[wmw4]

Will someone please school me on catching pompano off the beach? Would love to get one this year and it’s about time for the run to start up here in Pensacola. Thanks for any help!

 

[LowHydrogen]

Look up sand fleas, and tie some flies that look like that. They need heavy weight for the size and to help them get down in the surf. I think if I were doing it I'd want a 9wt just because the wind up here has been stupid lately.

 

[msmith719]

Try a Clouser size 4 with yellow belly/body and sparse red wing. The local fly shops should have them and also locally tied sandflea flies.

 

[mightyrime]

i have caught them on pink and white size 2 or 4 clousers. Intermediate lines just blind casting normal strip.

 

[wmw4]

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.

 

[Dave Nickles]

Man those are nice, they'll catch a pomp! Not too short at all.

 

[Skram]

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.

Looks good! Pomps are definitley here. I’ll be on the beach every chance I get this week searching. Weather forecast looks great

 

[wmw4]

When you’re blind casting are you just launching it out as far as you can and then twitching it back in?

 

[LowHydrogen]

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.

Looks awesome!

 

[AZ_squid]

Very nice! Those are definitely not too short. Most sand fleas in the surf are about a size 6 from my experience. I tie them with deer hair pulled back over grey dubbing with an orange dubbing hot spot. Finish the fly with some uv resin on the back. Worked well for me in the SoCal surf last year.

 

[Backwater]

I usually use a #4 size 1.5" long bucktail clouser in chartreuse-n-white, yellow-n-white or light pink-n-white. I've tried all sorts of sand flea flies, but I seem to have better luck with clousers. I've also caught them on bonefish type gotchas and crazy charlies in a natural tan or shrimp color with sili legs. I'll tie them all up using size "small" lead dumbbell eyes with a clear intermediate sink tip floating fly line or a full intermediate sinking line. That get's them down and puffing sand on the bottom, without going too heavy on the lead eyes, which can be difficult to cast with any kind of distance efficiently.

No matter how you chase them on fly, use a stripping basket to help with fly line management in the surf wave action.

 

[BarHopper]

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?

 

[eightwt]

are you guys in any of the fly fishing clubs ~ north gulf coast?

Big Bend Fly Fishers here.

 

[TidewateR]

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.