Day 19th – 22nd –
It was my intention to write a post for each day of this trip, but this did not happen for multiple reasons. The primary one was that fishing was not that great. In fact, it was down right slow. Collectively, we only averaged a couple of fish per day each. Reid did far worse, with only a few fish total. My total was five snook, one trout, one ladyfish, one sail cat and a needle fish. No one in our group caught a tarpon! It was a lot of running and poling, looking for and not finding fish.
Really tough on my mates. Each day we ran two boats over 50 miles a day. Mel and Carl were hitting all of their best spots. I know that tarpon can be elusive. We were trying to find them in Boca Grande a few years back and they never showed. The baby tarpon are residents. Unlike the adults that are migratory, the baby tarpon are supposed to always be around. Each day we were out early staking out good spots looking for rolling fish. As the water temps rise, the oxygen level drops and tarpon come to the surface and gulp air. If they are doing this near your boat you have an opportunity to take shots. Unfortunately, we were not able to find enough fish rolling. An occasional rolling fish is difficult to target and that was what we were facing. Perhaps the oxygen levels were OK.
The one thing that is always great about getting the Amigos together is that we always have a good time, even when the fish are tough to find we still have a great time. Also, the Everglades are really beautiful! Given how remote they are, I was actually surprised at how much boat traffic there was. Not that it was busy or crowded, but there were times when we went to check out a spot and there were already boats there.
Carl is a full time resident at the condo complex we stayed at and Mel is part-time. There are two seasonal fly fishing guides living there too. Both leave the Glades in the hot summer months and guide on the San Juan River in Colorado. It turns out, they were having trouble finding fish as well for their clients. Anyway, I managed some great pics from the trip and I plan to go back in the future.
