Heidi and Don Looney returned to fish with their son Scott Looney from Chicago. The morning was spent on the flats. Quite a few fish were caught, but most were small. We had a mid-morning launch and missed the early bite on the flats. Later we eased off to one of Chokoloskee Charters' private reefs to catch permit. The heavy rains have been washing the tea colored water out of the rivers and today it was over the "Patch" reef. The permit there would not be found, although the area was loaded with spadefish, jacks and HUGE sharks. We decide to go farther off to another permit hotspot.
On the way we found a school of pompano on the surface. Tossing the Chokoloskee Charters standard 12 Fathom jig tail on a Rip Tide jig head, we caught pompano, blue runners, jacks and mackerel. The schooled up pompano were a blast, but the "macks" were a pain. Scott was cut off three casts in a row!!. Nearby, spinner sharks were blasting into the air feeding on a school of mullet. We tossed a couple of live volunteers near the school and had two sharks pickup the baits. Scott brought one the boat ... a nice 70lb black tip. The second was huge and (luckily?) cut us off. A third pickup acted like a very big cobia, but the hook pulled. The sky was beginning to get ominous, so had to cut things short in order to make our date with the permit. The sky and water conditions were such that it was very hard to see the fish. However, it was not long before Scott hand hooked a nice fish on 8 lb tackle. After about a 30 minute battle, it weighed 9 lbs on the Boca Grip. Unfortunately, we had to scoot because of weather. The trip back in allowed all to experience a full body dose of Florida's summertime liquid sunshine!!! We were after big snook to finish the day. We went to a spot known to hold 20-25+ fish. The fish were there balling up a school of 2lb mullet!!! After netting some mullet we fired out a bait. Within minutes the rod went off!!! A BIG fish, but the hook pulled!!! Heartbreaking!!!. The remaining bites were all sharks. To finish the day, Scott fought a nice lemon shark, about 100lbs, right to boat before the hook pulled . We had hooked and lost a lot of fish during this day. I guess the fish have got to win sometimes!!! If you would like to book a trip with Chokoloskee Charters, contact The Captain @ www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com. or call them @ (239) 695-9107. Good fishing!!!
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Tuesday and Wednesday I had an angler reschedule his trip due to the uncertain weather. We were specifically going to site fish permit with fly rods, but the storms had been coming very early and would likely cut out our light. As such, I pulled one the boats out of the water to do a little catch-up maintenance over the two days.
Mike Jenkins called me Tuesday night to see if he and his brother could fish a 1/2 day the following morning before they climbed on an airplane in Ft. Lauderdale to get back to New Orleans, LA. I had to make it clear that we had to make it a short day because of some commitments that I had made. We left at 6:30 am planning to be back by 11:00. I am sure glad they called. The morning weather was great and by 8:00, both had released two small tarpon and Larry had just had his plug eaten by a Dinosaur!!! We were fishing 12 lb class line, 45 minutes into the fight, Mike began to realize that his cigar was getting small, his time to fish running out and his patience was thinning waiting on his brother to whip(?) this big tarpon. Sooooo ... Mike eased near to his brother and twanged him off by burning the line with his cigar butt!!!! As you imagine, both Larry and I were left there with our mouths open. Actually, Larry's had a lot of loud words mixed with foam and bits of his tongue coming out of his!!!! After things settled down a bit, we began fishing again. Larry hooked a nice snook about 12-14lbs. You guessed it. Not only did he have to fight the fish, he had run all over the boat avoiding Mike's cigar. Mike won while I was reaching to land the fish. Larry and Mike really do look a lot a like when they are foaming at the mouth. With paybacks made, we caught a few more small snook and made it back to the dock on schedule. The brothers scooted out for their flight, laughing all the way about their short but great trip. I am sure that this type of thing has happen before with these guys. Both had burn marks on their arms!! If you would like to book a trip with Chokoloskee Charters, please call The Captain @ (239) 695-9107 or www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com This year's Mercury Redbone @ Large Everglades Celebrity Slam was a big success. The Redbone series of tournaments is a two day charity event benefiting the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It is a guided, catch, photograph and release "Slam" tournament with the Slam consisting of at least one Tarpon, one Redfish and one Snook. A Slam is required in order to win. Each fish is given points with greatest point weight favoring fly-rod releases. All proceeds go to charity so the pressure of the "money" tournaments is non-existent. For those of you who have not fishd a Redbone, you are really missing something special. Between the food, the entertainment, the friends, the celebrities and the fishing, you will have an absolute blast
