May 2006

Tarpon Time It seems like I just finished up with the April fishing report and May is almost over. The Tarpon are still biting from Government Cut down along the ocean side flats all the way to Key West and over to Flamingo. The big thing for my customers last month was Tarpon fishing out in the open Gulf and getting 20 or 30 shots at Tripletails. The big surprise was there were permit mixed in with the Tarpon schools, That’s a real bonus! The Snook fishing has been consistently good although I had not found them on the Gulf beaches yet. The Gulf is loaded with schools of Pilchards, Mullets and some other baits, this is the time of year when the Snook get schooled up on the beaches. The bone fishing will be really good thru July, then it will be an early or late in the day fishery because of the mid day heat. The bonefish crowds are down right now because more guys are Tarpon fishing. The Permit should be really active in the next few weeks. I will be doing flats charters in my new 18 Maverick HPX, now along with the Pathfinder 22; I have the best of both worlds. This past year I kind of got away from pure flats fishing, without having a technical poling skiff it was difficult. I’m excited about it, the Bonefish, Permit, Tarpon and shallow water Reds better watch out! 05-2-06 Mark and Amin wanted Tarpon, we tried all morning but only one boat was lucky enough to hook up. Mark asked if we could try off shore I said sure lets catch some bait. After catching some pilchards we went offshore and hooked some decent Kingfish and a 25-inch Dolphin, all which pulled plenty of drag. On the way in we went Trout fishing inside the bay, we ended up with10 or so nice trout all hooked on Gulp Shrimp. 05-03-06 Today, I fished with the Ferguson’s from Virginia, Tom and his wife and daughter. We started out fishing some live finger mullet under a float for Snook, not much was happening when all of a sudden both floats went under. The fish pulled some drag; one came off and the other continued to fight. It was a jumbo Trout of about a 24 inches. We decided to look for the Tarpon on the beaches, it was slick calm and all types of species were destroying the baits. We caught Mackerel, Ladyfish, big Sharks, Trout and Catfish. There were to many fish beating the Tarpon to the bait, so we decided to go Tripletail fishing. We started off of Cape Sable and worked the trap lines out off the park boundaries. This was one of those days when I lost count of how many shots we had. 05-06-06 Today I fished with Irwin and Terry, Irwin is a die-hard fly fisherman. I promised him Tarpon only the wind was steady and out of a bad direction (South). We fished the beaches hoping to get a Snook, nothing but Trout. We kept our eyes open for tarpon but there were only a few free jumpers. I asked if he wanted to try Tripletail on fly, why not he answered. We fished Tripletails for 5 hours caught plenty but here’s the catch. There were Permit and big Mackerel (6lbs) mixed in the area. The Permit just kept our hopes up but the Mackerel were accommodating. On the way in Terry caught a nice Jewfish and then had a big Shark, which we couldn’t stop. All in all it was a busy day. 05-09-06 Tonight, I went Tarpon fishing with my buddy Pete. I hadn’t rained here in months but tonight it came down like there was now end. We ended up hiding from the rain but hooked two big Snook by nights end. 05-13-06 Tonight I’m out with Wayne and Roy, it started out slow but by the end of the night we had 10 crabs eaten by Tarpon. This was one of those great nights when the shrimp were running and the Tarpon were popping them on the surface. We landed 4 of 9 Roy caught his first Tarpon @ 60 lbs. Wayne caught a couple one @70 and then we ran out of crabs. I said I know where they will be! As soon as we arrived I heard them popping, we end up hooking and jumping a bunch. 05-15-06 thru 05-20-06 This week I’m up in Titusville, Fl. Fishing the 3rd leg of the FLW east division. One of the bonuses of fishing the Redfish tours is the actual pre-fishing. It is a challenge, at every event you have to figure it out or go home crying. One of the other “perks” is hanging out in the parking lot at the hotel or weigh-in site, this is were you make new friends, socialize with sponsors and sometimes get a helpful hint. This past tournament my partner Captain Timmy Shabareck homework paid off. He found some fish in practice and they were there for us both days of the tournament. Day one we were 17th with 10-02 and the second day started out quickly. I poled Timmy around and the Redfish started to pop up. He caught a small one, which didn’t measure. The wind was stiff at 20-25 mph and we poled straight into for along way to keep the sun to our back, so we can see thru the glare. I spot a wake, he cast were hooked up to a 3lb Red. It’s a start. As we set up another school pops up Timmy cast and hooks a good one, it looks like a perfect fish. We measured him on the measuring board; on one side he’s over on the other side it is close. At this point there’s fish all around so we figure we can catch another one. We put him in the well knowing he could go either way depends on the way the tournament official measures him. We have had this problem before and the wrong decision takes money out of your pocket. We bumped up some other schools but the water was dropping really fast and we were about out of time. We caught a 4 pounder and tossed the 7 1/2 lb fish back, very hard decision. That was it for the day we saw another 30 fish but could not get them to eat. We ended up in with 17-02 and in 35 place out of 140 boats, you know the fish released would of put us in the finals (if he measured) that’s was really close for us. No regrets we had a great tournament. 05-24-06 Todd and Kurt are in town for a week of fly-fishing from Marco Island to Key West. We fished the backcountry of Whitewater Bay and out along the coast, conditions were not perfect but Kurt hooked a 50lb Tarpon. The pair ended up with a couple small Snook on fly to save the day. 05-25-26-06 Today I fished with Marvin Seigal. The Target is Tarpon on fly and nothing else matters. The weather was nice early and there were some scattered Tarpon around we never really found the big concentrations. That didn’t stop us we cast in the general areas we saw them all day and then were finally run off by big storms. Day 2 the outside boat ramp at Flamingo was supposed to open this morning bad information by a park ranger had us use the backcountry ramp and make a long run for nothing. We were in Tarpon all day either to far away or roll behind us and not really get a shot at one. The water came up so high in the afternoon the Tarpon were difficult to find. After 2 days of seeing plenty of Tarpon, we had no hookups. I do not take this very well and apologized to Marvin. 05-27-06 Today is what I was looking for yesterday. Joe and Sal just wanted to catch fish. The tide was falling all morning and the fish were getting concentrated into a general area. After loosing a decent Snook and a big Tarpon on a Gulp shrimp, I was getting nervous. Joe caught a nice Snook of 23 inches and the Tarpon were really starting toll get active. The wind was dead and it was getting hot, both the fishing and the heat.I had netted a bunch of mullet and it didn’t take long. There was a mullet running and jumping for his life and a large Tarpon behind him, after 1 jump he was off. While we were fishing the live mullet behind the boat the pair of anglers were casting to rolling Tarpon. Joe hooked a nice fish of 40 inches, which after a good battle we landed; he was caught on a Gulp shrimp. It wasn’t long after we had another Tarpon in the air on a mullet but for some reason the circle hook didn’t set. Sal caught a nice Trout then we went out and live baited with the rest of the mullet. We had plenty of action but didn’t land a fish, the conventional rods were doubling over and having drag pulled and the fish were not staying hooked up. We are getting the hot, dry, muggy weather, which usually means great Tarpon fishing down in Everglades National Park. Like I said, I have the new technical poling skiff which will get me to the shallow water fish but I don’t want to forget the families and groups of friends that I can fish on the Pathfinder 22.I plan on catching plenty of Dolphin this summer on the Pathfinder. If having a good day of catching fish is sounds enjoyable, give me a call at 305- 333 –8149 any time. Let’s go catch’em Captain Jimbo CaughtLookinCharters.com Select another page || Go to Home Page

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