# LLM Flies



## Worm Drowner (Sep 9, 2010)

I'm off to South Padre next weekend and have never fished it. I'm curious if anyone has a favorite fly for down there. I'll likely bring the usual Redfish Crack, Seaducers and Clouser, but I was wondering if anyone had any other thoughts/suggestions. Thanks and tight lines!


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## karstopo (Jun 29, 2009)

Sounds like fun. What you going for trout, reds? I always like a mullet/baitfish pattern in the box. Hard to go wrong with what you already mentioned.


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## Worm Drowner (Sep 9, 2010)

Going for whatever bites. The Laguna Madre Fly Fishing Association from down in the RGV is having a One-Fly tournament and invited us from Texas FlyFishers to fish with them. I'm betting it'll be a great time. The guys I've met from that club who have come up to our events are super good folks.


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## karstopo (Jun 29, 2009)

Sounds interesting. Clousers are one of those flies that catches everything. If I had a one fly tournament to fish here on the upper coast, I'd pick one either a weighted mud minnow imitation I tie or a weighted shrimp fly mainly because I've caught a lot of fish on each in various water clarity and depths up to about 4 feet or so. Most of the time in my experience you can't count on sight casting to fish up shallow because it's too windy or the light is bad. Got to have a pattern that works shallow and a little deeper. Clousers fit that pretty nicely. I havent fished redfish crack at all or seaducers much. Seaducers seem to be suited for shallow stuff. But there is a lot do submerged grass there so I've heard so maybe that has to be considered. Confidence flies are always a good option.


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## Worm Drowner (Sep 9, 2010)

I'm probably gonna tie up some lightly weighted Redfish Crack. It's my top confidence fly. 

If you are up for a One-Fly not too far away, Texas FlyFishers does ours in POC every July. More of a bragging rights tourney than a serious money event. I'm the Saltwater Outings chairman for the club. Shoot me a PM if interested.


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## austin_kendrick1 (Jan 8, 2016)

Id try using some all white or white and tan clousers been a good color for me and some friends latley


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## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

I've only really thrown 2 patterns down there, a crack fly and a small grass shrimp pattern. Both were effective on the flats down there. Crack flies in natural colors (tan, brown, pink, white) is what I usually toss if I'm blind casting to pot holes. If the wind is really howling and dirties up the water, i'll throw crack flies with some orange or chartreuse. You can pick up reds and trout doing that. In some areas like around Cullen house, the water can get crazy clear and it's shallow. In areas like that you'll probably want to go with something smaller that'll land soft, like a grass shrimp pattern.



> I'm probably gonna tie up some lightly weighted Redfish Crack. It's my top confidence fly.


I'd also tie up some weighted ones or at least ones with bead chain eyes. The wind can really get rowdy down there on the flats so you'll want to have some weighted options that you can use if the wind is howling the morning of the tournament. Also, tie weedguards on your flies. When the wind blows it churns up a bunch of floating grass that can become a pain.


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## Worm Drowner (Sep 9, 2010)

I tied up about a 1/2 dozen light tan cracks with orange on a #4 hook with a 5/32 oz. dumbbell eye. I'll bring lots of other varieties in case that doesn't seem to be the ticket. Of course, that will make the one fly literally "one fly"! Doing some pre-fishing Friday to experiment.


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## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

Worm Drowner, how was the feeching down in SPI? We need some reports to liven this place up a bit


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## Worm Drowner (Sep 9, 2010)

Well, with the front fast approaching Friday, we stayed in the ship channel. The day was frustrating as we could see fish, but takers were few. I watched a spadefish come up and nibble the tail of my fly, but not enough to get a hook in him. Several snook and reds followed our flies, but no one was hungry. Even the skipjacks had lockjaw.

Saturday's tournament was postponed until this weekend due to the high winds.

We waited Saturday until evening for the winds to die off a bit and then went back to the ship channel (bays were still roiled up). Between 7 and midnight, I caught 5 snook, a mangrove snapper, rat red, smallish trout and a boatload of skipjacks. My buddy lost a really nice snook, caught two others, lost a flounder and also caught a load of skippers.

Sunday was the long drive back to Richmond.

All in all, it was a fun trip. My first time down there to fish. Looking forwards to a return.


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## southpaw (Feb 25, 2009)

Worm Drowner said:


> Well, with the front fast approaching Friday, we stayed in the ship channel. The day was frustrating as we could see fish, but takers were few. I watched a spadefish come up and nibble the tail of my fly, but not enough to get a hook in him. Several snook and reds followed our flies, but no one was hungry. Even the skipjacks had lockjaw.
> 
> Saturday's tournament was postponed until this weekend due to the high winds.
> 
> ...


Nice! Well I'm glad y'all were still able to make the most of the trip despite the winds. I fish down there often but I've never fished the ship channel. This report makes me want to try it out. Any pitchas of those snooks? How big was that mangrove? They're little bull dogs and are a lot of fun on fly.


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## hoosierplugger (May 24, 2004)

I threw an EP Baitfish to reds in the LLM last week, they liked it just fine. My partner threw a redfish crack fly. Both worked equally well.


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## Worm Drowner (Sep 9, 2010)

southpaw said:


> Any pitchas of those snooks?


Here's me with one of them.


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## POCsaltdog (Nov 26, 2014)

Don't forget a spoon fly. I like the Horbey spoon fly. It's excellent for extremely shallow water or just above the grass.


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## 8weight (Mar 24, 2016)

Worm Drowner said:


> Here's me with one of them.


Sweet! Nice snook.


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## Demeter (Apr 13, 2006)

Sorry to hear about the weather. March/ April are such unpredicatable months for saltwater flyfishing on the coast. I was fishing in LA marsh last weekend and we only saw one bull redfish tailing during the entire day.


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