# St Joseph Bay & Cape San Blas - fly/gear advice



## kype138 (Mar 8, 2021)

Hello all - posting this from Northville, MI!
Just posting a quick gear/fly question for an upcoming trip.
My family & I are heading to Cape San Blas in a few weeks - renting a place near the beach.
I've got a few surf trips under my belt, so I think I'm set for fishing the big waves.
We are also renting a pontoon for a day trip on St Joseph Bay, so I'm dragging along one fly rod.
From what I've read, late March/early April reds and seatrout can be finicky - and it's been 15 years since I thrown flies for any of these fish. I usually start with an 8wt floating line setup, and keep a short loop-on sink tip handy. Is there any point in using a heavy sinking head line?
Also - what kind of flies should I plan on using? I've got clousers, poppers, rattling murdich minnows and a few spoon flies. 
Please let me know anything I might be missing - any info you have would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you and tight lines!
Kype


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## BM_Barrelcooker (May 4, 2011)

St Joe bay will be pretty good by then. 
8wf-f is plenty good. 

Decent wading spots out on the state park. Some require a walk. 

All those flies you mentioned should work. There’s a decent store in St Joe that has flies snd lines and such. 

You should enjoy it.


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## 7WT (Feb 12, 2016)

Did that once. I certainly don't have a lot of experience there but I did not find much off " the beach"- lots of sail cats. I did wade St Joe bay side- a lot of mullet- and also took an inexpensive day with a very young "guide" we did see a few tarpon and caught some ladyfish and a few other things. If you really want to do something you probably should arrange for a true guide for a half or full day. Oh I ran into a couple of pygmy rattlesnakes- one was under our car in the driveway. So keep an eye out for those.


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## Sabalo (Sep 6, 2019)

should be plenty of pompano in the surf in the troughs and you may find skip jacks (ladyfish), reds and Spanish mackerel along beach and the first bar. your 8wt is perfect. for the pompano and reds, you typically want the fly to be near bottom. I get along fine with a regular floating line. You can use flourocarbon leader and it will sink faster than mono to help get your fly down.

Skip jacks (poor mans tarpon) are a blast to catch as they jump alot. You can often see them cutting through minnows on the surface and a clouser stripped fast is deadly. be sure to check your leader after each fish as they are hell on leaders as they fray them bad as they shake their head when jumping.


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## jivarie (Feb 9, 2017)

Do yourself a favor and get a kayak or rent one while down there. It'll open up the opportunities a lot. A super simple spot is Indian Pass behind the campround on the opposite side along the grass. There are tons of reds in there along that grass and in the oysters. They'll take just about anything when the tide is dropping and the water pulls out of the grass. Beyond that, the canoe launch out on the cape is good for trout and the occasional red. You'll also find BIG jacks in there during the summer. Coyote patterns in silver/white work really well on trout or schooling reds.


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## Loogie (Jul 24, 2019)

I found that Reds eat suspending crabs really well in the grass at Indian pass behind the campground. If you take a kayak you can get to a nice wading spot and ambush them by gently walking and stalking. My info is a little dated but I doubt the fish have changed much of their habits. I was slinging and EP crab with an 8wt all day basically and caught a decent amount of reds, and the one and only ever sheephead I have ever caught on the fly. GL


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## Buffalo Bob (Aug 28, 2019)

jivarie said:


> Do yourself a favor and get a kayak or rent one while down there. It'll open up the opportunities a lot. A super simple spot is Indian Pass behind the campround on the opposite side along the grass. There are tons of reds in there along that grass and in the oysters. They'll take just about anything when the tide is dropping and the water pulls out of the grass. Beyond that, the canoe launch out on the cape is good for trout and the occasional red. You'll also find BIG jacks in there during the summer. Coyote patterns in silver/white work really well on trout or schooling reds.


Agree. Behind Indian Pass Campground for Reds ..... great place for kayak!


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