Most anglers long to be on the water, but few have the luxury to fish whenever and wherever they want. Most of us have to balance work, family, vacations amongst a host of other issues before a day of fishing is remotely possible. As such we need to make the most of every trip and get the greatest pleasure and rewards from that day on the water. We need to approach every trip with a Chokoloskee State of Mind.
What is the Chokoloskee State of Mind? Perhaps it is easiest to describe what it isn't. It is not waiting in a fast food drive through line for a burger that you have gobble up with one hand before you get back into traffic; but it is a nice turkey sandwich in the lee of one of the 10,000 Islands enjoyed with your everglades fly fishing partner. It is not obscene hand gestures and the aggravation of others riding your bumper in traffic; but it is slowing down enough to allow the dolphins to play in your wake. It is not the sounds of highway traffic, ambulance sirens and the roar of crowds of people; but it is the sound of silence broken by the shrill cry of an osprey as she fusses at you for fishing too close to her nest. Perhaps, most importantly, it is not about catching fish. It is about being here, getting away, being outdoors, seeing the wildlife and spending precious time with good friends or family. The Chokoloskee State of Mind is not about catching fish; it is the appreciation of the whole experience. If you approach every fishing trip with this attitude ... this state of mind, you can not have a bad day on the water. Catching fish is just a bonus. I once asked my father one morning where he was going as he idled out of the marina. He said he was going fishing. I said, "But, you don't have any rods on the boat!". He simply replied, "I'll fish my way, you fish your way". It is not about catching fish. This last weekend, I had the pleasure of fishing three generations of the Kline family from Miami ... Art, Kevin, Larry, Robert and Nat. They exemplified this "State of Mind". This trip was not about catching fish, it was about being together on a fishing trip. Nothing was going to interfere or spoil their trip. The weather was forecast to be blowing 20 to 25 knots. As they were relatively close by, I had called earlier in the week to see if they would like to reschedule to another time. Nope, it was made clear that they were coming. Originally, they were to fish together on the "Blue Bird Daze", the 24' Morgan. I had a mechanical issue that could not be fixed before their trip. Not a problem, "we'll just fish on two boats". The wind did blow and blow hard. The water was extremely murky and the fish did not bite well even though we fished hard. (Left ...even a little "rat" red extracted from a hidden creek produces a smile from Robert). However, because of their attitude, their Chokoloskee State of Mind, they had a great day together and I, and the other guide, Capt. Bruce Hitchcock, had a great day on the water. Their attitude towards the trip turned what could have been a miserable day, at least for me, into a great experience. Art, Kevin, Larry, Robert and Nat, you guys are welcomed back anytime!!! The wind had been blowing hard for two days before Dan Beltramo and Andy Cohen (San Francisco) and George Labelle (Pompano Beach) arrived for the day. The water was still very turbid and the bite was way off. We did raise a few trout, ladyfish and jack crevalle, however, we could manage only two snook bites all day. Andy was decisively run into the trees both times, unfortunately. The following day, Larry DeBauge (Naples) fished with me for a second time in this month. This time he brought along his son, Jeff, and his eight-year old grandson, Nick (Kansas City, Ka). I had hope to get a lot of action fishing shrimp "in the trees", but the first few places we went, the fish had lock-jaw. Nick, being the dominate factor on the boat, defined our next move by using the "B-word". The word that horrifies every fishing guide in the world. Nick said, "I am getting bored"! Off to the flats we went. The water was still turbid, but the guys still managed to catch a mess of speckled sea trout, ladyfish and jacks. Larry and Nick were using live shrimp under a popping cork. Jeff was doing well with a red-headed jig dragging a 3" gold metal-flake shad tail. Nick caught his first trout on the popping cork making grandpa proud. Things had turned around. Nick was in the "lead" with the "most" and "largest" fish. Whewww! The wind continued to lay down, so we eased off to small piece of near-shore structure. On the way, Jeff landed a triple-tail to start off the species smorgasbord. All in all, the guys caught a good winter mix on this trip. Sheep head, speckled sea trout, gag grouper, mangrove snapper, grunts, lady fish, red grouper, blue runners, jacks, triple-tail and a 24 pound goliath grouper ... 11 species and Jeff's personal "big fish". I expect to Larry back come permit time!! Catching fish is great, but remember, the experience of being out the water with friends and family is what this fishing thing is all about. Live and fish with the Chokoloskee State of Mind! The water is beginning to warm and the fishing should continue to improve. I expect the Everglades fly fishing to get better and better; it is some of the best to be found. Rather than be in Naples fly fishing urban areas, try the Everglades National Park. The latter part of March and April begin the tarpon migration, the permit season and are the last months of snook season. However, May and June provide the best fishing of the season. Those that have fished during these months fully understand. If you would like to book a charter with Chokoloskee Charters, contact The Captain @www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com; (chokoloskeecharters@gmail.com) or call him @ 239-682-9920. Tight Lines!
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It feels like South Florida again!! With temperatures approaching 80 degrees and the water warming fast the Everglades National Park is once again alive. The baits have returned, the birds are fattening up and the predatory fish are feeding.
