Report: Fall is making itself known here in South West Florida in a few ways. The days are a little cooler and shorter, the gentle breezes are most often out of the North, the outgoing tides are stronger and lower, best of all, Redfish are migrating onto the Turtle Grass Flats of the sound. The fishing? The evidence is above but this is only a small slice of the big picture.

Fly line out, line stretched and bundled into the kayak, fly at ready, the first cast was a long one-about 70 feet away. The loop somehow stayed tight and the fly came to a gentle "splat" about two feet away from the Redfish's head. What happened next was like a big toilet flushing-A large whirlpool where my fly landed, then a sharp tug on my freehand, like the line is being pulled down the  storming orifice of a Furgeason. Story short, 10 minutes later after a few hard runs, the 28 inch Redfish was at hand.

Most of the morning the tide was heading out at a steady clip. The first fish was far away but most of the Redfish where between 50 and 15 feet away from the kayak. Stalking the flats was very much like the Blue and White Herons do that were my neighbours that morning, slow, methodical ,with laser like precision and intense concentration.

It is days like this one that make the Fall months here in South West Florida so special. The Fall months and into Winter this year will be the best in recent history as far as the fishing goes. I forgot to mention the many healthy Sea Trout caught that day once the Redfish moved off the flat and I was looking for something else to catch. The Trout population has come back in a big way and this Winter should produce some of those big, yellow mouth Gators that are highly sought after.