Fly Rod Slam

Today I landed my first Gulf Coast Slam caught entirely on flies. For those unfamiliar with the term, a Slam means catching a snook, sea trout, and redfish during the same trip. Landing all three with a fly rod is more difficult than using lures or live bait. Even though I did land this Slam with a fly, it was much harder than it should have been.

It started out as a quick boat ride to check out a low-tide flat just two miles south of our rental house here on Matlacha. When I throttled the skiff off plane the flat was teeming with mullet and tailing redfish. I dropped the anchor in less than a foot of water and walked about fifty feet from the boat, casting into the nearest boil that looked like feeding reds. My #4 shrimp pattern was instantly eaten and a five pound redfish was on the reel and pulling line into the backing. A legal size red and an 8 weight fly rod are made for each other. The fight was a beautiful thing to behold and when it was done I tossed this fish into the live well for dinner.

A few double hauls later and my fly line came tight on another fish, but this one jumped as soon as I set the hook. Fish #2 for the morning was a three pound snook, around seven inches less than legal but a blast to catch on the fly. After the photo I realized I had a problem. I'd caught two of the three Slam species on fly in less than a half hour. The only one I needed now was a sea trout, probably the easiest fish of all to find in Matlacha Pass. "No problem." I told my sunburning wife, "We'll get one right away at this next spot."

Three and a half hours of "Next Spots" later, I still didn't have my trout. And here's where things got really messed up with this Slam. Sea trout are the most common species around these waters right now. On a normal morning in late September I can catch dozens of them on almost any bait, especially the flies I was throwing. That wasn't happening today. I needed one lousy trout to complete my Slam and where the hell was he? I caught a redfish and snook in a half hour without trying and couldn't rent a sea trout anywhere in all of Florida. That made me very sad and angry at the same time.

The trout did finally show up just north of Matlacha, about four hours after we left our dock. Amanda caught one on a spinning rod to get us the Boat Slam, but it didn't quite count. We caught all three at that point but I needed one on a fly to make my personal effort official. Twenty minutes later I eventually got one close to the boat that threw the hook and sent my blood pressure into orbit. This was worse than catching nothing. Why the hell is a Slam so hard?

I kept tossing flies for another hour. My shoulder and neck were killing me by then from blind casting, but my line finally came tight on a big fish. It thrashed around at the surface and I knew I had my keeper trout. A minute later it was boatside and now I was beyond thrilled. This was a legal fish, just over twenty inches.

The usually easiest of the three to catch caused me the most trouble. It was a beautiful metallic colored trout, close to twenty-two inches long. A fish like that has "Fine Meal" written all over it, but I let it go. I wanted it to swim away as a reward despite all my trouble. He won't be so lucky the next time.