This year, I had the pleasure to fish with anglers and friends, Diane and Tad Templeton of Miami, Florida. The first day of fishing was tough for all the teams. It rained the entire day. Though generally we were able to stay in light drizzle by avoiding the bad T-storms, the weather certainly dictated the day. We planned to start off the morning tarpon fishing. Diane kicked things off with a Goliath Grouper ... not the targeted species, but a nice fish none the less. Tad got us on the board with a Tarpon release followed a few minutes later with another Tarpon release by Diane. Chokoloskee Charters staff guide, Bruce Hitchcock, was fishing the same area with his angler Brauer Moffitt (and his son) who released a Tarpon on fly to get on the board. By the end of the first day, both Chokoloskee Charters teams were in good position. The Templeton team was in third place with 900 points, but still needed a Redfish to complete their slam. The Moffitt team had but 500 points, but they had completed their slam putting them in position for a win. The plan for the second day was simple. The Templetons needed one Redfish and more points. The Moffitt team needed points. The second day was beautiful, so we blasted south to fish the remote river mouths. Tad and Diane are excellent anglers and accurate casters. Both were fishing with Shimano Stratic 4000's with 12lb line (tournament rules) and using a 3/8 oz. Rip Tide Jig Head with a 12 Fathom gold swimming shad tails. It paid off. They photographed and released 1600 points worth of Snook. Several other heart-breakers were quot;long" released without being photographed or they would have had even more points. BUT ... we did not catch a Redfish!! That meant we missed the slam and would not be in the running for Grand Champion!!! They did finish with the second highest point total of the tournament. An accomplishment to be very proud of. Just wait until next year ... we'll have Redfish by the buckets full!!!! ... I hope. The Moffitt team added enough points to capture Runner-up Team Grand Champions. Congratulations to Bruce and his team. In last year's tournament, the Chokoloskee Charters guides faired well also, with my team taking the award for most Tarpon releases and Bruce guiding Jeff Cross of the Miami Dolphins to Celebrity Grand Champion. If you would like to book a trip with Chokoloskee Charters, please call The Captain @ (239) 695-9107 or www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com Tom Wright and his sons, Whitney and Carson, from Huntsville, Alabama, fished a 1/2 day this morning. The wind was blowing harder than expected, so our planned permit excursion had to be curtailed. However, on our first stop, a bait was picked up immediately on the first drop. We were after some of the 20lb class snook that had been schooled up on this spot in the previous days. But instead of a snook, Whitney tangled with a very nice Goliath Grouper. This was by far the largest fish that Whitney has ever caught. Even though he is relatively inexperienced with big fish, he did a great job muscling this 70lb fish to the boat. Dad, all the while, was filming the wrestling match on video while being chased around the boat by the rest of us trying to stay out of Whitney's way. Snook fishing for the really big linesiders remained slow all morning. Both boys landed Jack Crevalle close to 12lbs and Whitney had a very nice trout.
Trout fishing has been a bit slow in the last week, as has the catching of reds and snook. This primarily because the weather in the last week has made things difficult. It has been raining for what seems like a week. I am not sure if the fish bite less aggressively in the deluge, but it sure seems to take the punch out the anglers. As I get older, fishing in wet socks seems a lot tougher now that it used too!!!! If you would like to book a trip with Chokoloskee Charters, please call The Captain @ (239) 695-9107 or www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com Tim McCorkle (Naples, Fl) fished a 1/2 day with his brother Don McCorkle who was in from Albuquerque, New Mexico. We talked several times the day before about rescheduling the trip due to the forecasted weather. However, this was the only day they had available, so we "mustard it up" and blasted off. BAD IDEA!!!!! We got soaked to the bone, pelted with rain and managed only one Goliath Grouper in the short morning. We call the day short before the giant rain drops gave way to giant sparks. We still had to "fly" home in IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions) with visibilities well less that 1/4 mile in someplaces. You have to give these guys credit though for toughing it out. Tim, do not give up on the Park and 10,000 Islands fishery, it is truly is a special place. Next time, however, lets wait for a little sunshine!!
If you would like to book a trip with Chokoloskee Charters, please call The Captain @ (239) 695-9107 or www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com posted by Charles Wright Wednesd The "Card Crew" (Auburndale, Florida) on the their annual men's fishing trip, had another successful adventure. Under a mandate from the women folk to bring "home the bacon", they put 2 cobia, 4 mackerel and 3 permit into the cooler. Steve and Bruce both caught goliath grouper, with Steve's by far being the largest. James won the Big Critter Award with his 20 minute wrestling match with a 150lb loggerhead turtle. He claims it was an accidental snag with his jig, but the rest of us are suspicious. If you saw the gleam in his eye every time a poor turtle surfaced, you would be suspicious too!! A few snapper and grouper finished off the creel. This year, however, no snook were photographed. All four big snook hooked were long distance released!! James don't forget to send me copies of the rest of your pictures. See you next year!! To book a charter with Chokoloskee Charter, contact The Captain @ 239-682-9920; www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com
Steve Nale of Great Dane (Ft. Lauderdale, Fl.) did another great job hosting their annual (informal) event. I had the pleasure of fishing with Andy Adams (Adams Tank and Lift - Pinellas Park, Fl.), Bill (Risser Petroleum - Clearwater, Fl) and Alex (Dresser). Bill took Big Fish honors with his 20lb permit. The team as a whole weighed in the most total weight for the day. All three anglers caught nice permit and more importantly had bragging rights for the day.
