Summer Backcountry Fishing Is As Good As It Gets!

This past week we had great conditions for fishing the area around Cape Sable. It is a 30 mile run from Islamorada but is truly a wilderness and an awesome fishery.

My guests this past week included David Kubert and Steve Kost for an action packed 3 days, Jeff and Christine Thompson for a day, and Liz and Mark Harris for a couple days. All my guests had days of Tarpon, Snook and Redfish, along with all the action fish while baiting up like Mangrove Snapper, Ladyfish, Seatrout and Crevalle Jacks. 

The Tarpon bite was very good. Liz Harris got her first ever fly-caught Tarpon while Mark jumped a couple off and Jeff had a few in the air as well. Live bait fishing under corks was a blast for the Tarpon. These Tarpon are medium size fish. 20 to 60 lbs and jump like crazy.

Great sport using Fox Sport Fishing's Permit Trek travel rods fitted with Diablo 550 spinning reels. 

After spending mornings Tarpon fishing we explored creek mouths and shorelines. Snook and Redfish were plentiful and all my guests caught "Backcountry Slams" consisting of all 3 species on one outing. Nice!

Big Sharks are on the prowl and fighting a fish for any length of time invites them in so quick releases were done in most places we fished. Bull sharks and Lemon's are great sport in the shallow water as well and are part of the eco-system and unfortunately can associate boats with easy pickings so lots of the time we catch a fish or two then move to another spot. Bait on the edges of the flats is thick right now. Baby pilchards and Ballyhoo are swarming and all the Crevalle Jacks and Ladyfish are right behind.

Tarpon will be around the rest of the summer in the far backcountry and readily take flies and lures. Mornings are best for this action. In the afternoons thunderstorms build over the mainland and you should be on your way back by 2pm latest to avoid the threat. I backed off the drags, sprayed some lubricant and loosened the rod pieces up and stored the tackle til November. I am on a bus-mans' holiday until then fishing the western USA flyfishing.

Here is just a few pictures from my last week of summer fishing...

Captain Skip Nielsen

4-spotted Redfish for Steve Kost

Chistine Thompson with a jumping Tarpon

Christine's photo finish

David Kubert releases this Tarpon from the livewell
after carefully taking the hook out, Again

David Kubert with an honest to goodness Great Hammerhead

DK got his Redfish using a Diablo 350 spin reel
mounted on an Ultralight Fox Rage rod

DK had fun with the Fox 9 weight Trek Flyrod

DK with one of many Snook caugth the last week of June

double header of Tarpon for Liz and Mark on
Permit Trek rods and Diablo 550 spin reels

Fishing creek mouths with Bonefish Trek rods
was very productive for Redfish

fishing the shorelines of Cape Sable with Bonefish Trek rods
and Diablo 350 spinning reels David Kubert released lots of Snook

Jeff Thompson with a nice Redfish caught on a
Rage rod and Diablo 350 spinning reel

limit of tasty Mangrove Snappers.
All caught on Fly using Fox 9 weight Trek flyrods

Liz and Mark Harris

Liz Harris catching her first Tarpon on a
flyrod built by Fox Sport Fishing

Liz Harris Nice Redfish

lots of Jacks cruising the beaches of Cape Sable.
Steve Kost used a Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo here

Mangrove Snapper provided fast action for
Jeff Thompson on the Fox Trek 9 weight fly rod

Mark and Liz Harris had fun fly casting with the 9 weight Fox flyrod

Mark Harris and the Fox Sport Fishing Permit Trek travel rod
and Diablo 550 spinning reel on this crazy Tarpon

medium sized Tarpon perfect on Fox Permit Trek rods

nice air on this Tarpon for Jeff

nice Redfish for Liz on the Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo

since the big freeze in 2010 these guys are making a good comeback

Snook for Mark

Steve Kost points his Permit Trek rod at this Tarpon

Steve needed this Snook for his Slam

Steve with the 9weight and a fat Snapper

Tarpon on Permit Trek Diablo 550 combo for DK

we have lift-off

A Great Week Of Fishing

Great fishing this past week, Tarpon continued to give my Fox Sport Fishing Diablo spinning reels a workout. On March 4 I had youngsters Dick Alt and Frank Vecella. Two very amazing men. Both are in incredible physical shape. Frank is a young 82 and caught an estimated 150lb Tarpon and a Sawfish around 200lbs. He used a Tarpon Trek travel rod fitted with a Diablo 750 spinning reel. Dick is a tad younger but he caught a couple big Bull Sharks and a nice Tarpon. He used the 8 foot Sailfish Trek travel rod fitted with a Diablo 750 spin reel. Nice job fellas.

Dick Alt with a lot of Bull Shark

A nice Tarpon for Dick Alt on the 8 foot
4 piece Sailfish Trek travel rod fitted with a Diablo 750 spin reel

Frank Vecella captured this est. 150lb Tarpon using a
7 foot 4 piece Tarpon Trek travel rod fitted with a Diablo 750 spin reel

Frank Vecella with his big Tarpon

this critter took a Tarpon bait. nice catch on a spinning rod

Yesterday was a pretty amazing day as well. Scott Barco and Steve Arch each caught and released big Permit. We were patch reef fishing for the table but I saw the tell tale flashing of Permit and rigged up our Permit Trek rod and Diablo 550 spinning reel. We cast out the bait and it was quickly inhaled both times. Big battles on the light tackle. The Diablo reels have amazing drags(clutch) and these fish took runs of over 150 meters. On Steve's Permit we had to give chase as there were numerous lobster trap buoys around. I was very impressed to say the least. Plenty of nice eating fish were caught as well.