Throughout the cold in January and February, the fishing was generally good on the inshore areas with consistent trout and sheep head action. The offshore bottom fishing never really fell off. However, there were many times, when sight fishing, we would just look at the snook and they would simply look back. We just could not get them to feed in the unseasonably cold water. However, as soon as the water warmed AND the baits returned, from wherever they were, the place "went off "... immediately. Last Friday, I had both a morning charter and an afternoon charter. We managed a bag of trout in the morning, but things were so slow that I rescheduled the afternoon launch for another date. Instead of fishing, I took the afternoon to fly the Cessna over the Park and do some scouting. The water was pretty churned up from the winds so I could not see much more than a few schools of snook in their typical residences. However, just offshore was a vision of pure love. BAIT FISH!! More importantly, bait fish moving into shore! The next morning, with Ed Able and his engineer associate, Frank, both from Ocean City, NJ, we scooted out to where I expected the baits to splash the shore. Fishing one of the river mouths, we saw a mess of snook ... snook with lockjaw. Frank did pull a couple snook out of the thickets, however, and Ed landed a nice sheep head. The jacks and ladyfish were back strong ... there is finally forage around. When the tide became too high to sight fish, we headed to a grass flat. What a refreshing site, birds diving, mackerel jumping, ladyfish slicing into baits, trout slurping on the surface, pompano skipping and schools of jacks showering bait fish. Needless to say, that was a long deserved and refreshing change. The Park is back!. Whew, it has seemed like a endless winter. Though we did not set the fishing world on fire that day, things were like they are "supposed to be". The guys caught trout, redfish, snook, sheep head, ladyfish, jacks, and mackerel. What a difference a day makes. Sunday, with Lisa Dargavage of Campbell & Rosemurgy Realty (Deerfield Beach) on board, we set out for a few hours of trout fishing. We were having a fish fry that evening!! Quick success. Big nice trout were amongst the bait. We did have to fish thru a thousand jacks and ladyfish, of course. We had to measure every trout caught to make sure that they were not oversized. All the trout that we kept, were barely under the 20" limit. These guys had just followed the bait in from offshore. It was a nice, relaxing three hour trip. We harvested a nice dinner and Lisa even managed to get in a nap!! We brought home five nice trout for dinner, but we could not resist adding a few fresh Spanish Mackerel to the pot. Nothing is better than fried fresh mackerel. At the dock, Dale tossed in a redfish and dinner was served for twelve!! Yesterday, I had the pleasure to fishing with Dave Kadison and his 10 year old daughter Sara. Dave is an excellent fly rodder, only surpassed by Sara's casting prowess. The turbid water from the southerly winds combined with the overcast sky, made sight fishing all but impossible. Blind casting the snook and redfish holes proved to be a fruitless. Sara, after getting some good close up photos of Wally Gator, caught us some small ladyfish to use later ... so into the live well they went. We had hoped to tease up a cobia to Dave's fly later in the trip. We stopped in the bait schools for a little exercise. Sara, after about 15-20 fish in a row, tired, so we headed off to the near-shore structure for the cobia. Mackerel were rocketing on the surface and blue runners were streaking below. We dropped a live volunteer down on some light tackle to do a little looking around. It was just a few minutes before the little ladyfish was gobbled. Goliath grouper!! Dave did an excellent job digging this fish off the bottom on such light tackle. Although it was only 20lbs, he landed on a trout rod!! While Dave was wrestling with the Goliath, Sara had real nice run on her eight pound spinner. Unfortunately, we never saw the fish, but from the way it was fighting, it was either a big snook or a cobia. We never did not get a positive I.D., nor did we get to toss a fly at the "gummers". Maybe next time Dave. Things are red hot now and should continue to improve. I expect the fly fishing to get better and better. Everglades fly fishing is some of the best. Rather that be in Naples fly fishing urban areas, try the Park. Like Mikey, you will "like it". The latter part March and April begin the tarpon migration, the permit season and are the last months of snook season. This represents some of the last time our winter guest get to fish before they head back to the north lands. There some bookings left for those interested in these early season fish, but please book early or you will miss out. In my opinion, May and June provide the best fishing of the season. Those that have fished with Chokoloskee Charters during those months turn into regular "Choko-holics". If you would like to book a charter with Chokoloskee Charters, contact The Captain @www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com; (chokoloskeecharters@gmail.com) or call him @ 239-682-9920. Tight Lines! This has been one of the coldest Januarys that I can remember. While the temperature only dipped below 40 degrees a few nights, this entire month was significantly colder than our average January. A local news station reported that both the lows and the highs were a full eight degrees cooler than normal. Eight degrees does not sound like much, but Baby, at 35 mph it surely is!! On some of those cold mornings, I felt like I was being punished for something I must have done in the past. I never did figure that part out, since I believe that I have been living right. A few hardy (very hardy) anglers who came in sandals and light jackets also felt the pain!!
