Hells Bay Video!

As a follow up to my last post I put together a video of my latest fishing trip into Hell's Bay. You'll notice some overlap in the photos, but I wanted to put together a clip which better showed the intricacy of the mangrove creeks that we navigated through. It is pretty awesome check it out. You will also be able to access it from our videos tab on the top of the page!

The music is "Limelight" by Rush, because it's awesome.

1 Day in Hells Bay

Everglades Fishing Report: Backcountry Grand Slam!

I'll admit heading to the everglades and fly fishing the back country with 20-25mph winds didn't exactly excite me like it should have going into this trip. But, with wonderful advice: "you can sleep when you are dead," I set off for Flamingo at 6am. Surprisingly enough it seemed calm, excitement growing. 

When we arrived in at the boat launch it was like a scene from the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Birds." There were vultures and seagulls everywhere and they were seemingly hovering right above our heads waiting for the right moment to peck out our eyes... (Apparently they are a problem there?) That thought quickly left my mind as we raced across whitewater bay and into some intricate interconnected mangrove channels. This place is a maze of epic proportions. When I was in Alaska I though the lakes and rivers were complicated but at least we could use elevation as a place marker or a guide that you are in the right place. Out here if you don't have a GPS you are screwed. Oh hey, that clump of mangroves looks like that patch we passed an our ago but it also looks exactly the same as... yes... every other patch of mangroves in this area! 

When we finally popped out somewhere in Hells Bay we were immediately on fish but it was sporadic. We would get a flurry of 5 or 6 snook and then nothing. For just about long enough to lull you to sleep and then another one would try to rip the rod out of your hand. This went on for most of the day until we hit this stretch where there must have been hundreds of snook just lining this cut, because it was all I could do to release one and get my fly back in the water. It was literally two straight hours of catching 14-24 inch snook, all on the same fly, all in the same 300 yards of water. It was insane, it was BY FAR the most action I've seen on a fly rod since I've moved down here. To top that off in the midst of the chaos I landed my biggest red fish to date on a fly rod. As well as two mangrove snapper, and a lady fish. All in all I'm sure I landed 25 snook and that is a modest estimate... 

On our way back to the ramp to end our day my luck found a way to have another positive twist! Tarpon started boiling everywhere on glass minnows. Holy shit! Several casts later I had the silver king doing a tail walk across the water right in front of me. Granted it was only a 4 pounder instead of a 104 pounder, but I'll take it! A couple more tarpon in the boat made me one happy fella. After all it's not every day I get to go out and land the backcountry grand slam... Tarpon, Snook, and a Red Fish. 

First Tarpon on the Fly!

The smallest tarpon I landed... haha awesome. 

The only fly I used ALL day. It caught everyone of my fish. It's a little worse off then it started but boy was it productive.

Big snook of the day!

The Red Fish that completed my Grand Slam!

New Job + After Hours Snook Fishing = Great Success

I started my new job this week. It's a pretty fantastic new job. I will be working as the first mate/deckhand on a 64 foot Spencer Yacht custom sport fish. I work directly under Chris White who has been working in this industry since he was 12, well getting paid since he was 12.. The boat the "Sweet Release" is an immaculately maintained yacht and my first day we got to put it in the water and give her a test run. Followed by a serious cleaning, that is a lot of boat to clean.. I look forward to learning a ton of information from this job as well as getting a couple days a week on the water catching fish learning the trade and just becoming a more well rounded fisherman. 

The best part about the new job.. Chris likes to fish as much as I do. So after a full day of running, washing, and drying the boat it was time to chase some snook. And chase some snook we did... 

SUCCESS - suc·cess/səkˈses/

Noun: 1. The accomplishment of an aim or purpose.
           2. The attainment of popularity or profit.

Everglades Fishing Report! 8/7/12

I spent the morning working on Captain John Wambolt's Patch Man Do (Pictures to come), and when I got home Captain Chris White called me and asked if I wanted to go fishing... Silly question.

The conditions weren't ideal and I couldn't sling a fly rod (too much wind, and wind-blown grass) but I was just content to catch something because it had been a while since I had caught a sport fish and I was itching. 

The everglades is unlike anything I've ever seen. We got there on low tide right as it was starting to come in, weaving through channels and cuts in the mud flats we found ourselves in an area known as snake bight. Awesome name I know. 

We are out there and I'm awestruck. There are 7-8 foot sharks cruising around me while we're in like 2 feet of water. It was like freaking "Jaws" just dorsal fins and tails cruising by us. I kept imagining that scene where Roy Scheider is throwing chum off the back of the boat and that huge great white comes out of the water chasing his chum fix. Well I always try to photo document my catches for you all, but these photos were pretty rushed because I didn't want to come home one hand short of a pair... 

Anyway a couple hours later a half dozen red fish, a couple snook, a few sea trout, and a lady fish and we were back in the marina. I was exhausted but exhilarated, it was an amazing day. One I look forward to repeating.  

The Nomad handles a big Red.

Chris' biggest red of the day

Nice Sea Trout in the Nomad Net