May 7-10 2012
Monday Evening Craig Sudbrink released a Tarpon right at sunset, Craig was fishing with live mullet and a
Tarpon Spincast Trek rod and an
EOS 30 reel. We had fished live crabs for awhile on a hard outgoing tide but no bites until the current let up. We missed a couple more bites before calling it an evening.
On Tuesday Gary Pollock joined me for a day of backcountry fishing. First fish of the day was a 100lb Tarpon near Sandy Key. Gary used the
Sailfish Trek rod fitted with a
Diablo 750 reel for this catch. We spent the rest of the day light tackle fishing with
Bonefish Trek rods and
Diablo 350 spinning reels. Lots of Seatrout, Ladyfish, Spanish Mackerel and a limit of tasty Mangrove Snapper.
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Gary Pollock of England released this Tarpon near Sandy Key |
On the way in I got some exersize throwing the castnet and loaded up on mullet for my sunset trip with Neil Stewart and friends. The sunset bite was on fire. The boys had 3 Tarpon releases and a bunch of "cheap shots" on the live mullet. So exciting... We used
5 piece Tarpon Spincast rods and
EOS reels for this action.
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Neil gets his release |
On Wednesday it was Tom Berry and Craig Sudbrink. We spent the morning trying for a Tarpon near Sandy Key but not even a shark bite. I had a feeling and we moved to Cape Sable off the beach. As the tide started rise Tarpon were showing all around us, Rolling and freejumping, Only problem was small Blacktip sharks. Glad I had lots of mullet because in the next 3 hours we released 3 Tarpon out of 6 bites and also at least 25 sharks. It was special to see a fresh school of Tarpon had moved in from the Gulf and not another boat in sight. On the way home we spent an hour securing more mullet for the trip tomorrow. Craig and Tom had had a blast catching Tarpon and wanted another go at it.
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Tom Berry gets a jumping release |
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we had 3 hours of constant Tarpon and Shark action |
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the spray was flying with these fiesty 60lb Tarpons |
But Thursday morning was a different day. The wind was up out of the west and that was not a good thing for Tarpon fishing at Cape Sable. We changed gears and spent the morning rising tide fishing moats around backcountry islands. It was a good move. We got into good sized Redfish at 3 different locations. Using Fox
Bonefish Trek rods fitted with
Diablo 350 reels the boys released at least a dozen big Reds. Once the tide started rolling out the action was over so we spent the rest of the afternoon fishing the Transition Zone for action and some dinner. Mangrove Snappers up to 2 lbs were kept for later and plenty of Seatrout, Ladyfish and even a rare Rabbitfish was caught.
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Tom Berry and Craig Sudbrink got into a bite a Redfish |
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the hard fighting Rabbit Fish very rare catch |
Of course while I am home this morning it is slick calm but at 2 pm I am back on the water catching live mullet for a sunset trip, Can't wait!
Also I want to say that I am still using all my original Fox Sport Fishing Diablo spinning reels and EOS trolling reels. I put this tackle through day after day of constant fish battles and it refuses to break..... It is the toughest there is.
Captain Skip Nielsen