Recent Catch Reports
Winter 2004

Here we go again, into another year of creating memories out on the water with friends I know, and those I've yet to meet.

PHOTO:   Eight year old Taylor Shane (Louisville, KY) caught the largest fish of the trip during a half day charter in Florida Bay with his family. The Shane's limited out on big mangrove snappers. Taylor's big one was 21 inches long and weighed 5 pounds.

For the most part, water temps stayed on the cool side during January. Although we caught a handful of bonefish by chumming them up with diced shrimp on some of the deeper flats, conditions were less than ideal. So rather than try to force square pegs into round holes, we spent a great deal of our time in Florida Bay and up in Everglades National Park.

The Bay provided great action with spanish mackerel, mangrove snapper, and a variety of groupers (blacks, gags, reds, and goliaths). Light tackle and fly fishermen especially delighted in the mackerel fishing. These polka dotted speedsters can really buzz a drag on their first run; many of our macks were in the 3 to 5 pound range.

PHOTO:   January in the Keys is often synonymous with two things: lots of light tackle mackerel fishing, and plenty of warm clothes (just in case). This happy angler enjoyed an abundance of both. 

Though spanish mackerel are the most common of the mackerels caught in Florida Bay, the one pictured here is a cero mackerel. Ceros are probably the best eating of all the mackerels; this one was invited home for supper.

Everglades National Park was also a "best bet" during our cooler weather. Former Bass Tour pro, Don Dewey of Vienna, VA, enjoyed a good day of creek fishing, landing 5 snook up to 12 pounds, and half a dozen redfish as well. But the fishing might not be the part of the trip that Don remembers most.

We had just released a couple of nice snook, and were getting ready to have some lunch, when an 8 foot alligator slipped off a nearby mudbank and started menacingly swimming toward us. He seemed to be eyeballing the back of the boat as he got closer and closer. Having watched "Crocodile Hunter" enough to know how fast and agile these reptiles can be, my fear was that this uncharacteristically annoyed gator was going to come into the boat over the rear casting deck, which was the portion of the boat lowest to the water. When he finally reached the back of the boat, I couldn't take any more suspense, and had to use the pushpole to nudge him away from the boat. After being pushed away 3 times (much to his displeasure I might add), the grunting, hissing gator swam off, heading further down the creek where we had intended to fish after lunch. But Don and I had had enough excitement; we decided it would be in everyone's best interest if we picked another creek for our lunchbreak.

During February and March, we had a couple of warm spells that provided a taste of the kind of backcountry and flats fishing that guides live for. Steve George caught and released our first large bonefish of the year, a fat 10 pounder that went for a jig and shrimp combination on a flat near the Seven Mile Bridge. This catch was a great finish to a busy day that included a hot bite of mackerel, numerous barracuda caught on plugs, and several 3 to 4 foot sharks landed on light tackle. Talk about variety!

PHOTO:   Tarpon on fly is the ultimate high! So says Jeff Davis of Long Beach Island, New Jersey. He caught our first tarpon of the year on fly, and got 9 jumps out of this frisky fish before reviving and releasing it himself (see photo below).

Another highlight of our late winter months was some incredible  shark fishing action out in Florida Bay and up in Everglades National Park. This gave us a great "big fish on light tackle" option on days that the water was just a little to chilly to target tarpon. 

Blacktips, spinners, lemons, bulls, and dusky sharks made up the majority of the action, but Bill Thomas Jr. landed a nice 7-8 foot hammerhead, and Bill Thomas Sr. got a 9-10 foot tiger. All sharks were caught on 20 pound spinning gear; the tiger (about 400 pounds) is now the largest shark ever taken on the Fishin' Buddy.

PHOTO: Above is a chunky bull shark; these fight like tenacious bulldogs. 

PHOTO: To the left, Glen Gerald gives a weary thumbs up approval of the battle this spinner shark gave him.

PHOTO: Glen Gerald took this great shot of Bill Thomas' spinner shark in the middle of one of it's patented corkscrew leaps.

PHOTO: It's a jungle out there! This 4 foot blacktip came in with bite marks on both flanks, and a chunk taken out of the back of the dorsal fin for good measure. These bites could either be the result of aggressive feeding activity behind the boat, or else (more likely) wounds incurred while mating. Yikes!

PHOTO: Bill Thomas caught and released this enormous tiger shark in just 6 feet of water! Once I had the wire leader, try as I might, I just couldn't roll the fish over for a better picture before the leader popped.

 Though the photo just doesn't do it justice, this tiger was no less than 400 pounds (note the big black eye, flat nose, and stripes). 

You can check out last years' action and photos by clicking on the following:  
2003 Fishing Reports