Planning for Pompano on Fly

First came the jolt. Then a flash. I strip-struck, but my fly pulled free.

“Man, how did I miss that?” I wondered aloud.

Another strip or two, and I saw another flash and then felt a jolt. This fish struck on the run and was hooked solid. It spun a tight circle or two and hit the throttle. I cleared 20 feet or so of loose fly line from the deck onto the reel and then looked up just in time to spot the fish’s dark back as it streaked across the shallow crown of the shell bar off my bow.

“Geez, now it decides to slide up on there?” I laughed. “Most hooked fish run off a flat to deep water, not the other way around!”

“I guess that pompano is still new to this flats-fishing stuff,” my friend Richard Kernish suggested.

This was a really good pomp and didn’t slow down until it was about 40 yards out. Within a few minutes, I was able to reel my fly line back through the tip top, and then I applied a little side rod pressure. In response, the fish powered away once more on a shorter run before settling into jack mode, circling the skiff stubbornly until Kernish slid the net under the solid 3-pounder.

“Man, how many 3-pound fish fight like that?” I mused. “Well, other than bones and permit?”

We admired the characteristic silvery flanks but noticed this fish had a dark-olive back and deep-yellow fins, both signs it had been in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon for a while.

Before I hooked that fish, we had scanned that piece of light-colored shoal bottom under a sun-washed sky for a half-hour without spotting anything. So we went ahead and blind-cast our flies in deeper water along the drop-off. And that confirmed the pomps were there but not yet ready to flood the flat.

We fished through the afternoon rising tide, poling on the shallows and using the electric motor along the deeper edges of a handful of submerged Indian River shoals south of Fort Pierce. Of the dozen or so fish we landed, three or four were taken by sight-casting over light shell bottom — a challenging approach that certainly adds an element of excitement. The balance took our flies in three to five feet over the dark grass “aprons” encircling the shoals. The fish that we spotted traveled in schools of three to five and attacked our flies aggressively.

A Jekyll-and-Hyde Demeanor
In my early pompano pursuits, the fish’s Jekyll-and-Hyde demeanor was readily apparent. Though pompanos are far more aggressive strikers of artificial lures and flies than their bigger permit cousins, the fish can be very spooky in clear, shallow water, and the slightest disturbance puts them on edge. If you’ve ever seen a pompano skip along the surface like a flat stone, you probably agree. They skip in the wakes of boats under way, but also when a boat simply drifts over them or when they detect the sound of an electric motor. Needless to say, they bite best when in a relaxed state, so you should practice stealth whether you are drift-fishing in six feet of water or poling or motoring while casting on shallower flats.

Then there’s pompano’s jack mode — usually displayed in deeper water. In January I joined a fleet of over 20 boats working an apparently massive school of fish just inside St. Lucie Inlet. Stealth was not being practiced that day. In fact, anglers were motoring through the pack to restart drifts, some running along at speed, making all sorts of racket, and the fish continuously skipped at the surface in fright. Spinner sharks often moved in for a kill and jumped for joy, perilously close to boats at times. Yet everyone caught limits on jigs in short order. My partner and I were the only ones fly-fishing, and we did very well. But it was hardly typical pompano behavior, and this was far from a wilderness experience.

Pompano primarily feed off the bottom; however, they are opportunistic and will forage in the middle of the water column and even on the surface sometimes. Occasionally pomps have been taken on topwater offerings — after all, they are jacks. Off the beach, the fish primarily scan the ocean floor for small crabs, sand fleas and myriad clams, such as tiny coquina. However, upon entering coastal bays and the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), they feed not only on small crabs, mollusks and shrimp but on small baitfish as well. I have on more than one occasion cleaned a pompano and found glass minnows and even gobies in its gut. Otherwise, small shrimp and crab parts and crushed clamshell dominate. Needless to say, shrimp, small baitfish, crab and gaudy attractor patterns are all effective, particularly if weighted to sink fast.