Variety Is The Spice Of Fishing

Fishing never gets old for me. It is always different and challenging. The last couple weeks the weather has been spectacular. And the fishing options were really anything you wanted to pursue.

PGA golfer Brandt Snedeker spent an afternoon and a day fishing with me. Two years ago he had hooked a Sailfish only to see it spit the bait on the first jump. We decided to give Sailfishing a try the first afternoon. After hair hooking a couple dozen live ballyhoo for choice live bait we headed out across the reef.

Within 20 minutes we had a sail chasing the ballyhoo and Brandt hooked up. Brandt was using a Fox Sport fishing 4 piece Permit Trek rod fitted with a Fox Diablo 550 spinning reel. Little did he know the battle would go on for over 2 1/2 hours. This Sailfish would sound all the way to the bottom(at times up to 300') and after 20 minutes would come up greyhounding and tailwalking. We could never get close to the fish and back down it would go. Finally after what seemed forever Brandt had his first ever Sailfish release. He did a great job of angling as we only were using 30lb trace for leader to not break the line and hang tough for the long fight. Next day we got into schools of Dolphin fish., not large but very sporty on Bonefish Trek rods and Diablo 350 spinning reels.

On another day Tom and Wendy Sims of Miami fished with me. Along the edge of the reef we found plenty of action with King Mackerels up to 25lbs. We used Fox Permit Trek rods and Diablo 550 spin reels on these big Kings. Also we did some patch reef fishing catching some Hogfish,Mutton and Mangrove Snappers .

Nick Charek and Tommy spent a day on the reef catching all sorts of variety including some really nice sized Groupers,Cero Mackerel,Hogfish and Mangrove Snappers.

A couple days ago Henry Hernandez and his son Brian spent a day with me. First we fished mangrove creeks over in the Everglades and had a great morning releasing over a dozen Snook and 5 Redfish. It was a slick calm day. We ran back into the middle of Florida Bay and chummed up a school of  Spanish Mackerel. Big fun on Rage Ultralight rods fitted with Diablo 350 spinning reels.
We finished the day fishing a small wreck keeping Mangrove snapper for dinner and releasing some tough fighting gag grouper.

Last but not least I spent yesterday with my favorite angling companion Cyd fishing for Snook using our canoe deep in the Everglades.  We tied the canoe onto my skiff ,crossed Florida bay,  and then launched the canoe on one of the countless creeks of the Glades backcountry. That was my Christmas present.

  I cannot say enough about the Fox Sport Fishing Diablo spinning reels. They come in 3 size's. 350,550 and  750. I have been using them for over 4 years now. At the end of my typical day they get rinsed off with fresh water and once a week get sprayed with wd 40 oil. They are simply  the toughest spinning reel out there .
 
Captain Skip Nielsen

another species of Grouper to the Keys Gag also
caught using the Diablo 350 spinning reel

Arthur Kargen calls Barracuda's  Pike on steroids

Arthur Kargen used a 4 piece Bonefish Trek rod and
a Diablo 350 spinning reel to release 12 big Barracuda

Arthur loved using light tackle Bonefish Trek rods
fitted with Diablo 350's to catch his Barracudas

Brandt Snedeker spent over 2 hours battling the toughest of Sailfish
 using the 4 piece Permit  Trek rod fitted with a Diablo

Brian Hernandez with a nice Redfish

Christmas present for me.
Getting to go canoe fishing for Snook deep in the Glades

Henry Hernandez and son Brian released a couple dozen
Snook using Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combos

I got to have a little fun while the boys had lunch using a
Rage Ultralight rod and Diablo 350 spinning reel

in the water release for Sned's first Sailfish

it was an up then down battle for Brandt's first ever Sailfish

Lauren Kargen did a great job of landing this 24 inch Red Grouper
using the Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo

nice angling by Nick Charek to muscle up this keeper Black Grouper
using a Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo

the Sim's used Diablo 350 spinning reels on the Patch Reefs

Tom Sims with another nice King Makerel on the Diablo 550 spin reel

Tommy with a fine Cero Mackerel on the
Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo

Tommy with a great eating Hogfish

Wendy Sims made this 25lb King Mackerek catch
using the Permit Trek rod and Diablo 550 reel

while looking for Sailfish we got into the
schoolie Dorado's

.