Fishing Was On Fire!

Michele Wall and her twelve year old son Turley had booked me to go Sailfishing. I did not have any trouble convincing them to try the backcountry for Tarpon as the seas were flat and poor conditions for Sails. One thing about fishing the keys you have to be flexible and go with what you think is best. We cast netted a live well full of mullet for bait on the way back to Everglades National Park where we planned to fish for the day. Arriving at the "spot" we immediately saw a free jumping Tarpon. A great sign.

Turley started out catching 2 Blacktip Sharks then Michele was into a large Tarpon. What a jumper! This was one tough Tarpon, Michelle spent 45 minutes working hard to land her very first Tarpon. Meanwhile young Turley was getting restless and wanted to put his bait back in the water. Michele brought her fish boatside and we released it after doing a DNA scrape for research.

Michelle's high jumping Tarpon

while Michelle does battle with her Tarpon
young Turley asks me if he can fish

a DNA sample was scraped off the jaw
of Michelles' first ever Tarpon

After another 5 Blacktip Sharks Turley hooked into something large. After a 20 minute battle we were able to leader up an eight foot long Sawfish. This is still considered a rare catch but we are seeing more and more of these protected prehistoric fish. Turley was stoked and we took pictures and carefully released his catch.
We were inundated with sharks so moved a few miles to another channel where I had seen Tarpon the day before but had no luck feeding them.

Turly uses the 8' Fox Trek Travel rod fitted with a
Diablo 750 to catch a 200lb Sawfish

Turley's Sawfish comes up from the depths

we carefully released this accidetal rare catch

you can see the length underwater

Michele hooked up first and it was a Hammerhead Shark. Not a common catch either but with spring like conditions the channels were holding all kinds of hungry fish. Next it was Turley's turn. He hooked a Tarpon over 100lbs.It was his first Tarpon ever. Turley has grown up fishing and really handled the tackle expertly. He used the Sailfish Trek Diablo 750 combo on his Tarpon and his Sawfish.

Greyhounding jumps

the Sailfish Trek travel rod and Diablo 750 spinning reel
was the ticket for Turley catching his first Tarpon

Turley bows his rod to keep his Tarpon from jumping off

I really enjoy seeing the young ones out here fishing. It took Turley half an hour to land his Tarpon. Well done !

Now the tide was slacking and the bite was over. We headed back about halfway and set up on one of the Bomb Craters. Just small snapper here so we moved to another one. Good fishing here and we finished the day keeping a limit of Mangrove Snapper for dinner and released Groupers and Mackerel. We used the Rage Ultralight Diablo 350 combos for this action. Michele had an outstanding Black Grouper catch on the Rage Ultralight rod of 26 inches.

Michelle Wall did an excellent job landing this
Black Grouper on a Rage Ultralight rod fitted with a Diablo 350 reel

fishing one of the bomb craters Turley caught the
largest Mangrove Snapper of the day

Turley had a blast using Rage Ultralight
tackle catching Cero Mackerels

What a day. Still flat calm and the water temp had risen to 75 degrees F by the end of the day.

On Sunday the wind turned  Southwest and today changed to NW. So until it gets back into the east the Tarpon fishing will slow. This time of year you need just the right weather and wind directions to score Tarpon. But if you hit it right the fishing can be outstanding like it was for young Turley and Michele.

Captain Skip Nielsen