The weather forecast predicted a series of cold fronts would pass through south Florida starting yesterday.  I figured I might as well get out on the water before things got even worse, later this week.

Had been thinking about doing some bass fishing in the cypress swamp at Riverbend Park.  Then I looked at the tide charts for some salt water spots and noticed that there'd be a pretty strong outgoing tide at Jonathan Dickinson Park starting around 10:30 yesterday morning.   I had a good day there last month on an outgoing tide and decided to try there instead.  

It was overcast and breezy when I got to the boat ramp at Jonathan Dickinson.  The temperature was in the upper 60s.  I thought it might get up into the 70s by the early afternoon.  I was wearing lightweight pants and a short sleeve shirt, which I thought would be sufficient.  But once I was out on the water I wished I'd dressed a bit more warmly - something that rarely happens down here.

I could see a pretty strong outgoing flow headed toward Jupiter Inlet, once I got away from the ramp. I'm learning that in salt water environments, fish bite best when water is moving one way or the other. And the quicker, the better.

I started out with spinning tackle, trolling a Mirrodine suspending crankbait behind my kayak.  I had barely gotten out into the Loxahatchee river from the ramp when I had a solid strike.  The way the fish stayed well down in the water column and pulled like crazy told me I'd probably hooked another Jack Crevalle.

And so it proved to be.  I released Mr. Jack and switched over to my fly rod.  Since the jacks were out in the river I thought it worth trying to hook one with a streamer fly.  I'd just gotten a new reel and sink-tip line to go with it and was anxious to try them out.  

I pedaled upstream in the middle of the river, where jacks tend to hang out, against the current for a quarter mile or so, then let the tide pull the kayak down close to one of the river banks.  I was hoping I might entice a snook to snatch my fly, as they tend to hang out near the shoreline along the mangroves, which provides them with a hiding place to ambush prey.  It wasn't too long before I had another strike. The fish came to the surface, which led me to believe it was something other than a jack.  A few seconds later I saw the dark lateral line bisecting the fish's body from nose to tail, the hallmark of a snook.  It wasn't a very big one, but for me, pretty exciting.  I've been pursuing snook at Jonathan Dickinson for several years now and have only managed to catch one.

Over the next couple hours I hooked several more snook but only got one more into the boat.

The sun stayed mostly hidden behind the clouds all day and with that brisk wind coming downriver along with the tide, I started to feel a bit chilled.  The velocity of the outgoing tide slowed down after two o'clock, and so did the fishing action.  For the final hour or so I switched back to spinning tackle but only managed one more bite.  

With the fishing action pretty much stopped and goose bumps popping out on my forearms, I decided to call it a day around three o'clock.  The first day with my new fly reel and line had been a good one.  

At least one or two more blasts of cold air are supposed to pass through over the next few days, so I may stay off the water until next week.  

Here's a link to video I shot during yesterday's trip:   http://youtu.be/gtI24geSPDM