Many sub-tropical species of fish, particularly snook, are very sensitive to cold water. Rapid changes in water temperature can send them spinning on the surface stunned if it does not kill them out right. Hundreds of snook have been seen doing simultaneous doughnuts on the surface after a winter blast. The old timers call them "Bay Grouper" and would net up the spinners and sell them to local markets as groupers. Hence, the closed winter season. Hopefully, that is a thing of the past. Many in the professional guide community thought that we would loose a pile of fish, particularly snook, on several occasions this month when the thermometer was expected to plummet. However, it appears that the sustained water temperature drop over the last six weeks acclimated the fish enough so that they were not "shocked" by the "colder" snaps. That was good thing. The cooler water definitely changed the pattern of fishing in this area. That was a bad thing. However, getting a handle on the new pattern was a very good thing! The cold water has driven the bait to places unknown. The fantastic mackerel fishing we had until late December went away with the bait. The cobia went away with Mackerel. However, the speckled trout fishing gathered steam as the fish fell into the holes and deeper passes. It is not uncommon to catch 50-60 fish in a single tide. Sheep head, large sheep head, are all over the place and easy to catch. Small black drum and the redfish are plentiful and predictable. "Keeper" sized grouper are in the passes. The snapper bite has been really good. with the inshore fish, plentiful but small. Offshore, however, it is has been pretty dog-gone easy to jig up a limit 17-18" snapper. The trick is too catch the weather right to get out there. There are still piles of snook around but the cool water temperatures has seem to curtail their appetite and made them very finicky. They feed, but not until "Sky Boss" sounds the feed horn and then they tend to feed all at once. On most trips, however, we are able to coax a few fish to bite. The outside has been producing some excellent sight fishing on these schools of snook, especially for the "double-haulers" who have been fly fishing. The cooler temperatures have dramatically reduced the algae and plankton significantly improving the water clarity. You can definitely see the fish laid up in the shallows, but they can see you to ... "Stealth Mode" only!! Fishing the inside has been excellent. On Chokoloskee Charters annual New Year's Fishing/Camping trip the creeks really went off. What was planned to be a simple camping/fishing trip this year turned into quite a "to-do" at Watson's Place in the Chatham River. New Year's Eve, Bruce Hitchcock, the "Wizard" and I slipped off to Wizard Creek. Named for the no-so-famous, Harry, "The Wizard", Ramsey from Tampa. Throwing 12-Fathom, gold metal flake swimming shad tail, dragged over by a Cotee red-headed Jig, we managed to catch approximately two dozen snook, some approaching 20 lbs in about an hours time. The Wizard was bowed up on a nice fishing about 12 pounds when we heard them. They were moving down the creek, feeding hard. Boom, boom, boom ... black drum, lots of them, big ones for the back country ... coming right at us. I sent the jig to the bottom and swam it along the creek bed slowly. You could here the fish pounding around us ... it was exciting. On the second cast, I was wrestling a 25+ pound drum on eight pound spinning gear. After too many close calls with the mangroves, we released the fish and within minutes Bruce had his turn. We released three nice fish, but the last drum was but 13 pounds and fit into the live well. The poor thing had to endure handling and photos with about ten youngsters before were able to release it at our campsite. Remember, always, I mean always bring a camera ... it is much easier on the fish! As a note, the first permit of the new year was caught by John Charleton of WPB. (Guess who forgot the camera?) The permit fishing was excellent last year with over 280 releases. It looks as though it is starting again! Chokoloskee Charters is starting its permit release club this year. John is the starting member!! If the Weather Guessers are right, the next 10 days should be in the mid 70's significantly warming the water. This should really turn on the fish both inshore and offshore. There is lots of action out there, but I would still bring your jackets (and a camera)!! The annual transition to the winter pattern has come about .. finally. This means the snook are smaller, the permit are fasting, the whitebait is hard to find, but the redfish are still here, snapper, sheep head and speckled trout are everywhere, mackerel snap off a dozen jigs a day, kings are sky-rocketing and the cobia have moved in. (left ... Logan Templeton of Miami with a nice snook ... one tarpon jump short of an Everglades Slam)
We are getting nice catches of mackerel most every trip, commonly putting 30+ fish over the sides. Primarily using swimming jigs on eight pound spinning gear to catch the critters, they make for fast, non-stop action. In preparation for our annual New Year's Eve beach camping trip, we dropped off ~30 fish to Virgil at the City Seafood Cafe' in Everglades City so he can work his magic with the smokehouse. While in Everglades, stop in and talk with Virgil and owner Richard Wahrenberger ... the food is excellent. The Cafe' sets on the Barron River with outside seating directly on the water. You can watch manatees lumbering in the river, snook busting the docks and tarpon-ettes rolling while you eat. Chokoloskee Charters' newest boat, The Blue Bird Daze, is moored there. For those who haven't been on one of our fishing/camping excursions, you should, it is a real treat! Redfish and snook are still relatively plentiful, though with the cooling of the waters, they are becoming more and more scarce on the outside and must be targeted in the back-country. Top water action has been good on the warmer days, tipped jigs and live shrimp have produced the most fish on the coldest ones. If you are seeking snook and reds, using shrimp can be frustrating with all the snappers and sheep head around!. (left Eric Erikson and Shannon from Ohio, with a nice 36" redfish) (left; striper guide Al Lorenzetti and anglers Wes and Jason Little from Fire Island, NY. with a Chokoloskee striper!) We are now in our full winter pattern, with the typical winter catches consisting of the "winter mix". Most days we are catching around 50-75 speckled trout, mackerel, bluefish, jacks, and lady fish, with 1/2 dozen snook and redfish in the bunch. We are getting shots at small tarpon regularly and hooking 3-4 cobia per trip. However, the transition from the fall to the winter pattern was tough!! We had periods of three to four days where we it seemed could not buy a snook or redfish bite inshore or offshore. Even the macks and trout would get lock-jaw. This was unfortunate timing for the few the anglers who got to experience this first hand. It makes for a tough day!! Hopefully, we are past that now, but winter can raise it's nasty fishing hand anytime. I have only been grouper fishing offshore twice recently and both times we managed on a few "keepers". Lots of smaller fish were on the bottom. However, it looks as though there will be many more trips to report coming up in January and February. (left; Joe Llanes and Michele on a very cold winter morning!!) The Everglades fly fishing has been up and down. The water has been clearing up so sight-fishing is improving. Most of the coves that we pole into are holding a couple of snook and redfish each. However, it has been a while since I have seen real schools of snook. The winter weather should change this. We took our first cobia of the season on fly last week on one of those days with a real tough bite. The fish, ~ 25lbs, ate a fly and the angler did an excellent job with the fish, but we had a hard time getting the others to eat. Fly fishing should be getting better and better. For those coming to Naples fly fishing, try the Park, it is just 30 minutes away and is an outstanding destination. If you wish to get in on the spring tarpon, snook and permit run, I would suggest start planning soon. March, April and May is booking up quickly. These are the most popular months, but as most of my regular anglers know, the summertime is hard to beat!! It looks as though 2002's total for permit releases is going to remain at 283 unless I can scoot out there before the holidays. Throughout the fish averaged throughout the year 17-18lbs with the largest estimated at 33-34lbs (the Boca Grip pegs out at 30lbs). Being a hardcore "permit-holic", I am going to have to be satisfy my "need" by chasing cobia for the next several months!! I would like to wish all a happy and safe Holidays and thanks you for the good times this last year. I hope to see you all again in 2003. Thanks again. Well winter is coming. The first front of the season brought a big blow to the Park. Though short lived, the wind stirred up the water AND the snook. It had been unseasonable warm and the brief cool snap was a welcomed relief to me and the fish!! The snook bite had slow for the week or so prior to the front, but just after drop in temperature, the fish really turned on.
