Fishing Report May 2014

After strong north east winds at the beginning of last week and some challenging fishing conditions it has suddenly turned into Summer.

The so-called Ambulance Crew visited last week from England. Martin Founds hosts this group and they all stay at Bud 'n' mary's marina. What a fun group. They used 5 or 6 guides and caught a little bit of everything. Tarpon fishing was kind of slow last week because of the winds and previous week's late season cool front but now the Tarpon have turned back on. Here are some pictures of my crews from the last 10 days.

this happy crew released 2 Tarpon and kept a Black Grouper for dinner.

quite the fish story for Martin Campbell on his Bullshark capture

Phil of the Ambulance crew scores a first ever

Len stopping traffic with this Tarpon
he released using Fox Sport Fishing tackle

Martin Campbell with another first ever capture
using the Boatrod XT EOS 50 combo

Neil Stewart caught this Goliath Grouper
using the Fox Boatrod XT Travel rod
fitted with an EOS Trolling reel

One interesting story was of angler Martin Cambell catching a Bull Shark the hard way. He had wanted to fish for a Bull and landed a Mud Marlin(sawfish) in the morning. Fishing the bottom with a live blue runner on a Sailfish Trek rod and Diablo 750 spin reel , Martin hooked what I believed to be a grouper by the way it was fighting. After a short battle the line started zinging out and I told him I thought a shark had eaten his grouper. Martin kinda looked at me like ,yea sure. Anyway soon this 10lb gag grouper head comes sliding up the line,comes off and starts floating. We gaffed the head and continued the battle. After half an hour Martin brings a 250lb Bull Shark alongside my skiff . Lo and behold the lips and half the grouper head are still attached to the 5/0 circle hook. All this was on a monofilament leader as well. So Martin got his Bullshark the hard way. Martin also released a Tiger Shark in the backcountry 2 days later fishing with Jim Willcox.

a little Bullfighting for Skip. note the
5 piece Fox Boatrod XT trek rod and EOS 50 Trolling reel

Ray Jennings caught and released a nice sized Bonefish. Del Elliot got a nice Tarpon and a small Permit on a very windy day. On their last day it was calm and I was able to take Ray and Del out to one of the wrecks 30 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. There the boys wore themselves out releasing multiple Goliath Groupers and as many Bull Sharks as wanted. Even a nice Cobia was taken by Del on a Rage Ultralight rod and Diablo 350 combo for the dinner table at Lazy Days restaurant.

Ray Jennings caught this nice Spanish Mackerek
on the Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo

Ray Jennings caught his Bonefish on Fox Sport Fishing tackle

this Permit was on  Del Elliot's bucket list

GOLIATH

Del with an ultralight catch of this large Ladyfish
aka Poor Man's Tarpon

Del releasing his Goliath Grouper that he caught using
Fox Sport Fishing's Boatrod XT and EOS Trolling reel combo.

Del Elliot gets his Tarpon release using Fox Sport Fishing tackle

Cobia for Del Elliott on the Rage ultralight rod and Diablo 350 spin reel

Neil Stewart went along the next day and it was slick oily calm. Off we went again to the gulf wrecks. Fishing was hot and so was the temp. Goliaths, Crevalle Jacks, Bullsharks and Cobia. Saw some Permit but could not get them to bite.

Clive Bruton from England fly fished for Tarpon 2 days this week. We had a couple takes and follows but did not land one. We strictly sight fished , which Clive had never done before and he was amazed and is now even more addicted to fly fishing . He has fished the Yucatan extensively for Tarpon and it is mostly casting to rolling fish in murky water. Seeing a string of Tarpon swimming directly at you and making a perfect presentation can get the heart thumping big time. Clive used a Fox Sport Fishing 5 piece 10-12 weight fly rod. He'll be back next season for sure.

Neil Stewart and friends did a sunset trip night before last. The Tarpon bite was on. We spent time throwing the cast net and catching live mullet which paid off. The surface bites were really exciting. We released 2 and probably had 10 others crashing the mullet but not quite taking them..We call that cheap shots.
Also a nice Black Grouper was caught. So a nice outing was had.

channel 2 Tarpon takes to the air for Neil Stewart

Yesterday I fished Cathy and Cliff Fox with their good friend Freddy DuPreez. These fine folks just love to Tarpon fish and are very patient. After spending a good hour netting mullet we fished the rest of the day. Cathy, as usual caught the first Tarpon. She ended up with 2 for the day. Cliff released 2 as well. Freddy had one go thru his leader and had plenty more crash his bait. We have 5 more days to fish so I am sure Freddy will get a few.

