tip of the week: Jig heads with soft plastic tail fished slow along edges and bars should work. Take advantage of this week’s super low tides by fishing structure and contours. 
7 day outlook: This week will be mostly dry with morning lows in the 50 warming into the 60s mid day. West – northwest winds will drop on Wednesday. There will be very large tide swings this week. Water temps will cool due to the nighttime lows. 

I'll be doing a talk on fly fishing for Gulf of Maine sharks this Wednesday at the Charlotte Harbor Fly Fishers' monthly meeting. The meeting is open to all who enjoy fly fishing. There is a $3.00 fee that goes to support club activities. 

I'll have PowerPoint presentation full of cool photos and videos describing this niche fishery that takes place from late July, through early September 10-20 miles offshore. We target; Blue, Mako, Thresher and Porebeagle sharks ranging from 50-400 pounds on fly and conventional stand up gear. The fly fishing action consists of sight casting to blue sharks and the occasional Mako with 10-15wt fly rods. 

The meeting is this Wednesday, February 10th, 6:30pm at Charlotte Park Civic Association Bldg 
420 Pompano Terrace 
Punta Gorda, FL

Note to Self: Remember to pull the drain plugs in BOTH of your livewells when putting the boat up for the winter...

I estimate this block of ice, cast net, scrub brushes and who knows what else to be about 125 pounds and is 10" think. It's been melting since we left Maine on Saturday morning and hopefully by the end of today it will be gone. Can't wait to see what is in there.  Today we finish unpacking. Tomorrow is boat cleaning day. Friday the fishing gear gets sorted out and rigged. I'll be fishing on Charlotte Harbor this weekend!