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Recent Catch Reports
2002 Although wet, windy weather and an unstable economy made for a slow start to the winter, things picked up in early February.
For action seekers, the spanish mackerel ran well through the winter months, including a good showing in early March on the heels of a late-season cold front. These were great fun on light tackle. Often, when it's just too cold for my flyrodders to have a decent shot at bonefish, I'll put 'em in a hot bite of mackerel on fly...still haven't heard one complaint yet!
About the photos: Singer, songwriter, and musician Ted Stevens of Narragansett, RI is shown here with two of his favorite things...his girlfriend Deana on the left and a feisty redfish taken on light tackle from a backcountry channel up in Everglades National Park.
About the photo: During the winter months, we sometimes take a short break from fishing to do a little shelling. The remote beaches at Cape Sable up in Everglades National Park provide a perfect location for such activities. The ladies especially like this portion of the trip. Often the guys just grab a rod and start casting from the beach for seatrout, pompano, and the occasional snook or redfish.
Bink and Peggy Jacklin (see photo below) showed up from Indianapolis, IN. really needing some fishing therapy. Things were looking a little bleak though, what with a 25 kt. wind out of the southeast and our water churned into chocolate milk. It wasn't long before we had our first bite, and of all things, it's a redfish along the shores of US 1 (reds are typically found well out in the backcountry). The real surprise came from the redfish to follow: nice big ones that kept us busy on an otherwise unfishable day.
About the photo: Capt. Buddy hoists up a nice tarpon for pictures. Brian Boszko of Milltown, NJ was the lucky angler.
Perhaps the highlight of our winter was Lane Jarvis (Duck Key, FL) landing our largest permit ever. Lane had patiently cast to this fish for over 15 minutes before getting the fish to eat a small crab presented on 10 pound spin with a tiny 1/0 hook and only doubled 10 for a leader.
What an incredible fight...it lasted an hour and was punctuated with some tense moments involving weeded-up line wrapped around a lobster buoy. We nearly lost this big boy! How big, you ask? Well, look at the photo and decide for yourself. My 30 pound Boga Grip scale was no match for this fish...we "guesstimated" him at about 38 to 40 pounds. What a horse! To a modify a line by Roy Schieder in the movie Jaws... "We're going to need a bigger scale!"
Thanks
for taking a look at our reports.
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Blacktip sharks kept things hopping out in
Florida Bay. Doctors Bill Thomas and
Glen Gerald of Vienna VA spent a solid afternoon out in Florida Bay
pounding the blacktip and dusky sharks. These fish averaged 3 to 5 feet in
length; in our braver moments, we dropped down
to 12 pound spin to really enjoy the fight. I couldn't help but think this day would
have been a fly fisherman's dream as well. We had sharks all over the slick, and a bait
and switch tactic would have been deadly today with the right flyrodder.
But sometimes when the weather
presents you with a lemon, you can still make lemonade. We ran to a spot that
was minutes from the dock (thankfully); it offered at least some protection from the wind.
Then, we went about the business of casting shrimp-tipped jigs toward the mangrove roots. 