The next day, Andy fished with Lou (Chevron - Atlanta, Ga). Again Andy's team weighed in the most combined weight. Lou also capture the Big Fish award with a 20 lb permit. Do you notice the common denominator here? Andy was part of the winning team on both days!! If I were you guys, I would plan you strategy ahead for next year and fish with Andy!!!! Like last year, I had a great time this year. I hope to see you back, If you would like to book a trip with Chokoloskee Charters, please call The Captain @ (239) 695-9107 or www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com Don and Heidi Looney (Key Largo, Fl.) fished two 1/2 days. Heidi set the trip up as a surprise for Don. Don apparently has had several of his snook fishing friends take him snook fishing ... but just that snook fishing, not snook catching. Monday evening, though it took several stops, Don got his first snook ... a real nice 31 1/2" fish. Unfortunately, we were dodging Florida's famous liquid sunshine all evening and had to scoot and run every time we setup or we would probably have caught more!
However, the conditions were just about perfect for the big tarpon in the rivers. So, we positioned ourselves in our selected river and waited for the big shiners to show up. And show up they did ... finally. There were fish all over the place ... but, non-feeding fish!! We did not jump a single tarpon!!! We did have one pick up. We saw the fish's head wake come up the bait and counted down until it gobbled it. Don fought and landed a nice 80lb black-tip shark to finish the evening. The next morning, we had hoped to catch some permit, but the early morning breeze prevented the trip. However, I had been following a school of large snook for some time, but it had been taking big baits to get them to feed in the late morning. We shot off to several places to catch some "special big baits" (Don you now know what they are!!). Unfortunately, we did not raise any of the big snook. Don, did fight and land a nice Goliath Grouper and a shark close to 100lbs. More importantly, Heidi could not break her smile from all the sea turtles and manatees she was seeing. I had a great time fishing with you guys and hope to do it again... Don, we will get you your permit next time ... do not forget to call me before your Wilderness Waterway trip. If you would like to book a trip with Chokoloskee Charters, please call The Captain @ (239) 695-9107 or www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com Logan and Diane Templeton had permit as their targeted species for the day. The had caught lots of nice tarpon and snook on their previous ventures. so this trip they changed species. Conditions were not the best, however ... relatively high winds and cloud cover. We "sight-fish" for these critters so a good clear day with the sun high in the sky certainly makes things more favorable. With conditions that we were presented, we needed to know exactly where the fish would be so that we could predictably spot them. Seeing them from far away was not going to happen.
We set off for a spot about 25 miles out of Chokoloskee ... quite a run in the chop, but also a very predictable spot. When we arrived we were greeted with two large schools of jack crevalle up to 15 lbs. Drifting over the area, we spotted some nice permit. Logan made two excellent presentations, but the fish did not feed. We had just setup for another pass, when a sport fisher on the horizon turned directly toward us!!! By the time we could drift near the structure again, the 33' Tierra pulled right into our drift. With Logan standing on the bow of the boat, rod in hand and diesels gurgling, they began doing doughnuts over our fishing spot. Needless to say, every fish spooked, crashed deep and did not come back!!! One of the persons aboard, asked us over the roar of the engines if we "had caught any yet?"!!! After about 10 minutes of clueless circling, them steamed off to wreck someone else's fishing. A little respect, common sense and more importantly and a little common courtesy goes a long way. There is a lot of ocean and a lot of fish out there. We do not have to fish in each other's bait wells. The skipper of the Tierra should change a few letters in the name of his boat to the "Big Blooper". It would have more meaning!!! This ended the permit for this spot. However, Logan dug out the fly-rod to tag the big jacks. However, we could not get close enough in the wind to make a good presentation, so he had to settle for 8lb spinning gear. I think Diane enjoys watching the strike of fish as much as I do. She stuck to casting a top water plug without hooks!!! Watching the wolf pack attack the bait, knocking it repeatedly into the air is a blast isn't it Diane!! It was a tough day catching for Logan and Diane (but still a good day fishing!). Logan did not get his permit this trip, but he will next time!!. If you would like to book a trip with Chokoloskee Charters, please call The Captain @ (239) 695-9107 or www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com Chuck Wilkerson (Naples, Fl) took his son-in-law Andrew Peebles (London, England) on a 1/2 day fly-fishing trip. Unfortunately, the snook fishing was very slow in the morning, but Chuck did manage one small snook in Bob Cat Bay. Andrew handled the fly rod very well and managed to catch quite a few fish on the flats. We saw one large tarpon, but were not even close to getting a shot at it.
Andrew, with your skill in casting, you should easily get your fly in front of the lead fish in the permit schools. If you think that your shoulder would hold up (I am convinced it will!!), next time you are in town, we should take the whole day and fly fish the river mouths in the morning and chase the permit later in the day. They are something special on fly ... bring lots of backing!!!! If you would like to book a trip with Chokoloskee Charters, please call The Captain @ (239) 695-9107 or www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com |
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October 2005
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