The largest red this trip went about 8 pounds.

"This @#$&**$ *&#$ has to stop! You're motoring too shallow and you know it! We busted you twice yesterday and here you are this morning doing it again! You spooked the whole flat, dude, and tore up a lot of grass!" The words sounded loader than they probably were because it was such a quiet, early morning on Mosquito Lagoon. John's passion and anger had got the best of him as he screamed this scourge at another young guide who had just come flying onto the other end of the flat. It was all perfectly understandable to me. John had just spent the better part of 15 minutes carefully poling us through a narrow approach onto this flat. We had been carefully stalking a school of reds that were pushing a good sized wake across the flat. That was until the other boat ran up onto it. John said he wanted to say something to the other guide but wouldn't do so with a client in the boat. I replied the other guy is wrong and unless people start to tell him so he'll keep on doing it. Besides, I saw all those redfish disappear too. While I may have used slightly different language (but then maybe not) I praised John's action. Ignoring and silently fuming about bad ethics on the flats or any fishing location only ensures the bad ethics will continue. I can't say the other guide will correct his errant ways because we jumped on his case that morning. But, I can say that doing nothing virtually ensures he won't.

		The white pelicans and pied cormorants were having a convention.

It was the end of October and after two days of business meetings in Orlando, I was stoked to get onto the flats around the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Titusville is the nearest town to the MINWR and during space shuttle launches Winnebagos line Highway 1 as far as you can see. Luckily there were no launches planned that week. The MINWR is about 40 miles due east of Orlando. I stayed at the Holiday Inn in the center of town. There's three bodies of water here -- Mosquito Lagoon, the Indian River, and the Banana River. Jerry Clark and I have had our share of adventures and fish in this area. While there are some flats that you can drive to and walk upon, I decided to improve my chances and book two days with John Turcot. John grew up in this area and figures he has fished and explored nearly all of it. The good people at The Fly Fisherman in Titusville recommended John to me. This is an excellently stocked fly shop run by fellow New Zealand groupies Frank and Liz Steele.

John recommended we stick to Mosquito Lagoon because his scouting trip the day before had produced many tailing fish on a flat so shallow that only the best flats boats could get on it. John runs a 17 foot Hell's Bay which only draws about 4 inches of water. That would keep the competition away which was one of my requests -- peace and solitude. Besides, we both prefer sight fishing to tails rather than chasing the schools around. When you chase the schools, you pole hard, get a cast or two in front of the school, and maybe hook a fish. Then you have to find and chase them again. When fishing for tails, you pole quietly along, not seeing a thing, and then suddenly there will appear three large tails all around the boat. Staying quiet, you can take your time and stalk and cast to all three. Sight fishing tails provides much more actual fishing time.

		Many of the mangroves died in a hard freeze they had a few years ago. But the heavy grass is a virtual soup of shrimp, crabs, baby fish, you name it.

Our typical day started around 6:30AM with a cuppa' while we transferred gear in the The Fly Fisherman parking lot. That's a little too early for good sunlight but since we were hunting tailing fish we didn't need high sun. We launched from the boat ramp about a half-mile north of Haulover Canal and headed east. That's about all the directions you'll get from me because after a few twists and turns around the mangrove flats it all starts to look alike and I couldn't tell you where we were even if I wanted to. We found tailing fish everywhere we looked -- some flats held more than others. We also found fish cruising the sandy shorelines and a few schools making wakes and nervous water. As the sun rose higher we did more sight fishing around the sandy spots in the bottom, too. We also saw some huge speckled trout but they usually saw us at about the same time, which resulted in a dark torpedo shape pushing a wake as it sped away. One big trout in particular we had seen in the same place the first two mornings and this morning were all rigged with a popper and full of anticipation. That was the morning the other guide motored right over the very spot we had seen the trout.

We landed between 20 and 25 redfish over the two and half days of fishing. They averaged around 4 - 6 pounds with the largest about 8 pounds. Cruising fish had to be led about three feet or so. Tailing fish were so engrossed in eating that I nearly had to hit them on the nose with the fly. Of course, hitting them with the fly or fly line sent them fleeing acrossed the flat. John's encouraging words when I did that were "That's okay, I'd rather you do that than cast so far away the fish never sees the fly. Stay aggressive with these fish." Sound advice. Noise, vibration, and pressure waves from the boat will spook them so a careful approach is important. Lighter color flies seemed to work best. Crab patterns, larger bonefish flies, and my best producer was a size 4 tan and white clouser. We even had a fish follow a red-white popper until it saw the boat. Generally we were fishing water about 12 to 18 inches deep so lead barbell eyes were needed to get a good sink rate. There were a few very shallow grassy flats that bead chain eyes or even no eyes were sufficient to sink the fly and avoid collecting vegetation. A 7 or 8 weight floating line is all you need.

		Best fly was a size 4 tan & white clouser.

One interesting note: Chartreuse clousers still work very well but John keeps them as a last resort. He would say "Try anything as long as it's not chartreuse." Chartreuse flies have become so effective and popular that they seem to take away some of the challenge. I think John recognized that I wanted a challenge so steered me away from chartreuse. During the slow middle part of one day we did throw a chartreuse clouser to a fish that didn't want anything else and sure enough, he ate the chartreuse clouser. That was proof enough so we clipped it off and didn't tie it on again.

Maybe that's as good of a statement about this trip as any. When you're catching enough fish that you'll leave the killer fly in the box, it's been a fine trip.

I recommend John Turcot to anyone going down to southern Florida. As I said, he grew up there and knows the Merritt Island and Everglades areas very well. He often poles the camera boat for Flip Pallot's Walker Cay Chronicles. John's knowledge and love for the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge area is unsurpassed. He is championing a movement to form a guides association to establish and enforce some no prop zones to protect the ecology and fishing from the increasing number of boats. John's phone number and email address are: (321) 267 - 9818, jturcot@gateway.net. You can also get information and guide referrals from The Fly Fisherman. They have a shop in Titusville, (407) 267 - 0348; and one in Orlando, (407) 898 - 1989.