Fishing a Foot Deep on the Florida Flats

For those who are new to it, fishing in a foot of water may seem a fool's errand. You can look down and clearly see that there are no fish under the boat, obviously--the water is crystal clear in many areas and hardly deep enough to float a mallard. If you've never experienced what everyone in Florida's coastal areas calls "flats fishing", the whole idea seems a bit crazy--what more than a minnow could live in water so shallow?

But nearly all of Florida is surrounded by a thin zone of these flats, the area where the low, sandy elevations of the shore meet the sea. They vary from a few hundred yards to several miles wide, and they are, at times and in specific places, loaded with big sea trout, redfish, snook, sheepshead and even, on their deeper edges and in the cuts, 100-pound tarpon.

It's the most beautiful water Florida has to offer, a mosaic of rich greens and pastel shades marking the mix of turtle grass, wigeon grass and shoal grass that forms the habitat here, a hiding place for all sorts of small crabs, shrimp and minnows which form the base of the food chain which culminates in the largest of game fish.

This pursuit is more hunting than it is fishing, and it takes patience and a skilled eye to see the shadows of the fish gliding over the grass, the bluish tip of a redfish fin or tail, or the swirl made by a trout grabbing a finger mullet. Part of the fun of fishing the flats is learning to see these fish at considerable distances, and your Funtavo.com guide can teach you the tricks of seeing them in a few hours on the water--basically, you're looking for anything that looks "different" from the sand and grass that covers the bottom, and any movement at the surface.

The great excitement in this type of fishing is that you may stalk a given fish for a hundred yards, the guide slipping the boat along in dead silence with the push pole, you standing on the bow, feeling your nerves winding up as you try to visualize the single cast you're going to get in order to catch the fish.

Too close and your quarry is gone in a flash and a swirl of sand. Too far away and he won't see the lure or bait before he sees the boat. But do it just right and you'll see the distance between the fishy jaws and your bait close rapidly. You may see the flash as the fish opens its mouth--reds have a bright white interior to their jaws--and an instant later you'll feel the bump on the line as the slack comes out. Raise the rod and you're hooked up--and five seconds later, your fish is half a football field away and still going fast.

It's light tackle action at its best, and on a good day, your Funtavo.com captain will have you on the fish all day long. Visit www.funtavo.com to see how quick and easy it can be to arrange the trip of a lifetime for yourself--or maybe as a gift for a special family member or business associate.