I’ll always remember the adage, “Pole long enough and the fish will find you.” I heard this years ago when fly fishing legend Captain Steve Huff was the featured speaker at a Mangrove Coast Fly Fisher event. Huff, who honed his skills in the Florida Keys before relocating to Everglades City, holds a rare place in the legion of outstanding guides that have fished the Florida Keys since the heyday of fly fishing in the 70s. Huff is recognized as the “guides’ guide” by a cadre of anglers and competitive guides that are arguably at the top of the saltwater fly-fishing game.
It was about the same time that I remember asking Captain Scott Moore, a legend in his own right, what he had gleaned from his decades of fishing local waters, which I knew included his habit of keeping a comprehensive log of his fishing exploits. I have a vivid memory of fishing one day with Moore and his long-time client and friend, Stanley Glenn. When we were starting out after catching bait he announced, “We’re going to that point and catch a snook, then over to a nearby flat where we’ll find a school of redfish and then to a deepwater grass edge along Tampa Bay where we’ll find big trout.” He then proceeded to do exactly that. That’s why I was surprised and chagrined when he told me he had thrown all his logs away because he could sum up everything he had learned in three words, “Fish have fins.”
What I’ve learned from my time on the water and my fishing with and writing about guides for over three decades boils down to two words: patience and persistence. Whether that’s standing a long cast from a pot hole and waiting for spooky redfish to come to me or being patient as I pole an area I know has fish and not running from spot to spot, the strategy has paid off. Does that mean I catch fish every time? No, definitely not, but it does mean I’ve slowed down, enjoyed the process more and developed my powers of observation. Then there are the times when the strategy pays off.
This past Friday, I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with my longtime friend Michael Riter and his son, Chase, a pilot living in Tampa. Our plan was to fly fish, but because the conditions were so calm and the fish so spooky we decided to start by exploring the flats, casting spoons and jigs. The reasoning was that when we found fish we would anchor and wade for them with our flyrods. As it turned out, we never found enough fish to initiate our plan. That didn’t mean we didn’t catch fish, because exploring using the “Huff method,” which involved poling for four hours, we landed two reds, two pompano and several jacks.
A day like this reminds me to slow down, use my powers of observation and not make catching fish the only thing that defines a successful day. The funny thing is when I don’t get so consumed with catching, I actually do better. Enjoyment of the process and being out in the natural world rules the day!