Redfish, snook and trout are biting excellent, as are the tarpon when you can find them. Mackerel, blue fish, jacks and pompano are in great numbers. However, I am still awaiting the arrival of the big pods of brown marlin! I keep saying, it should be "anytime now" for the cobia pods, but the fish are still sporadic. Just before the front, I was to fish with Jay Metcalf of Palm Springs, Fl. again. Jay is an excellent fisherman and a pleasure to have on the boats. Snook fishing was pretty tough, though, we were able to catch a few fish throwing bass assassins. We were fishing one of the bait schools when we spotted some large fish working the area. I guess the anticipation of the cobia run had clouded my mind. What I originally thought were cobia, turned out to be tarpon feeding in amongst (or on) the jack, trout and mackerel. It was not long before Jay jumped a nice 100 pound silver king on a rattletrap using 10 lb spinning gear. Unfortunately, the rattletrap was new and I had not changed the hooks and split rings, so the front spit ring gave way and we lost the fish. We got the trap back, unlike Jays brand new Yosuri! Jay' partner had not experienced digging big grouper before, so drifted a big bait over a small piece of structure. After a couple of misses, we hooked up a very nice Goliath Grouper estimated to be close to 250lbs. This is about the upper limit your can expect to handle with standup gear in a small boat. Doing the Palm Springs Tag Team, the fish came along side to pose for a photo. That is my hand in the photo ... yes, it is still attached to my arm! Dan Staube of Largo, Florida brought his colleagues down from the Boston area for a couple days fishing. The guys raised six snook the first day and a couple of redfish, along with the obligatory selection of jacks and trout. However, Murphy was all over the boat and most of the snook broke us off in the trees. They caught some very nice Jack Crevalle on light spinning gear. These fish are some of the best fighters you will see. A battle with a VERY large mystery fished left us with nothing but sore backs!!. The guys wanted to catch permit the second day, but permit fishing was just that ...permit fishing, not permit catching. I caught a fleeting glance of a nice school but the fish were moving fast and getting out of Dodge ... we never got a good shot. There have been 281 permit released by my anglers so far this year. If this keeps up, that number is not going to change!! However, the guys did get some nice mackerel, redfish and flounder for their dinner. I had several days off and had a chance to work on the new rental units at Seaboard Villas. The two bedroom/two bath homes have been sheeted and dried in. They should be ready for booking in January. For those interested in owning a piece of paradise, one unit is for sale. . Find out more ... Seaboard Villas Tom Eschmann of Islip, NY fished with his cousin Mike Eschmann of Miami had a nice day fishing the Everglades National Park. Tom had fished the week before with Capt. Al Lorenzetti and boated a nice 40lb+ striper. A nice fish, but they needed to see the Everglades striped bass. The guys boated an estimated two dozen snook in the morning falling tide. However, we raised just one big fish ... I guess Al's striper still takes top bass honors ... deservedly so!! A stop at a small piece of structure known to hold mackerel kept me busy. Both Tom and Mike were catching fish non-stop ... toothy fish. I couldn't rig fast enough to even think about hunting permit. The choices you have to make!! Our last stop was a place that holds snook in the 20lb class along with a nice resident popular of tarpon. I had just finished telling the guys that they would very likely jump a tarpon here when a nice 50+ fished exploded on the bait. Six jumps later he had worn through the leader, but had given us a spectacular show. I know that this can be frustrating for the angler, but I still like to see the big fish show off their acrobatics and the have a gentle LDR (Long Distance Release), as Tom says. It is so much easier on the fish when this happen if you are fishing light tackle as we do. David McDonald, a very good friend from Tampa, came down for the weekend. David, his wife Mary, my wife Vickie and I went out for a sunset excursion. While the gals ate stone crabs and drank champagne, David was busy busting up the mackerel. Keeping track was impractical, but I do know that my first seven casts produced seven fish. Time for stone crab claws!! David and Mary had to leave early in the day, so David had to be back at the dock by 11:30. We left pretty early and fished one of the remote rivers. The morning ended with 12-14 snook and a couple of redfish for David. Hopefully they will bring Nicholas next time! I had the pleasure of fly fishing with David Schultz and his business partner Jerry, who flew in from California last week. Both are dedicated fly fisherman who have traveled to many world class fishing destinations in pursuit of their passion. David was lucky enough to fish all week, but Jerry was able to stay only three days before he had to be back. David's wife Mary and his four year old son, Adam, finished up the week. They we staying in Marco/Naples fly fishing out of Chokoloskee. We started out Monday morning with idea of catching some redfish, snook and tarpon on fly in one of the remote rivers. We left the dock with perfect conditions, turned the boat northwest and blasted off. We arrived right on time for the falling tide. The tarpon and snook we sure to be on feed. We eased up the river and while rigging the fly rods the tarpon showed up just as we thought. The fish we the perfect size, 25-60lbs and were holding in a deep swash in the turn of the river. This was going to be a blast. We drifted back to the fish and using an Everglades Deceiver, (tied by John Drsicoll - Toxic Shark, Inc.) and started fishing. With fish rolling all around us and flies all around the fish, we caught nothing! David did have three fish roll up and bump the fly, but none took it deep enough to be hooked. Swapping flies did not help. The fish were there and they were feeding, however, they were just not eating what we presented. After we got tired of watching the tarpon "thumb up their noses" at us, we moved to the mouth of the river to fish the tidal current seams, oyster bars and flats for snook. With the exception of the tarpon, the river had been relatively quite. Too quite! We saw only a very few snook bust the shoreline on the way out. Sure enough, the mouth was quite also. The place we were fishing is a classic setting for fly fishing snook and redfish. It has numerous bars, sand flats, mangrove canopies and tidal rips all very close together and within easy reach of each other. An angler can fish all these different scenarios in a relatively small area and the action is usually very good. Not this morning! We did not raise a single fish!! It was frustrating. The weather had just changed and the wind shifted to the southwest. Though this direction is probably the worst for fishing the "outside", we moved out of the river to the front anyway to find some fish. The wind was just too strong for the outside, so we