Teasing brought this nice red to hand.

I've seen a lot of things in the 35-odd years I've been chasing fish with a rod and reel, but I have to admit, this was the first time I'd ever been charged by a pod of redfish.

There were seven or eight of them. They were coming fast. And they were obviously excited.

You could kind of tell all this from the way they were trying to catch the gold spoon that was skipping along the surface of the water ahead of them. They were also a little bit irritated, largely because Jim Dupre was doing his level best to keep that spoon just out of their reach. It reminded me of running rapidly around the yard holding a large, juicy steak bone in your hand while a pack of dogs does their best to alter the situation in their favor.

It wasn't exactly as haphazard as it sounds because as soon as the pod got within 80 feet of the boat, Max Dufflocp started working fly line through the air. At 50 feet, Dupre suddenly jerked the spoon away from the fish at the instant that Max's topwater hair bug landed in the middle of the pod.

That gave the redfish something to vent their frustration on. The bug never stood a chance.

Better yet, this wasn't an accidental encounter. In fact, we had been following this particular school of redfish and pulling small, fired-up pods of them away from the larger congregation all morning. By doing that, we were able to catch our reds and have them too. Our battles were conducted well away from the main school, which helped keep those fish from bolting.

The technique Dupre was demonstrating works well with any kind of tackle and could be especially helpful when a novice angler is aboard and you want him or her to catch a lot of fish. That certainly helps spark greater interest in fishing. This kind of teasing, though, is especially useful for flyfishermen. It can help lure reds within range of the beginning angler, but veteran fishermen can use it as well, especially under conditions when blind casting is a problem, such as on windy days.

Dupre came up with the technique simply because he was tired of poling all day.

"It has made my life a lot easier," says the Gainesville guide who often prowls the flats around Cedar Key. "Before I stumbled on this teasing technique, I would have to pole into casting position on the school carefully so as not to spook them. Then, once my angler got hooked up, the school would usually spook. I'd have to go looking for fish all over again, starting almost from scratch.

"Now," he says, "I don't have to go to the fish, I just pull a small pod off the school and bring them to me. That way, I can stay with the same school throughout the tide. And I can get my angler onto a whole lot more fish than I ever could when I was chasing them one cast at a time. If we could hook up with five fish before, we can get 15 now."

The actual teasing technique is simplicity in itself. In fact, you don't even need visual contact with the fish. This can be a major asset in times of low light and reduced visibility, or if the water is too dirty to spot fish at a distance, as it is in much of the state.

Using this method, you can locate fish in shallows where you could never see them, get them fired up and ready to accept a lure, then pull small groups away from the area without disturbing the others.

The key to the technique is a standard gold spoon, but without a hook.