Tag Archives: flies

Texas Fall Fly Fishing

Fly Fishing the Texas Coast in the Fall is an amazing time. Recent offshore rains have really gotten the fish in the bays feeding aggressively. We are experiencing some of the most awesome eats from redfish in the shallows now, thanks to the cooling effect of the rain!

fly fishing, texas, fly, port, aransas, fishing, tfo, red, drum, redfish, fly rod, airflo, take a kid fishing, — 12yo Ella getting to play tug o’ war with some Texas redfish

Olive green crabs in size 2 and 4 are working well and small 2inch shrimp patterns in black/chartreuse or copper/tan color combos also working well. During low light conditions, we put on our Smith Optics Igniter Lenses to really turn the lights on.

In the low light conditions

We will adapt our strategies in the low light conditions by shortening the leader to 6ft. And use a larger 1/0 unweighted fly like crab or mullet imitations. These flies will usually have brighter colors like chartreuse green or red/white. This is so that the angler can see the fly better and the fish can also see the flies from a greater distance. Keeping our casts short and precise can make all the difference in the game. Topwater bites are also on the rise. During early morning hours and continue into the day if cloud cover and wind persist.

smith, optics, low light, igniter, over slot, redfish, texas, port, aransas, corpus, bay, christi, beavertail, guide, trips, adventure, red, drum, lighthouse, lakes, fly, fishing, port, laguna, madre, rockport — Creepin the skiff through dead mangrove sloughs in low light conditions. You can bet we used Smith’s low light Igniter lenses!

On random days in the fall the wind may persist. And so we need to stay prepared to adapt our strategies even more and hop out of the boat for a quick wade in the “Longest Mile”.

September dates are available NOW! Use the Book Now button to view availability. More and more red drum, speckled trout, and black drum are going to be pushing up into the shallows. You should be there to get in the action!

over slot, redfish, texas, port, aransas, corpus, bay, christi, beavertail, guide, trips, adventure, red, drum, lighthouse, lakes, fly, fishing, port, laguna, madre, rockport — Marks first over-slot red

BOOK NOW

Spring Rush

Spring-time weather varies and one thing is certain, the wind blows. And then, once every few weeks, she tuckers out and lays down, which is what should happen MON-FRI next week. The forecast is looking AWESOME for sure, so call NOW to book your weekday of sight casting fish under bluebird skies and with feeding fish as far as you can see! 361-500-2552

redfish, fly fishing, port aransas, texas, coast, drum, wade, fishing, shrimp,flies, grass, wind, trout, spotted, speckled, sea, guide, bayou city anglers, tailwaters, roys bait and tackle, corpus, christi, rockport, laguna madre, padre, mustang, island, vacation, bull, catch, release

Wet wading wide open spaces

For the last few weeks, the fishing has been exceptional, despite raging winds and overcast skies. We adapt our techniques and application of fly gear depending on the weather and it has certainly produced some fine fish (see pics below)!

Redfish have been in such shallow water they cant keep their backs wet… I guess they are putting on their summer suntans early!

redfish, fly fishing, port aransas, texas, coast, drum, wade, fishing, shrimp,flies, grass, wind, guide, bayou city anglers, tailwaters, roys bait and tackle, corpus, christi, rockport, laguna madre, padre, mustang, island, vacation

Keep’em wet

Regardless of tides we are finding fish in very diversified locales which keeps the hunt extremely interesting!

Lawrence personal best trout!

Big healthy sea trout have been plentiful and are hold eggs for their spawn. Please keep’em wet and let them go so they can make BABIES!

Flounder Pounder

When going low and slow, flounder have also been coming to hand as surprise catches for the patient sportsmen!

Bonus fish have been oversized redfish in deeper holes (many thanks to Mark and Wolfe for insisting that I cast 60ft into a 35kt headwind) I owe ya’ll big-time for this fish!!!

Bull Redfish Release

AGAIN, the weather next week is forecast to be exceptional, and I expect the fishing to be eye-opening! CALL NOW to reserve your dates for next week!