went back into the 10,000 islands and fished some passes and creek mouths after the tide switched. We had some action on jacks, ladyfish and snappers, but the snook we not eating the fly. The wind was up and dictating where we could fish in this area and we still had to find some fish ... time for a boat ride into the backcountry where the southwest wind is not a factor.. We came back south past Chokoloskee and into the deep back country. It was beautiful as usual. We did see a few nice cruising snook while poling, but in all cases too late for a good presentation. The snook were not laid up in the places that we usually find them, so this "hot-spot" turned out to be like the others this day ... frustrating. Gerry did manage one snook from out of the trees. With our bottom lip hanging a bit we headed back to port just talking about the fish we saw! I got up early that morning and listened while drinking my coffee on the dock. I could hear the snook busting the trees in the mangrove creeks within ear shot. About three hours later and after sunrise, we left Chokoloskee and headed for the creek mouths. By the time we arrived the snook had stopped feeding and all we saw were manatees!! There was a late rising full moon and the snook were feeding at night. We tried a few more "reliable" snook spots and made casts at more rolling tarpon before we changed our plan. That day, we had left the 17' Roberts flats boat that we use for fly fishing at the marina and were in the 20' Super Dolphin to hedge our bets. By mid-morning, it was apparent that this day was going to be a repeat of the last if we kept up this pattern. So we pointed the boat south, netted up a couple thousand pilchards and headed off for cobia and permit!! We never got to fish for cobia. Once Gerry and David got a taste of the permit, it was all over!!! Another batch of permit junkies was born! The fish were consistent in size running 15-20 lbs. In and around the area were also schools of jacks in the 6-10 lbs range. Gerry boated two nice permit using spinning gear and had several other fish on. David stuck religiously to the fly rod. He had 6-8 real chances with nice presentations that day. As it turned out, Gerry and David had a double header on with permit. Gerry on a spinning rod and David on the fly. That was exciting. About 10 minutes into fight, David's fly pulled out of the fished mouth. That, as it turned out, was the beginning of a trend. Gerry landed his fish about 25 minutes later. Sorry David. David did manage to land several nice jack crevalle on fly. Pound-for-pound, this is one of the most underrated fly fishing targets you can fish for. How many 8lb fish do you know that eat flies ravenously, are easy to locate and can run you into the backing of a 10-12 weight every time? They are a blast on any gear!!! We had seen a bunch of fish this second day and it was very clear what were going to do on Gerry's third and final day. We took off with a load of live bait for area offshore that holds cobia, kingfish, Spanish mackerel, etc. This was a long trip, but I had visions of grandeur and David had visions of cobia on fly. When we arrived, there were turtles all around, birds and mackerel circling the boat. We manage some small grouper, snapper and a few of the mackerel. We had three nice runs on the spinning gear of unknown species. However, even with the live chumming, we were unable to bring up cobia from the bottom so David could get a shot at them with the fly rod. David did get a nice strike, likely a big kingfish, than blistered him deep into his backing, but the fly pulled. Sound familiar? With the loss of the David's kingfish, we moved back to the permit grounds. On the way there, we saw the big jacks and could not resist. The guys loaded up their fly rods and I positioned the boat along side the school. When everyone was ready, I heaved a handful of pilchards at the wolf pack and the surface immediately exploded. That sure is a tough time to be a pilchard. David was on the bow and Gerry was on the stern. Another handful of pilchards, more explosions and David's fly gets gobbled off the bow. Explosions at the stern. I turn in time to see Gerry's fly get gobbled. Another double!! Back to bow ... as the fish streaks off line David is clearing his fly and gets him on the reel. He's okay. Back to the stern. Gerry strip sets, the fish streaks, he is clearing line, the fish is on he reel. He is okay. But just as the fish runs gets on the reel, the fly pulls. Remember this re-occurring theme! That's fishing! Oh well. The permit were next. They were everywhere. Big fish and big schools. At any one time we were looking at 2-300 fish. Everywhere. We caught several fish on spinning gear, but not one on the fly rod. Not today. David had probably close to 30 superb presentations. We tried everything fly in the box, but NOOOOO! Not a single fish ate. Aghhh!! Though we did not get the fish to eat that day, I am very comfortable in saying that these two, well-traveled anglers, came away very impressed with this fishery. I am sure that they saw more fish and had more permit opportunities in this one day than they likely have had in their entire permit fly fishing careers. It truly is something special. Gerry had to leave, so David's wife Mary and their four-year-old son Adam came aboard. As you can imagine, Adam dictated our action and as predicted, the aquarium/bait tank dictated Adam. I believe this is a exact quote ... "I got to go see more stuff now!" and back into the tank he would dive. We stopped by the live bait spot to add some critters to Adam's tank. Our first stop on Adam's trip was a place we call Spider 2. (Yes, there is also Spider 1 and 3). A couple of handfuls of pilchards and the surface was alive. Adam (oh yes, David and Mary also) caught trout, mackerel, jacks and ladyfish non-stop. Well, not quite non-stop. In fact ... actually ... now that I think about it, Adam had his head in the bait well non-stop and looked up only to catch fish ... sometimes. Any way we all had a blast. But it was time for the permit and cobia again. What a difference a day makes. This day the permit were much fewer in number, though there still were plenty of fish. They were more shy and weary and tough to get to eat. We needed "virgin fish". Off to the next spot. This place is a transition area for the permit. They never seem to stay around but just seem to pass through. We just had to wait. The area was quiet except for the jacks and mackerel. I set out a flat line (Adam's) for the kingfish or cobia. David spotted a school of permit coming right at us ... perfect. Just as he said something, the flat line went off .... David cast perfectly and a BIG permit ate ... finally!!! Another double. This time with a big permit on fly and a kingfish on spinning gear. David's line clears ...the fish is on the reel ... fly line and then backing screams out if the reel ... David's okay. Adam (with a little help) makes short order of the kingfish and we begin concentrating on David's permit. By now the fish is 250+ yards into the backing, but David has him in control. Now all we have to do is settle down a bit a fight the fish. But you guessed it, about 10 minutes