News and Fishing Reports

I fly in, get my $20 rental car, drive for an hour and a half, sleep for three hours, and meet Capt. Ned Small at the boat ramp. So here I stand, on the front of a skiff in the Everglades, and we see Tarpon in the first spot we stop.

To make a long story short, I dropped the line out of my left hand on my first shot, put the fly short of the fish on my second shot, felt the sweet but hard pull of the mangroves on my third shot...got an eat, kept stripping, but felt nothing on my fourth shot, and spooked a fish by hitting it in the head on my fifth shot!! This is by far, some of the most exciting fishing I've ever done. I'm planning on good light for photos of the Tarpon we're going to catch tomorrow!

Now that's not how the story ends. Ned sees a fish slide under a mangrove, points it out, and I toss the fly. The first shot was good, but not quite close enough to the roots of the tree. The next shot was slid in a bit closer and out comes a little snook. The take was great, but the tight line running off the deck of the skiff was awesome.  From what Ned tells me, you don't see Snook like this every day.

I can't turn around down here without realizing how lucky I am to have the opportunity to fish the Everglades. I guess Ned is not so bad to spend a day with either :). Thanks for the hard work and expertise Ned. You're one of a kind, and a hell of a guide!

Jake Chutz