News and Fishing Reports

Another morning shared with the mosquitoes!! It's 5:30am and Ned and I are getting ready to launch the boat for my third and final day in the glades. The tides will be low between now and about 10am. He fires up the Yamaha and idles through the Manatee zone between us and the Tarpon. The first two spots we check show little promise. The third spot we checked, that looked the same as the first two in my opinion, gave us a bit more hope. As Ned steered the boat around a mangrove point and cut the motor, there she was.

Within seconds of him pointing out the area we should see fish, a large head and a beautiful set of fin and tail cut the surface of the water in half. The pole hit the water, and we moved toward the ripples where the fish had shown. The air bubbles the fish had released hit the surface and gave me a mark on which to cast. As my heart stopped............. and then started pounding, I stuck the fly on the bubbles. Strip, strip, strip, GET HER!! GET HER!! Ned yelled and I stripped as hard as I thought I could and started ripping the rod to the side to set the hook even better.

The next thing I saw was the water explode as if a drag car was leaving the starting line! Ned was yelling "Tarpon on the fly!!, Everglades style!!" as the fish was clearing the line from the deck at high speed. Then, all hell broke loose. "GET READY FOR THE J..." Before Ned could get the word "jump" from his mouth, plus or minus 60lbs of Tarpon went leaping into the air. That moment was the reason I travelled to the Everglades. On about the third arial head shake, and before I knew what happened, the fly line was traveling back toward the boat as fast as it had left..............without a Tarpon on the other end.

When the smoke had settled, I looked back at Ned and wished I could have seen the smile on my own face. How could I be upset? It was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had with a fly rod in my hand. Later that day, we had a 10-15 pounder to the boat, but lost the hook-up before we got a hand on the fish for a pic. We also had some fun hooking a couple more in the 5-10 lb range. I'll tell you what, I got a lesson in how hard the mouth of a Tarpon really is. It's true that jumping them is the biggest part, but landing them is something I'll have to wait until next year to accomplish.

The snook fishing was great, and Ned helped me hook and land my first Redfish. Shallow water, and very visual, the Redfish and Snook are second to none as far as sight fishing is concerned. The "Everglades Slam" as locals call it consists of Snook, Redfish and Tarpon. What more can you ask for? Can't wait to head back next year and inspect one of those Tarpon while I've got one in my hands! To those of who've read these "Everglades" blogs, thanks for your time.

Jake Chutz