Greetings, I am heading down to siesta key in about a
month for vacation and have a boat load of questions
for you guys. While I may not be ?new? to fly fishing
I still have no clue what im doing. Ive read the
books and done a lot of looking on the internet but
nobody seems to give clear answers?..maybe that?s just
because there really are no clear cut answers to this
sport. In either case. We will be fishing
specifically in Roberts Bay. The south end of it
anyway?a bit north of Stickney point bridge.

From what I can tell the game fish will be Snook,
spotted seatrout, jack crevalle, ladyfish and mangrove
snapper. What types of lures do you guys recommend
for these fish? Streamers? Deceivers? I am assuming
these types of flies are supposed to mimic fish?..so
would I need a sinking tip line to use them? Or can I
use floating line?

Currently I have a redington Clearwater setup. 9 ft.
pole that?s a 9/10wt and the reel handles 7/8/9wt. I
could not find any 9wt line at gander so I ended up
getting 8wt. Will this work with my 9/10wt pole?.or
would you guys recommend I get the 9wt. Also, I read
that weight forward floating was the most universal.
Is that correct and will it be the best solution for
the bay? (in a general sense)

I have 100 yards of 20lb backing. Is this enough or
should I get 150 ? 200 yards. I will be wading in the
water not very deep. This will be very close to
mangroves along the shore of the bay. Would anything
in this location even be powerful enough to pull out
all 100 yards of backing? Of course that?s assuming I
can even catch something.

The fly line I specifically picked up is Scientific
Anglers Air Cel WF-8-F. Any good?

The leaders I have are saltwater 8 ? 9 lb. Would
these suffice for the area I will be fishing in? I
noticed that other posts recommended 10 ? 12 but at
the same time I am not sure if they are fishing
further out than I will be. The tippet I have is 3x
and 1x. The 3x is rated at 8 ? 9 lbs?.and the 1x is
something like 10 ? 11. Which one would be better to
use?

I do a little fly tying too. The Streamers and
Deceivers I have made are about 1 ? 3 inches long. Is
that about the right size for my application? I used
some bigger bass hooks for these as well. Would that
be a big problem? Also, I noticed that anyone who
ties flies crimps down the barb. What is the
reasoning for this? So it does not hurt the fish as
much?

And regarding knots, do you guys recommend a loop to
loop connection for the fly line to leader as well as
leader to tippet?

In either case?.I know these are a lot of questions
but I would extremely grateful for any help you guys
can provide.

Thanks again,

Tim.