Hey Jalama,

I catch most of my red ears in 3 feet
of water or less. Mostly in areas of mild
cypress swamps or stands of cypress on the
shallow flats.

I catch fully half of my red ears on
a brown, grey, or olive scud. They seem to
love them. The rest of them usually fall
for a grey thread midge or nymph. I usually
fish them about 18 inches under a small
popper or minnow imitation. In late summer
and fall I fish them under a hopper pattern.
Most go for the subsurface but enough will
take the popper or hopper to keep it fun. I catch a lot of them right on through summer in the heat of the
day by putting my fly against the cypress
trees on the shady side. Hope this helps.
Warm regards, Jim