Capt Kenjo 361-500-2552

Wading – Time To Get Wet

black drum, texas, coast, fly fishing, guide

Monster Black Drum a.k.a. big uglies

NOW MUST BE ABSOLUTELY MY FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR! Wet-wading the hard sand flats, crispy air temps, cool wet feet and warming water while being surrounded by countless numbers of redfish with chances at BIG Bonus Trout…. need I say more??? Dinosaur Black Drum? Hummm?

It is happening now. The water temps are perfect for wadefishing and for redfish crushing large baits and wading is the absolute best technique for windy situations. Last couple days have been sick sight fishing and we are getting crushed. Rumor on the street is that the fish are hard to find and I couldn’t agree more. There is a recipe of environment variables that are crucial this time of year. Being in the right spot and AT THE RIGHT TIME will surely make a story to tell!

reddrum, fly fishing, port aransas, texas, coast, wade, wading,

28 inches of fun

“The fleet of large black submarine redfish rise from the depths in formation, combing the shallows as they reach a comfortable hunting level, their food tightens formation as well and then absolute and utter mayhem ensue..”

I have a few dates left in February and March has more dates available.

redfish, texas, coast, port aransas, fly fishing, guide

Low-Light Stalking

We will be working this pattern as hard as we can, but its time to get your feet wet and get the numbers UP ASAP! I cant say how long this pattern will last!

Call me IMMEDIATELY for available dates and to get on board! Capt Kenjo 361-500-2552

Spring Is In The Air So Should Be Your Fly

So the story goes like this about this little fly…

The finger mullet are moving into my home waters in a nice steady flow and so I’ve been playing with sparsely tied mullet patterns. This is a difficult task to say the least being that the mullet are so damned fat-headed and it can take alot of materials to get the fat and wide profile. Short and Stumpy they are.

hollow fleye, bucktail, seaducer, saltwater, fly, fishing

Hollow Fleye Seaducer

And one night in thinking over methods on how to get bulk yet tie sparsely, I put together this seaducer headed hollow fleye. Its another hybrid but of natural materials to keep it as light as possible yet maintain that bulky fat head.

A short time later I saw Matt’s the salmon fly hanging off the swollen edge of a particle board shelf. “Yes!” I thought and feverishly began to reproduce that pattern which was given to me by Matt, who is the brother of my good ‘ole buddy, Nate. We go way back and have gotten into fish trouble with our women many time! And, both Nate and Matt contribute to the Ohio Outdoors & Wildlife website which always has cool stuff about the outdoors. They are real critter getters!

Matt tied this fly during a video shoot with me of some “other” patterns with heavy metal music blasting in the background. He was muttering Dahlberg this, gawd-dang Dahlberg that and this was pretty much the only word I could understand. And that is certainly one of my favorite ways to tie flies.

He then fished this fly with me in their neck of the woods under heavy snow in a river with ice sheets floating down it. Personally I prefer ice in my tea! The fly was tied on an upturned eye salmon fly hook in about a size 1. And, as he already knows, I used it in Argentina for freshwater trout. They killed it.

Once I saw how violently the fish were attacking this fly, I cut it off my leader and put it away for safe keeping.

salktwater, flies, redfish, jetty, jacks, mackerel, trout, redfish

Name that Fly

Now it took me a while to find gray magnum rabbit strips locally but finally found them at Swan Point Landing thanks to Dave Hayward. Hareline products can not be beat.

Sitting down at the desk and clearing off a patch to make room for another short stack of materials I found the Tiemco 611S and whipped it up into this. Then, I just had to tie it on the ever famed for its power but always hated for its one time use kind of a hook, the Tiemco 600sp.… I couldn’t bare the thought of a tarpon scarfing down this fly and not getting a perfect hookset. when one does, one must be prepared!

Hopefully the samurai wound on my foot heals quickly enough to avoid infection, cabin fever is setting in.I will certainly put it in front of some of these South Texas Coastal fish!