I get hi-fives from Cathy. She did a great job on a tough Tarpon
using the EOS 30 Trolling reel and Tarpon Trek rod

Freddy DuPreez fights a nice Tarpon
on the 8' Sailfish Trek Diablo 750 combo

Cliff is using the Tarpon Trek rod and
Diablo 750 on his 2nd Tarpon of the day

Cliff Fox gets a jump out of his first Tarpon of the trip

Cathy looks on as Cliff fights a big Tarpon at Long Key Viaduct

Cathy Fox catches first Tarpon of the trip.
Freddy DuPreez does the release

Phil with a Pompano on the
Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo

Tarpon up-close

Woke up this morning to summer time conditions. Lightening flashes in the sky, thunderheads and then clearing off for a beautiful day. Gotta love summer and the fishing.

We have been using all the Fox Sport Fishing tackle lately.  All of the 4 and 5 piece Trek travel rods. Sailfish, Tarpon, Permit and Bonefish Trek rods. Fitted with invincible Diablo spinning reels. And for the Goliath grouper and huge bullsharks the XT 4 piece boatrods and EOS reels. All kind of action and variety now as the lessened winds allow me to go everywhere the fish live.

Also here is a quick video from utube of the other nights action   http://youtu.be/-OOv5hqpRgM

Captain Skip Nielsen

Great Week Of Action

Busy is all I can say. Fishing for Tarpon has been up and down. At the end of the week a hard cold front pushed thru shutting down the Tarpon bite for a few days. We had great fishing all week though releasing 2 to 5 Tarpon a day.

One of the highlights was finding a school of 300 or more Redfish on the flats and catching doubles and triples until we lost them in deeper water. Another highlight was a big Black Grouper caught by Rick Evans.

So many nice Tarpon bites this week until the North Wind came through. Sharks, Snook and Trout and Ladyfish made a couple days for us. Hopefully the wind will get back in an easterly direction. Here are pics of the last few days.

Captain Skip Nielsen

Don Thomas and Mark Ried each caught nice Groupers.
Neil Stewart in the middle jumped off a couple of Tarpon

Hugh Dennis with a fat Snapper making
the best of 30 mph north winds.
And the Tarpon did not bite

in 3 days of fishing Rick Evans,Jason Evans and
Stanley McJunkin had 12 released Tarpon.
Very few jumped more than once strange

Jason Evans on day 3 gets the first Tarpon release

Jason Evans put full  pressure on a big Tarpon
with the Sailfish Trek Diablo 750 combo

Jason Evans Tarpon puts on a show

Neil Stewart and Mark Ried are having Seatrout for dinner

on this 3rd action packed day the trio caught plenty of
 fat Mangrove Snapper

Randy Soth gets a jump

Randy Soth gets his release after a very tough battle

Richard Hendrix caught this nice Redfish,
but no big school to be found like the day before

Richard Hendrix scored his first ever Snook on
Fox Sport Fishing's Bonefish Trek rod and Diablo 350 spinning reel

Rick Evans is pointing out his Tarpon
while Stanley drives and Jason stands by

Rick Evans with a big Red caught on a Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo

Rick Evans with a spectacular Black Grouper he caught
while Tarpon fishing

singles, doubles and triples for an hour straight
til we lost the school in deeper water

Stanley gets a jump out of this one

Stanley got the 2nd Tarpon of the day out in the backcountry

Stanley McJunkin with one of his big Redfish

Stanley releases one of Rick Evans Tarpons

Steve Johnson and Richard Hendrix battled northerly cool
winds in May but still had some action including this Seatrout

Steve Johnson got a nice Snook as well

Tom and Wendy Sims had 5 Tarpon in 2 days of fishing

Tom putting the brakes on his Tarpon.
Fox Sport Fishing Sailfish 4 piece travel rods give you incredible power

Tom Sims enjoying the view of his Tarpon leaping

Wendy Sims using  the Sailfish Trek Diablo 750 combo
on a command jumping Tarpon

Wendy tried to stop this Tarpon from going thru the bridge

here is a 7' Lemon Shark Jason Evans brought to the boat.
Note the double dorsal fins

here's cousin George getting one of his releases