into it, the fly gently pulls out of the fish ... again. For those of you wondering, the hooks are sharp and David was handling things perfectly ... go figure! The next day we headed south. David had yet to get a snook on fly. We tried one spot. David did catch one fish, but Adam was ready for more action ... permit action. We fished a different area than the day before and it was a while before the permit showed up. That's okay, the big jacks stretched the fly line nicely. Once the permit did show up, Mary caught her first permit and David finally got one to the boat on fly. And, of course, Adam, caught a real nice speckled sea trout on the way back in. We drove back through the backcountry so Mary could see this part of paradise. It was a great week with some really good anglers. I made some good friends who I hope will be back. I am looking forward to fishing with Adam (and, oh yeah, Mary, David and Gerry) in the years to come. Saturday, I fished a 1/2 day with Ed Rumberger and his good friend Frank Perrotta, out of Naples, Fl. We stopped at one spot and caught a mess of Spanish Mackerel and a slew of Jacks. Frank had never caught a permit, so off we went. The first school of permit turned into 8 lbs jacks, oh well. However, after couple attempts, Frank was tussling with a 15 lb fish and 35 minutes later he was posing for photographs. All-in-all it was a good half day fishing with a good mess of fish for the table. Ed, say hello to the Mrs. and nice to have you back. For those of you who are traveling to the area, consider staying at our fishing villas. These are actually two bedroom, two bath homes on the water available for booking Jan 1, 2003. Take a look Fishing Villa and Cabin Rentals For those who are attending the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show, I will be speaking at noon on Saturday Nov. 2 about fishing this area. See ya there. If you would like to book a charter with Chokoloskee Charters, contact The Captain @ www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com or call him @ 239-682-9920. Tight Lines! I had the pleasure of fly fishing with David Schultz and his business partner Jerry, who flew in from California last week. Both are dedicated fly fisherman who have traveled to many world class fishing destinations in pursuit of their passion. David was lucky enough to fish all week, but Jerry was able to stay only three days before he had to be back. David's wife Mary and his four year old son, Adam, finished up the week. They we staying in Marco/Naples fly fishing out of Chokoloskee. We started out Monday morning with idea of catching some redfish, snook and tarpon on fly in one of the remote rivers. We left the dock with perfect conditions, turned the boat northwest and blasted off. We arrived right on time for the falling tide. The tarpon and snook we sure to be on feed. We eased up the river and while rigging the fly rods the tarpon showed up just as we thought. The fish we the perfect size, 25-60lbs and were holding in a deep swash in the turn of the river. This was going to be a blast. We drifted back to the fish and using an Everglades Deceiver, (tied by John Drsicoll - Toxic Shark, Inc.) and started fishing. With fish rolling all around us and flies all around the fish, we caught nothing! David did have three fish roll up and bump the fly, but none took it deep enough to be hooked. Swapping flies did not help. The fish were there and they were feeding, however, they were just not eating what we presented. After we got tired of watching the tarpon "thumb up their noses" at us, we moved to the mouth of the river to fish the tidal current seams, oyster bars and flats for snook. With the exception of the tarpon, the river had been relatively quite. Too quite! We saw only a very few snook bust the shoreline on the way out. Sure enough, the mouth was quite also. The place we were fishing is a classic setting for fly fishing snook and redfish. It has numerous bars, sand flats, mangrove canopies and tidal rips all very close together and within easy reach of each other. An angler can fish all these different scenarios in a relatively small area and the action is usually very good. Not this morning! We did not raise a single fish!! It was frustrating. The weather had just changed and the wind shifted to the southwest. Though this direction is probably the worst for fishing the "outside", we moved out of the river to the front anyway to find some fish. The wind was just too strong for the outside, so we went back into the 10,000 islands and fished some passes and creek mouths after the tide switched. We had some action on jacks, ladyfish and snappers, but the snook we not eating the fly. The wind was up and dictating where we could fish in this area and we still had to find some fish ... time for a boat ride into the backcountry where the southwest wind is not a factor.. We came back south past Chokoloskee and into the deep back country. It was beautiful as usual. We did see a few nice cruising snook while poling, but in all cases too late for a good presentation. The snook were not laid up in the places that we usually find them, so this "hot-spot" turned out to be like the others this day ... frustrating. Gerry did manage one snook from out of the trees. With our bottom lip hanging a bit we headed back to port just talking about the fish we saw! I got up early that morning and listened while drinking my coffee on the dock. I could hear the snook busting the trees in the mangrove creeks within ear shot. About three hours later and after sunrise, we left Chokoloskee and headed for the creek mouths. By the time we arrived the snook had stopped feeding and all we saw were manatees!! There was a late rising full moon and the snook were feeding at night. We tried a few more "reliable" snook spots and made casts at more rolling tarpon before we changed our plan. That day, we had left the 17' Roberts flats boat that we use for fly fishing at the marina and were in the 20' Super Dolphin to hedge our bets. By mid-morning, it was apparent that this day was going to be a repeat of the last if we kept up this pattern. So we pointed the boat south, netted up a couple thousand pilchards and headed off for cobia and permit!! We never got to fish for cobia. Once Gerry and David got a taste of the permit, it was all over!!! Another batch of permit junkies was born! The fish were consistent in size running 15-20 lbs. In and around the area were also schools of jacks in the 6-10 lbs range. Gerry boated two nice permit using spinning gear and had several other fish on. David stuck religiously to the fly rod. He had 6-8 real chances with nice presentations that day. As it turned out, Gerry and David had a double header on with permit. Gerry on a spinning rod and David on the fly. That was exciting. About 10 minutes into fight, David's fly pulled out of the fished mouth. That, as it turned out, was the beginning of a trend. Gerry landed his fish about 25 minutes later. Sorry David. David did manage to land several nice jack crevalle on fly. Pound-for-pound, this is one of the most underrated fly fishing targets you can fish for. How many 8lb fish do you know that eat flies