# anyone fly fish Melbourne florida



## Rookiemistake (Jan 30, 2013)

looking to see if anyone goes fly fishing from melbourne to sebastian inlet.i grew up there and im taking a couple trips down there in the next two months so pointers would be helpful.ive never thrown flies in the area .boats will be a beavertail osprey and a 17 master angler thanks


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## yobata (Jul 14, 2015)

When was the last time you have been down here? If more than 10 years you will not know this place anymore - 90+% of the grass is gone. There are still fish around, but good luck finding grass flats! It gets a little better closer to the inlet (because there is much more water exchange) but the same is happening down there too, just slower


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## Limp Shrimp (Aug 23, 2015)

Rookiemistake said:


> looking to see if anyone goes fly fishing from melbourne to sebastian inlet.i grew up there and im taking a couple trips down there in the next two months so pointers would be helpful.ive never thrown flies in the area .boats will be a beavertail osprey and a 17 master angler thanks


As long as this drought keeps going, you should have a good time.. The water is back to being clear in most areas and there has been a lot of snook around, especially as you get down closer to the inlet... Like yobata wrote, there is little to no grass around anymore. It seems like that brown algae bloom we had lasted forever and wiped out all our grass..


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## Rookiemistake (Jan 30, 2013)

So i should be better off launching in the grant area and running towards the inlet i guess. Im bringing an 8wt and some spinning rods. What fly patterns work?


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## Limp Shrimp (Aug 23, 2015)

That's were I launch and you can find fish either direction... The water is really low, so the fish can't get as far up in the mangroves as they usually can.. I throw a lot of white bait fish looking flies for the most part unless I'm after reds.


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## Flats Broke (Feb 7, 2017)

Rookiemistake said:


> So i should be better off launching in the grant area and running towards the inlet i guess. Im bringing an 8wt and some spinning rods. What fly patterns work?


White deceivers for trout and snook, crab flies, spoon flies and Liz Steele's gold Lizzy for reds.


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## Rookiemistake (Jan 30, 2013)

Whats a gold lizzy?is an 8wt enough


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## Flats Broke (Feb 7, 2017)

Rookiemistake said:


> Whats a gold lizzy?is an 8wt enough


An 8wt will be enough for most fish unless you latch on to one of the ICW's really big fish. There are a few schools of jumbos that will be an all day sucker on an 8wt, if you happen to entice one of those fish into eating. In that event a 9wt will be a much better choice. 

I should have also mentioned Merkin Crab Flies above as another good choice for reds. They are a little unwieldy to cast because of their bulk, but when reds are tailing they are usually looking for little crabs. You want ones that have either bead chain eyes or little lead eyes so that they will get down quickly to the bottom where the reds are rooting around.

The Gold Lizzy was a small gold mylar bend back type of fly that was sold for many years at a store called "The Fly Fisherman" in Titusville, FL up until the store closed in 2012. I don't have any left to photograph unfortunately due to fishing them with insufficiently strong leader material. It was meant for fish in very shallow water that were spooky. It landed very lightly and was less likely to spook a nearby fish. It had gold Mylar wrapped around the hook, a little red at the head end and a little gold synthetic bucktail at the opposite end. Liz Steele was a co-owner of the store along with her husband Frank. It was located at 1114 S Washington Ave, which is also US 1. It was a high end fly shop that sold quality tackle (Sage, Loomis, TFO rods, Abel, Tibor, Lamson reels etc.), fly tying material, kayaks, push poles, etc. She tied this fly in various sizes from size 4 hooks up to 1/0 mainly without bead chain eyes but she would put them on if you wanted them. It was a killer redfish fly. I hate that I don't have any left.


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