A new specie for the Diablo 350 spin reel 
and Rage ultralight combo

Black Grouper release for Scott Barcon
using a Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo

Scott Barco quickly released this Permit he caught using
a 4 piece Permit Trek rod and Diablo 550 spin reel

Steve Arch caught this world class Permit on a
Fox Sport Fishing Permit Trek travel rod and Diablo 550 spin reel

Hogfish, Mangrove Snapper and Yellowtails...
good eats

Also during the week we fished the Gulf of Mexico and had good action with Spanish Mackerel and Mangrove Snapper using Bonefish Trek travel rods fitted with Diablo 350 spinning reels.
Diablo spinning reels are just plain tough. I use them day in and day out with hardly any maintenance. Love 'em.

Captain Skip Nielsen

A Good Fishing Trip for the Ambulance Crew

On April 16-19 I had the the so-called ambulance crew fishing with me. These fine fellows have been coming to Bud n Marys Marina now for a few years with trip organizer Dave Lewis. I had Del Eliott, Ray Jennings, Martin Campbell and Bob Clements fishing with me.

Del and Ray use the Fox Trek XT Boat rods to catch Sea Monsters

Del was looking to add some new species to his lifelong list. We spent the first day fishing channels out in the backcountry. We were hoping for some big Sharks and possibly a Stingray. Well Del got his wish and more. Not one, but 3 Sawfish took his shark baits and were carefully released after giving Del some serious pulling. Using the Fox Trek 5 piece XT Boat rods fitted the new EOS trolling reels really made the difference. These are some tough rods and very easy on the user. I have taken these rods on my travels to Panama to catch Marlin and Roosterfish trolling with live Tuna as bait. Being that they are 5 piece makes them super easy to travel with. We spooled the EOS reels with 65lb Horizon Fox braided line to do the job. Lots of Sharks were released as well on this day.

up periscope

watch out

wrapped up

On the second day Del and Martin fished with me. We did the backcountry flats and island moats. Redfish, Snook, Trout, Tarpon were part of the day. Del got a backcountry grand slam consisting of Redfish, Tarpon and Snook in the same day. Martin casted a bait to a 6' Lemon Shark sightfishing on the flats giving him a very exciting battle. He used the Sailfish Trek rod fitted with a Diablo 750 spinning reel for this. Del sight fished and casted a bait to a large Southern Stingray for another species to add to his list.

Martin Campbell caught his Snook on the
 Fox Rage Ultralight Diablo 350 combo

Del and Ray had plenty of action at the Bomb Craters using the
Rage Ultralight rods fitted with Fox Diablo reels

Del caught this Snook on a Fox Bonefish Trek Diablo 350 combo

fishing around mangrove island moats was fun using
Fox Rage ultralight rods and Diablo 350 reels

Day 3, I was back on the boat with Ray and Del. These guys must really like fishing with me. We spent the morning Tarpon fishing and were rewarded with some great action using live mullet for bait. Crashes and splashes. Del and Ray successfully landed a Tarpon each. For the afternoon we fished the bayside for light tackle variety. 3 species of Grouper, Mangrove Snapper were caught using Fox Rage Ultralight rods fitted with the Diablo 350 spinning reels.Fixed spool across the sea. We caught some more mullet on the way home .We tried a couple spots for Tarpon but the bite was off. As I was headed for the dock I spotted mullet being chased and it was Crevalle Jacks going crazy. We used all our mullet and had a blast catching these super tough fighters.  A great ending.

Ray and Del caught these Crevalle Jacks while on a sunset Tarpon trip

Ray Jennings had 2 Tarpon releases using the
 Fox Trek Tarpon Spincast EOS 30 combo

Ray Jennings Tarpon

Del Elliot uses the Fox 5 piece XT Boat rod to catch
3 Mud Marlins This rod can do it  all

Del added another specie to his list. Southern
Stingray caught on a Fox Trek Sailfish Diablo 750 combo

On day 4 I had Martin Campbell and Bob Clements. These guys requested Tarpon fishing. Fine with me as it is my favorite. After catching a livewell full or frisky mullet with my castnet we anchored in closeby Indian Key channel. The Tarpon were in a feeding mood today. Bob and Martin each released 2 Tarpon making it 4 for the day. We had more bites and some that got away but that made for lots of action. My crew (ambulance) used the Fox 5 piece Tarpon spincast rods fitted with EOS trolling reels for the Tarpon fishing. A fantastic piece of kit.

Bob Clements admires one of the 2 Tarpon he caught using the
Fox 5 piece Tarpon Spincast travel rod fitted with an EOS 30 reel

Bob Clements with a jumping Tarpon

going for the release

Martin Campbell had plenty of Tarpon action

Martin Campbell with his Tarpon

Martin Campbell with yet another Tarpon

Martin Campbell

Tarpon release for Martin Campbell

Del Elliott Tarpon

Del used the Tarpon Spincast
EOS 30 combo to release 2 Tarpon

Skip releasing Del Elliot's Tarpon

A great time was had by all the other anglers as well on this trip to Islamorad, Florida Keys.

Captain Skip Nielsen