– Kenjo Fly

Gulf of Mexico Tarpon

REPORT: Fly Fishing for Texas Tarpon Heats Up

fly fishing, bull, redfish, gulf, mexico, texas, coast, guide

12 wt getting BENT

The early morning was rainy and achy on the Gulf of Mexico near Port Aransas but on my second attempt to get out of the truck I was able to buckle my Korkers to my feet thanks to a seriously strong coffee brew. Within an hour or so, I hooked two tarpon and lost them both, landed a 32incher, jumped a fourth (about 4ft long) and as it flew 8 feet in the air it threw the hook.

Jetty, texas, gulf, mexico, fly fishing, tarpon, flies, guide

Fly caught 32″ Tarpon successfully released.

Then another schoolie tarpon eats my fly, jumps and is also free.

fly fishing, bull, red fish, texas, gulf of mexico, port aransas

41 inches on this 12wt fly rod! The Hatch Reel stopped this fish within 121 feet.

Huge Bull Redfish and mini jack crevalle were literally blitzing on menhaden balls and I managed to land a 41inch redfish out of the melee. Then of course, I turned my back on the bulls to try to hook another tarpon.

Dates are open for charters if anyone wants to fling some flies and take a shot at any of these fish plus more! -Kenjo 361-500-2552

jack crevalle, fly fishing, texas, gulf, mexico

Hungry Hungry Jack

Hareline Dubbing Mullet Imitator

hareline dubbing, texas, saltwater, tarpon, mullet, fly fishing

Hareline Dubbing Baitfish Emulator Flash makes a great mullet imitator

Having recently discovered Hareline Dubbing’s Baitfish Emulator Flash I instantly knew it would work perfect for tying finger mullet patterns on the big gaped tarpon hooks made by Tiemco (600SP) in 1/0 & 2/0 sizes. These flies are sure to smell like fish. Its only a matter of time. Everybody hurts sometimes.

This particular pattern uses splayed tail hackles (4-6 hackles max) then hand blended some ice dubbing (also by Hareline) for the body using a dubbing loop to build the shoulders of the mullet. The dubbing is tapered in thickness as it is applied to the dubbing loop to give the bulk forward placement on the fly. The emulator flash is then tied in at the front like a collar and palmered in place 3 or 4 wraps then tied off. The bottom fibers can also be trimmed if desired.

Overall I am truly impressed with this material as it is a way to build the body of baitfish patterns with ease and cuts some time from behind the vice which can be a while for me. Over the next few days I will continue playing with this material to see what else can be tossed around.

Keep those hooks sharp,

Captain Ken Jones

Kenjo Fly Fishing Charters

Port Aransas TX

361-500-2552

Flies beat artificials on NYC striped bass

Loads of life have poured into Jamaica Bay NY recently. Bunker schools are growing thicker and tons of heavy sonar marks indicating big striped bass are appearing in just all the usual places. Trust your sonar and work the area thoroughly then move onto another area until you find the fish that are feeding. If they are not feeding in one spot at one moment, they will be a little later when the tide is a bit different. Keep moving and working different areas and you’ll run into them.

WIDE LOADS

Surprisingly, the biggest flies and the smallest flies were not as effective, but anything medium bodied really got smacked by these fat striped bass. It is a good idea to not horse these bass, as you can see the result from the picture, even if they don’t feel big and especially at boat-side! These bass are full of energy and ready to rock because of the prime water temperatures. Normally for this time of year, the water temperatures are colder and the bass are more sluggish. But that does not hold true this season. It was impressive to feel the brute force that the broad shoulders and heavy heads of these bass could put out and even forced another Sage xi3 to bite the dust… Would be prudent to say that 10-weights are better rod of choice considering the strength of these fish…

So get in on the action one way or another and get out there! These fish have tails, and are not shy when presented with the right size offering! And remember when it comes to fly fishing for striped bass in NYC, you cannot catch a fish if the fly is dry!!!

Keep your hooks sharp,

Capt Ken Jones

361-500-2552

ken@kenjofly.com