Steinhatchee, FL

Greetings All,
Looks like I maybe taking a trip out to Steinhatchee, FL for maybe 3-4 days in early June for a well pass due visit with my father.
We will be spending our time in Steinhatchee, FL and fishing out of his 14' Whaler and staying in his RV. He has fished here once before with a guide for Trout and Redfish with conventical gear. He made some notes and marked some locations so we have a plan, but I wanted to check in here with all of your collected wisdom and experience and see if anyone could help point us in the right direction and give me some advise on what gear I should be prepared with i.e. lines & flies.

Any information would be appreciated. PM's welcome!

Thanks,
J Ice.

P.S. If anyone has some gear they want to unload let me know.

Never been there, but friend Ed Story used to fish a bit North of there . An 8 wt. should do, floating line . Smaller Gurglers , Clousers , and the F.C. Shrimp are good flies . Pretty clear water , from what I've heard .

https://littleriveroutfitters.com/li...andshrimp.html

Good Luck !

D.~

Thanks D,
Good times guaranteed!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ICE

Thanks D,
Good times guaranteed!

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No joke - I envy you !!

D.~

A bunch of YouTube videos........

https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...tchee+florida+

Thought I'd post a short report from my trip to Steinhatchee.

We were late in the season and the fish were spread out and in deeper water 6'+ interesting environment as that 6'+ water goes out quite a few miles. We threw conventional gear and flies. The best done was blind casting, throwing toward the grass beds in 6'+ of water and catching the Sea trout. Best being maybe 18", those are fun l, and come in packs of 2-3 fish right to the boat. We chased and threw at busting bait to catch Lady fish. These being the primary fish biting. In the mix we're Puffer fish and random other fish. I had one Red follow to the boat in about 3' of water but not a taker....

We ran up the river to explore and ran into a school of juvenile Tarpon gulping all around us, also lock jaw....
Beautiful country. We got ran off the water and cut the trip short a day and a half due to a weather system, lots of lightning and thunder. We fished a small lake in GA for a minute but again no takers.

Great being with pops but the bite could have been better. If we go back we will plan accordingly with the seasons.

Special thanks to a member of the board who hooked me up with some fishy patterns.
I'll update with some photos as time permits

J. Ice

Attachment 18167

Tough break with them spread out like that , a shame they were not on the Mangrove edges .

The 'Sea Trout' are close to the Shortfin Corvina that are in Baja . Fun Fish to chase !! Can't wait for the photos !!

D.~

Did you go out with any local guides?

Bill,
No guides on this trip, we followed and fished a rout that my dad had been guided on previously. Which also seemed to be the general fishing grounds of the locals and guides by what we saw. I believe as we were told by others that we were fishing in the off season. And the fish were in deeper water and scattered. The bait fishermen we're doing well fishing live shrimp under bobbers, but that was not our game. This was a trip of convenience to get together and be together for a while while doing something we love explore and fish.
If / when we come back, we will plan it around the season and be better prepared.
But all in all, we got hooked up and had a great time just father and son doing what we love!

Attachment 18180

Before my dad passed I was able to spend a lot of time with him.

Hard to have a bad trip with your dad....