Panhandle pompano

Thanks guys walked the beach for a little bit today. Really wanted to try to sight fish but the wind and waves weren’t letting it happen so I worked a couple deeper areas but no luck. Here’s what I used. I trimmed it a little too short but other than that I was pretty happy with it.

Great thread guys - agree with Backwater - with those eyes and speed they are feeding on lots more than sand fleas! - yellow and red have been big for pomps since the old Florida bucktail jigs - pompano rocket patterns - are you guys in any of the fly fishing clubs ~ north gulf coast?

Pompano are some of the trickiest fish for me to figure out, but we love them. The trick to sight fishing them in the panhandle is fishing an offshore wind. In our case, North works pretty good. Once you get some good weather and are out walking the shore or sand bar, you then have to figure out where they're swimming that particular day. I have seen them swimming b/t shore and first bar, but in recent memory, I've done best walking the first sandbar and fishing the breaks in thigh deep water just past the first bar. Walk slowly and look hard. For me, pompano are difficult to see since their scales are highly reflective. Most of the time all I see is a shadow, their black backs/fin or just something weird moving in the water that doesn't look right. Any little bonefish looking fly will work. I like a good bit a weight to get down quickly on their level. Quick short retrieves have produced for me. Good luck! When it finally all comes together, it feels pretty good.