Photo of the week July 3rd

June 16, 2008

I had to find time to report. The last couple of days have been incredible I believe I am about 7 out of my last 12 tarpon jumped have been landed, on both fly and DOA terroreyez. I also live chummed some blackfin tuna today as well as little tunnies. The tuna were smaller then the tunnies but still very cool. Here are a couple of shots I took over the last few days.

June 26, 2008

The last couple of weeks have been what I look forward to all year long, calm seas and migrating tarpon. I did however have a few day stretch where I did not land a tarpon I believe we jumped off 12 in a row, but everyday my clients at least jumped multiple fish. There were some very memorable days like Jim Simcoke's first big tarpon on fly landed in some 20 years, he has hooked plenty with me but this was the first one landed. That day we went 2 for 2 on tarpon and caught 2 cobia, one big one 40 plus pounds and one smaller 18 pound fish. Another highlight was long time client Jim Ray with his first sailfish. His wife Lara also jumped several tarpon. And just on Tuesday, a last minute cancellation turned into an opening for John Vaughn and his wife Jen, who made the most of their opportunity going 1 for 3 on tarpon and 4 for 6 on permit, and I also think John mixed in a 25 pound jack. I love Stuart year round but I really love it in the summer. I still have about 2 weeks open for June of 2009 so if you want to experience the tarpon migration book now. Here are some shots from the last week or so.

July 3, 2008

Well happy Independence Day, there were plenty of fireworks this week. Another week of variety, from cobia, little tunny, huge sharks, and of course our always present snook and tarpon. One of my favorite highlights from week was the day that I was able to put 15 year old Jamie Wreden on his first fish ever on a flyrod, and to make it better it was a sight fished snook! Great job Jamie. I also had a day with Rob Alpers that was incredible, after catching some snook and chasing tarpon in the river and having some bites but no solid hook ups we decided to go live chumming offshore. That is when the action began, after loads of little tunny on fly a few bull sharks started showing behind the boat and with them were the cobia, so Rob got his first cobia on fly. Rob always being in pursuit of big fish says, "let's hook the shark" I thought he was crazy but it was his lower back not mine. We dropped a bonito strip down and he instantly hooked up, and after a long winded battle Rob pulled up the biggest nurse shark I had ever seen. Not to mention he decided to do it again and caught an equally large nurse shark. The boat was now covered with sharks and also cobia. We ended up with 5 cobia, all released, that were caught on Hogy 10 inch jerk baits, and buck tail jigs with bonito strips. Another great day with Rob aka. "Midas man" everyday with Rob turns to gold. You may remember his name he is the client that landed 7 permit on fly with me last year. After a couple more days of live chumming little tunny on fly, the beach calmed down and I spent a few days in search of jacks and tarpon. The beach has been a great lately I have jumped tarpon the last three days and also found multiple jack schools and some more cobia. I almost forgot to mention the insane number of snook we have been catching on both live bait and DOA shrimp. Happy 4th!      John