| if bugs are biting so are fish
Flamingo
June was an excellent month, the Tarpon and Snook were eating live Mullet; the more Mullet I could net the more fish my customers would hook up. There were days we would go thru hundreds of Mullet of all sizes, the perfect mullet is about 6 inches and a live well full. There were days like Allen England and his wife had, 40 to50 bites in a five-hour period under tropical depression conditions. They caught Snook, Tarpon, Jacks, and Sharks to 250lbs. This was a good day the show that went on with it was spectacular baits were being busted everywhere around us. Their second day was cancelled because of a tropical storm. The fishing is always better right before or as the storm approaches and they really got to experience it.
I had two Russian guys on the boat, which spoke little to no English. I guess fishing is a universal language because we got along fine all day with out really talking much. They wanted to catch fish and I understand that no matter what language. They caught Snook Sharks, Jewfish and had a few big Tarpon on Storm thumper tails all while fishing the Gulf of Mexico.
Dave and Keith got more of the same. The Tarpon were thick out in the Gulf, but to catch 1 Tarpon you would have to go thru 10 Sharks all sizes. Initially most people say cool but after fighting 5 to 10 sharks they would let they guard down and that's when a Tarpon would surprise them and jump. If you have ever fished on my boat you know I try to prepare you for the possibilities of the things that could happen. These guys are good anglers and made the best of all opportunities. I know they will never forget the look on the12 lb Snookhad in his eyes, Keith was trying keep a bull shark from eating him, you could see the fear in the Snooks eyes. (really)
Jeff and Don Bender had a similar day some Snook, but we waited all day for the falling tide and the Tarpon to bite. This day we started out with top water plugs in the potholes for big Trout, we caught 3 over 23 inches. This is how good the fishing was in June; we waited all day for the Tarpon turn on and when they did we were out of Mullet. I think we had one left put him out and I broke out the cast net the Mullet were pouring out of the creek. One good toss and I had a couple to get us thru the afternoon. The Tarpon bit and we ended up 1 for 3 with a 40 pounder ended our day.
Jason brought his dad and brother in from Texas, day one at Flamingo was decent, we jumped Tarpon in the morning and hooked a lot of big Sharks while waiting for the Tarpon bite. The middle of the day was slow with a lot of heavy tide movement, but as soon as the tide switched the Tarpon started to bust the mullet just like every other trip I've described. The difference this time was we were close enough to cast to them and let the bait drift back to where their feeding station was. The bite was on, we hooded 5 and landed 1 with the others doing what Tarpon do and jumping off.
Snook in Miami is very good. The big fish are in the inlets where they are in the spawning mode, big jigs on the bottom, live bait or plugs it can be done any way you want. The Tarpon schools are usually gone by now but this year there are still some around eating crabs at dusk.
This is great time of year small Tarpon, big Snook, Redfish and Sharks they are out to eat everything. If you are interested in a fun day on the water give me a call at 305 333-8149 and ill help make it happen.
Tournament scene
I know every competitive weekend angler has watched the Bassmasters or the FLW and has dreamed being a professonal angler on "Tour". I really do know this because I was that guy until 5 years. Thru hard work and support from my wife and kids, (being away for 7-10 days is tough) and sponsors, I am a full fledged "touring pro". It just don't get any cooler than this, heres what I am getting to. Driving up and down the State of Florida across Alabama, Mississippi ,Lousiana and Texas with a wrapped boat gets alot of attention for us and the sponsors. When we stop people want to talk to us, it's COOL. I highly recommend it if you have ever thought about it. I am trying to pass on some info in my reports so anyone who reads it can see how we go about finding fish and dealing with problems we have in an area we have never been toand maybe it be usefull in your fishing.
Redfish cup-
Alabama -7 days of pre-fishing and we still didn't have a pattern, to much fresh water in Mobil Bay so we were running from Alabama to Louisiana trying to see if it was practical for tournament day. This shows what mentality it takes to fish these pro circuits. I really don't mean that as a good thing it was absolutely stupid in my opinion but hind sight is 20-20. The first day we had no game plan because the weather scared us off of running 130 miles to the Biloxi marsh. Day one we only ran 50 miles to a place we had never fished but looked good on the charts. My partner Tim hooked up before the boat came to a stop. 17 9/10 inches, a hair to short. We caught 7 and everyone was identical we would of been happy with two of those. We stopped at a few areas that looked good to us and caught a 3lb fish, it got us to the weigh in's. We ended up running 90 miles to Pensacola the second day we caught 12 Redfish for a total of almost 10 lbs, we ended up in 58 place. Mobil Bay is very large. we traveled a long distances in rough conditions we logged over 700 miles in 5 days of fishing.
Chalmette Louisiana- More of the same here plenty of running around, the one thing that helped us out was this is where we pre-fished during the Alabama tournament. The fishing was ok for us during the pre fish days, we never made it to the area where as we found out later all the bigger fish were caught. The one-day we were in the area we had to help out another team get back to the dock during a serious storm.
Day one- Our number 1 spot was supposed to have very low water first thing in the morning, we were counting on low water. The wind which was blowing out of the west blew in a lot of water, in turn the Reds make their way in to the back of the marsh making them harder to locate. Our plan was to get two and run out to the open gulf where we had been on some big fish. 9 am fishing is tough, very high water we caught our 2 Reds like planned and made the run outside to the open gulf islands. Timmy hooked up a nice fish that made 2 short strong runs and came up to the surface shook his head and let go, looked to be about 8 lbs. We ended up with 11.26 lbs for day 1.
Day 2- we decide to go straight to the area where the big fish had been; unfortunately storms changed our plans for 3 hours, as we dodged lightning strikes and rainsqualls.
The squalls slowed and we made the 12-mile run to "our spot" we had so much faith in
There was no water and we couldn't get to the back where we found the Redfish.
We decided to try another area not far from where we were. When we arrived we looked for an area out of the wind with some running water we found a large Red in the back of a creek. My partner thru a top water and it got destroyed a 10lb Red that measured 27 inches, we squeezed the tail and it was a hair over. This hurt but we went on to the next creek. The Reds were feeding busting shrimp against the sides of the creek. This time I thru the top water and was rewarded with a 25 inch 6lb Red, the next cast Timmy got a seven pounder we were at 13lbs and figured out how to get the bigger fish. It was 12:30w e were going to move to the next creek and the boat wouldn't budge the tide was falling and we were in trouble.
To make a long story short we pushed, pulled and muscled the boat for a hundred feet until it floated. It was 3:45 and we had 45 miles to get back. the last thing we want to do was tempt fait. We made it back early and weighed in 13 lbs for a total of 24 23lbs. We finished in 68place. While on stage the ESPN 2 announcer made the comment on how he wished he had a Flanigan's burger right about now. It's good when the sponsors are noticed on stage.
Starting in August ESPN 2 will be airing the Redfish Cup and Fox sports net will air the FLW. Hopefully the 5 minute piece I did ON ESPN 2 n Alabam will air.
ttp://www.redfishnation.com/RedfishCup/
http://www.flwoutdoors.com/
We are getting ready now for the next tourn. in Port Charlotte July 15-16
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