ravenously, are easy to locate and can run you into the backing of a 10-12 weight every time? They are a blast on any gear!!! We had seen a bunch of fish this second day and it was very clear what were going to do on Gerry's third and final day. We took off with a load of live bait for area offshore that holds cobia, kingfish, Spanish mackerel, etc. This was a long trip, but I had visions of grandeur and David had visions of cobia on fly. When we arrived, there were turtles all around, birds and mackerel circling the boat. We manage some small grouper, snapper and a few of the mackerel. We had three nice runs on the spinning gear of unknown species. However, even with the live chumming, we were unable to bring up cobia from the bottom so David could get a shot at them with the fly rod. David did get a nice strike, likely a big kingfish, than blistered him deep into his backing, but the fly pulled. Sound familiar? With the loss of the David's kingfish, we moved back to the permit grounds. On the way there, we saw the big jacks and could not resist. The guys loaded up their fly rods and I positioned the boat along side the school. When everyone was ready, I heaved a handful of pilchards at the wolf pack and the surface immediately exploded. That sure is a tough time to be a pilchard. David was on the bow and Gerry was on the stern. Another handful of pilchards, more explosions and David's fly gets gobbled off the bow. Explosions at the stern. I turn in time to see Gerry's fly get gobbled. Another double!! Back to bow ... as the fish streaks off line David is clearing his fly and gets him on the reel. He's okay. Back to the stern. Gerry strip sets, the fish streaks, he is clearing line, the fish is on he reel. He is okay. But just as the fish runs gets on the reel, the fly pulls. Remember this re-occurring theme! That's fishing! Oh well. The permit were next. They were everywhere. Big fish and big schools. At any one time we were looking at 2-300 fish. Everywhere. We caught several fish on spinning gear, but not one on the fly rod. Not today. David had probably close to 30 superb presentations. We tried everything fly in the box, but NOOOOO! Not a single fish ate. Aghhh!! Though we did not get the fish to eat that day, I am very comfortable in saying that these two, well-traveled anglers, came away very impressed with this fishery. I am sure that they saw more fish and had more permit opportunities in this one day than they likely have had in their entire permit fly fishing careers. It truly is something special. Gerry had to leave, so David's wife Mary and their four-year-old son Adam came aboard. As you can imagine, Adam dictated our action and as predicted, the aquarium/bait tank dictated Adam. I believe this is a exact quote ... "I got to go see more stuff now!" and back into the tank he would dive. We stopped by the live bait spot to add some critters to Adam's tank. Our first stop on Adam's trip was a place we call Spider 2. (Yes, there is also Spider 1 and 3). A couple of handfuls of pilchards and the surface was alive. Adam (oh yes, David and Mary also) caught trout, mackerel, jacks and ladyfish non-stop. Well, not quite non-stop. In fact ... actually ... now that I think about it, Adam had his head in the bait well non-stop and looked up only to catch fish ... sometimes. Any way we all had a blast. But it was time for the permit and cobia again. What a difference a day makes. This day the permit were much fewer in number, though there still were plenty of fish. They were more shy and weary and tough to get to eat. We needed "virgin fish". Off to the next spot. This place is a transition area for the permit. They never seem to stay around but just seem to pass through. We just had to wait. The area was quiet except for the jacks and mackerel. I set out a flat line (Adam's) for the kingfish or cobia. David spotted a school of permit coming right at us ... perfect. Just as he said something, the flat line went off .... David cast perfectly and a BIG permit ate ... finally!!! Another double. This time with a big permit on fly and a kingfish on spinning gear. David's line clears ...the fish is on the reel ... fly line and then backing screams out if the reel ... David's okay. Adam (with a little help) makes short order of the kingfish and we begin concentrating on David's permit. By now the fish is 250+ yards into the backing, but David has him in control. Now all we have to do is settle down a bit a fight the fish. But you guessed it, about 10 minutes into it, the fly gently pulls out of the fish ... again. For those of you wondering, the hooks are sharp and David was handling things perfectly ... go figure! The next day we headed south. David had yet to get a snook on fly. We tried one spot. David did catch one fish, but Adam was ready for more action ... permit action. We fished a different area than the day before and it was a while before the permit showed up. That's okay, the big jacks stretched the fly line nicely. Once the permit did show up, Mary caught her first permit and David finally got one to the boat on fly. And, of course, Adam, caught a real nice speckled sea trout on the way back in. We drove back through the backcountry so Mary could see this part of paradise. It was a great week with some really good anglers. I made some good friends who I hope will be back. I am looking forward to fishing with Adam (and, oh yeah, Mary, David and Gerry) in the years to come. Saturday, I fished a 1/2 day with Ed Rumberger and his good friend Frank Perrotta, out of Naples, Fl. We stopped at one spot and caught a mess of Spanish Mackerel and a slew of Jacks. Frank had never caught a permit, so off we went. The first school of permit turned into 8 lbs jacks, oh well. However, after couple attempts, Frank was tussling with a 15 lb fish and 35 minutes later he was posing for photographs. All-in-all it was a good half day fishing with a good mess of fish for the table. Ed, say hello to the Mrs. and nice to have you back. For those of you who are traveling to the area, consider staying at our fishing villas. These are actually two bedroom, two bath homes on the water available for booking Jan 1, 2003. Take a look Fishing Villa and Cabin Rentals For those who are attending the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show, I will be speaking at noon on Saturday Nov. 2 about fishing this area. See ya there. If you would like to book a charter with Chokoloskee Charters, contact The Captain @ www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com or call him @ 239-682-9920. Tight Lines! I had the pleasure of fishing and shelling with two very nice women, Nan Speigel and Miriam Cardwell of Miami. The fishing was a blast, but unfortunately the catching was slow. However, we did get to see manatees, dolphin, turtles, eagles, ospreys, kites, rosette spoonbills, sharks and gators. Toward the end of the trip, we had a nice beach lunch cooking our catch and a cooling swim in the shallows . Miriam, had not experienced eating freshly prepared fish on the beach before and seem to thoroughly enjoy things. Nan had "been there before", but she seem to enjoy it as much as I. I can't wait to do it again next time.
