Plenty of Action to be had in the backcountry

This past Tuesday and Wednesday long time friend Brian Goerges came down to Islamorada. Brian brought his brother in law, Eric, who has just moved to south Florida and hasn't done much fishing. Until now that is. On the first day we concentrated on action fishing. We started by fishing some shallow bomb craters in search of enough Mangrove Snapper for a tasty dinner. That was easy on this morning, also while working the hole we released several Gag Grouper, Seatrout and numerous Ladyfish.

Catching fish such as this Ladyfish on the
Rage Ultralight rod and Diablo 350 is great sport

Eric released a Gag Grouper on the
Rage Ultralight - Diablo 350 combo

 We moved out into the Gulf of Mexico proper, another 6 miles, and the Spanish Mackerel bite was off the chart. It got so active that we would cast a live Pilchard out and hold the rod tip high as we cranked in. This got the macks actually skyrocketing the bait into the air.  We used Bonefish Trek rods and Diablo 350 spinning reels and also Rage ultralight rods. Some Bluefish got into the mix as well.

Brian and Eric pose with one of 40 Spanish Mackerel
released this day

Bonefish Trek and Diablo 350 spinning reels are my
go-to tackle.
Brian with nice Mangrove Snapper 

As Eric was having a great time we set him up with a Fox boat rod and EOS 30 reel with a whole live mackerel for bait. In the next hour Eric and Brian released 5 Blacktip sharks. Jumping and spinning and making fast runs the Blacktips were fun. Wore out we headed in a  little early.

Eric was totally new to Keys fishing and
had quite a time with this Blacktip Shark

On day 2 we decided to show Eric a different twist so we headed to the mainland. We went all the way to Cape Sable and fished along Mangrove shorelines and creek mouths. We released many Redfish and Sheepshead and lost a very large Snook at the boat. That's fishing.

We got into a good bite of Redfish

Brian Goerges with a another nice Redfish

Eric was the Sheepshead king

Mangrove shorelines and creek mouths
were where the Redfish were living

So a great introduction to fishing in the Everglades backcountry for Eric.

The boys will be back in April to chase Tarpons.

Captain Skip Nielsen