The Theory of Flats Fishing 101

Having become, after serveral years of pain, sweat and frustration, something of a "veteran" flats angler, I've turned to the serious study of elements that effect fishing productivity or lack thereof. This study was undertaken in self defense. It's very difficult to tell fishing friends that you've been skunked 4 days running while hearing reports of huge reds, gator trout and whale sized snook all flinging themselves on hooks not far away and, even worse, on the same day you were on the water. The raised eyebrows, smirks and elbow nudging coupled with a head shake and: "Well, Stubb, you know, wasn't your day." Thats pretty weak, friends, and it has left me about speechless more than once.

Then I discovered the moon. I mean, I knew it was up there and all and that it caused weird behavior in some folks, caused dogs and coyotes to howl, women to get moody, and made bomber pilots nervous in several wars. After reading up on the subject I thought: "Now, this is handy and easy. Full moon; fish eat all night, I fish during the day. Result? I'm skunked." And this worked very well for a while. "I can't choose my days to go fishing, so, even though its a big bright Harvest Moon I've gotta go. Doubt I catch a thing but you never know." Every one agreed. "Man, full moon? Thats tough." Satisfied nods, foregone conclusions and once in a while I'd discover some fish that actually slept through a full moon night and would frantically hook himself by way of redemption. The only problem, really, with Moon Theory is that there are only so many of those days during a month. There's gaps between moons and those caused some embarassment.

Later, a lady yakfisherperson of my acquaintance emailed after reading a tale of being skunked during the Dark of the Moon. That's when I learned about Wind Theory & Related Applications. She wrote:
"Dear Stubb... down here in the 10,000 Islands I've learned that a southeast wind is best, to a point. A southwest wind is terrible for fishing except sometimes during the first few days of a SW blow. But after that, the bays turn to mud and the fish shut down....."

Well, now. Here was a wealth of information. I got to thinking about it seriously and realized, even though I'm in east central Florida, that I couldn't recall catching a fish with a howling southwest wind. More importantly, I was sure there were days when a wind from any direction was a killer. My mental logs got kind of foggy on the subject until one fishless morning my friend and fellow yakfisher, MudFoot, asked me if I'd ever done well in a southwest wind, with one shoe untied, and a bandaid on my casting thumb. Without thinking, I yelped out "Yeah! ..er, maybe!" Dam the man, he caught me unaware. The correct answer was: "Not never!" I added a refined version of Wind Theory to my book bag and began researching a bit deeper for other ideas.

I found the best Theory in a dark beer joint near Mims, Florida on a recent Full Moon Afternoon. Two bleery eyed boys were sitting near me and while one salted his Bud Ice he mumbled to his partner:
"It's the damn tide!"
His friend looked surprised and said "Billy you know ain't nuff tide n' the Lagoon to matter!"
"That's right and that's the problem."

That was a bolt of lightning in my brain. I wandered back to the saloon's parking lot, theories churning in my head, and got in the wrong pickup. After apologizing to the guy sleeping in the passenger seat I hurried over to my truck and wrote all that out. The possibilities were staggering particularly when I lined up Theory of Tideless Lagoons with Full Moon and Wind Theory. I was so busy in that saloon's lot the owner got suspicious and called a deputy. I showed him the results of the previous hour and he got interested, called up his chief and soon the lot looked like a crime scene. All the sheriff's boys were fishermen, too, so this was vital Theory. They swore me in as an Honorary Deputy and gave me a badge. It's used but looks good.

For my purposes I've covered the basics of The Theory of Fishing. So far, it has worked to my advantage.

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