Captain Skip's Fox Sport Fishing Blog: When the winds blow you find a lee in which to fish...

Back to back cold fronts have slowed the Tarpon fishing the last few days. I have heard of a few being caught including a nice 30lber on a Bonefish Trek rod and Diablo spinning reel by Dick Alt. That was last Wednesday. He also released Redfish and caught a limit of fat fine eating Mangrove Snapper. That was on a day with the winds whipping up to 25 mph out of the north west. He asked me about leaving the dock that morning. Is it possible to catch anything at all? I replied "there is always a lee somewhere here in the keys". We had a fun filled morning fishing the island motes of the backcountry and were able to run in the lee of the banks.

Thursday and Friday I had Will and Craig Balsam as my fishing guests. The winds were still howling but we had plenty of light tackle action in the backcountry. Using Fox Sport Fishing Bonefish, and Tarpon Trek rods and Diablo 350 and 750 spinning reels the father son team caught a little of everything. Redfish, Barracuda, Lemon Sharks, Seatrout, Ladyfish and Jack Crevalles made for a couple action packed outings.

On Friday morning the Magidson family joined me. Paul and 15 year old son,Charles and Jim and his son Jack (7). The day began with calm seas finally. We headed to one of the Bomb Craters out in the Gulf of Mexico where I had seen a big school of Snapper not long ago. This was a great place to take young Jack. He learned to use the Bonefish Trek rod and Diablo 350 spinning reel in no time. I was very impressed how quickly he picked it up. Casting and hooking Snapper after Snapper. We even let a few Gag Grouper go at that spot as well.

Now 15 year old Charles wanted a big Shark. It was still pretty calm with light winds out of the south so we headed out further to a wreck located near Cape Sable.

This was great fishing. Charles got his big shark, about a 200lb Bull which he caught using a Tarpon Trek spin rod fitted with a Diablo 750 spinning reel. After re-anchoring and setting up again Charles landed two 100lb Goliath Groupers. Jim and Paul caught a mixed bag of Pompano, Lookdowns and Seatrout and tons of Crevalle Jack. Now the wind was up so we headed back to the calm of the island motes where we ended the day catching some more snapper for young Jack. Jim saw a big shark cruise by. I set the Boatrod XT and EOS Trolling reel out baited with a ladyfish. It wasn't long before our big fish man Charles was doing battle once more to end the day with a big Lemon Shark.

During the night a line of storms rolled thru and by morning it was blowing 25 out of the north and pretty chilly. 65 F is cold to me..

But again we fished the lee-side of islands in the backcountry catching small sharks, seatrout, snapper and jacks. by noon the wind was down to about 15 and the sun was out and we fished the close in patch reefs. Using the Bonefish Trek rods and Rage Ultralight rods we had fun catching grouper, yellowtails and porgys. To finish we found a hot bite of Crevalle Jack and Big Ladyfish and Spinner sharks. An action packed 2 days for the Magidson family.

Took today (Saturday) off. Started out chilly in the low 60's. The rest of the week is supposed to warm up. I can't wait to get back on the Tarpon.

Captain Skip Nielsen