I fished with Brit Metcalf (Atlanta, Ga.) and his brother Jay (Palm Springs, Fl.). Both are experienced freshwater bass fisherman. They were accurate casters and constantly had a bait in the water ... it paid off. I had a couple of days off and had fished myself the day before around Chokoloskee. Things were too slow for my taste, so I told Brit and Jay that we were going to "burn some gas" right off to get to different terrain from what I had fished the day before. The plan was to fish the falling tide in the river mouths and then, if weather permitted, ease off to our artificial reefs. We began by tossing gold shad tail jigs and bass assassins. Early in the tide and the morning, baits were regularly being blasted, but mostly by small fish. The guys caught lots of ladyfish, jacks, and smaller snook. We had at least two big snook miss the baits and Jay lost a real nice fish early. Toward the end of the tide, I free-lined a large live bait in hopes of enticing a pig snook to feed, but all we mustered was a shark. Jay, tossing a pearl colored bass assassin produced an Everglades Grand Slam with by catching numerous snook, a redfish and a small tarpon (I believe his first). All in all, a good morning! As the tide fell deeper and the sun and temperature rose higher, the bite fell way off. It was time for a sandwich and a boat ride to find some permit. As we approached the structure, what I thought was a school of permit turned out to be a school of 8-10 summer jacks. Brit and Jay doubled up several times on 8 and 12 lb spinning gear. Twice, Goliath Grouper in the 250lb range, came up from the bottom and gobbled their jacks in plain view. The guys were not much of a match with their light tackle. I tell you what, those two saucered-eyed anglers sure did a bunch of hootin' and hollerin' seeing those big round tailed bass!!! We spied a few permit, but they were holding deep and moving fast, so we did not get a good shot at thm. Since the giant roundtails were that active, the big snook, barracuda and cobia were (wisely) not feeding ... bad timing .. oh, well!!. A 31' Contender came up on us (from Islamorada). Without wetting a line, they complained about the water and the fishing, we agreed (he-he!) and left right away for another hot spot. As we came up to our next stop, I saw two large pods of permits (about a mile and a half from where they were supposed to be). Show time!!! As usual, we were fishing eight pound spinning gear so hooking the fish and catching the fish truly were two different things. These fish were both Brit and Jay's first permit. I will never get over the look in anglers eyes as they watch 225 yards of string unwind to the knot the first time!!! They caught six fish, by there count, in the16-19 lb range. (Incidentally, the last fish caught made Permit number 245 for 2002). Two small bull sharks, approximately 100lbs chased one of Jay's permit around the boat the boat a few times. I don't know who was more excited, the permit or Jay ... more hootin' and hollerin'. I am sure the sharks would have made a lunch of the fish if they had been a bit larger. We stopped another piece of structure that has been holding snook close to 20lbs. However, it was "no joy" on the big snook. Jay did get a taste of the strength a goliath grouper before it took him into the bottom. Brit and Jay are very good fisherman and were a blast on the boat. I only hope they had as good of a time as I did and will be back .... soon! I fly fished with Big Jim Slade (Jim Webster of J. Webster Contracting, Pompano Beach) in south Biscayne Bay, Friday. It was Visual Grand Slam day. We both made repeated great presentations to permit, tarpon and some very large bonefish. Nothing would eat our flies. Jim did muster one fish that ran him into the shoreline rocks like a grouper. A very strange day, but a blast, especially since I got lots of bow time from Jim!! Chokoloskee Charters is about to introduce another boat to the fleet. We have been reworking a 24' Morgan center console. She has a 10 foot beam, a very high bow, lots of fishing room and will be painted our trademark horizon sky blue (Yes, Bill the pictures on the website still need to be updated!). She should be a great fishing platform for Grouper, Snapper, Kings, Tarpon and Cobia. This weekend we able to float her for the first time!! With Capt. Bruce Hitchcock, Justin Dargavage and Dave Wilson (and three spinning rods) aboard, we made our way off-shore on a test run. We barely fished as we were tinkering with the boat most of the time. Bruce did jig up a cobia and a permit (number 246!) and Dave did a barracuda. The cobia was nearly fed to a 300lb roundtail at the boat. A cobia about 50lbs did not eat. Cobia in August, go figure. I can not wait to finish the Morgan, she is going to be a blast since we will be able to handle six anglers grouper/snapper digging and up to four doing most everything else. It is going to be a exciting winter season (at least for me!!). Keep an eye out for progress pictures of the Morgan. If you would like to book a trip with Chokoloskee Charters, please call The Captain @ (239) 695-9107 or visit www.ChokoloskeeCharters.com on the Web. Good Fishing. 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!!! 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 |
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October 2005
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