Another week with only two bookings, one day strictly fly, the second day all spinning. Last Thursday I had Capt Darren Williams and his wife Jennifer aboard in great weather, but poor fishing (nothing like a cold front to give you blue skies, strong breezes and not many fish...). Both husband and wife are very skilled with a fly rod so we hunted up very shallow looking for reds and snook. The first surprise of the day was a shallow mud cove with at least eight small sawfish (none bigger than six feet long) that were laying quietly in less than 18 inches of water. The fish blended in with the mud bottom so well that they were almost invisible even though the water was quite clear... The day's second surprise was that the fish actually came after our flies, a first for me and I've seen them in similar circumstances, many, many times. Jennifer actually hooked one briefly before it quickly pulled the hook - then it was Darren's turn. He had several bites but like before the fish only stayed hooked for a brief moment before pulling free. Moving on we covered lots of spots with little success until Darren got a nice small snook that attacked a pretty large, shallow water Clouser.... Here's a pic...
Most of the day we'd been searching for a shot at Whitewater tarpon since water temps above 70 indicated we might get a shot.... and that was the last big surprise that day. After poling a long shoreline looking for laid up fish without success I saw a good fish show just briefly out in about five feet of water out in the open where the wind was strong.... We poled out and quickly found a good number of fish that looked to be 60 to almost 100lbs... You couldn't see them at all in the wind - none were rolling or showing any surface activity except for a sudden attack and surface explosion nearby (but never within casting distance). Things got exciting when one or two of the fish really got some air time, skyrocketing well over ten feet straight up....
We never managed to hook up, but that last surprise will have me back there shortly. Darren who's just now leaving guiding in the Keys to move his family out of Florida should be back soon. I"m looking forward to putting both of them on some big silver fish that will eat....
On Monday I fished local angler Jeff Peterla and Brian from Delaware and we had a different day entirely. The wind was still up but everywhere we went there were trout and small redfish that couldn't get enough of our lures on light spinning gear. Add starving ladyfish to the mix and we left fish biting at several spots. With a few ladies for live bait we moved out to a river mouth and went to work looking for a large hungry grouper for dinner. From the first most of our bites were from large toothy critters... Without any wire leaders, however long the fights lasted they all came to the point where the big fish took the hook with them. Just as I was thinking about some other spot, Brian hooked up on a big fish that turned out to be a very nice snook, here' a pic...
at nearly 12lbs and over the slot size it was a pleasure to release this big girl to fight another day...
That fish was followed by another good bite, this time for Jeff.... here's a pic
at 22" that's one lucky grouper (just two inches under the 24" slot) and another careful release....
From the rivers all the way back into Whitewater it was speckled trout and small redfish... Hard to count how many we caught and released on bucktails or other arties... There are plenty of very nice trout inside now so everyone will be looking to 1 January when they're able to keep one for dinner. The small reds are an indicator that lots of the bigger ones are also around, waiting to be found. As for the tarpon, any week we get three or four days with mild temps there's a good chance of finding them in Whitewater. It's enough to get me going back there, day after day....
Tight lines
Bob LeMay
(954) 435-5666