Roberto Bowing To A Tarpon

Roberto Bowing To A Tarpon

The month of August is always one of the hottest temperature months here in Marathon.  This means the smart anglers try to get on the water as early as possible and catch their fish before it gets so hot they can’t stand it anymore.  Over the last month my clients and I have been doing the exact thing.  We’ ve been at the ramp by sunrise and pretty much caught everything we want to by early afternoon that way we can head in for a cold adult beverage and some air conditioning.

Roberto Loving It

Roberto Loving It

This month I’ve had a bunch of my regular clients come in town which is great because I love catch up with them.  Here you can see a father and son team from Mexico.  Salvador and his 12 year old boy Roberto.  They’ve been fishing with me for years now and this last trip had to be one of the best ever.  Now that Roberto is a better angler than most of my adults I was able to do some really technical fishing with him for the first time.  We started the morning throwing Rapala Twitching Raps at Tarpon in the backcountry area of Whitewater Bay.  These fish were in the 20-80 lb range and not in a hurry to go anywhere. 

Salvador With His Sons Redfish

Salvador With His Sons Redfish

They appeared to be happy milling around slowly ever so often crashing on bait.  Because they were in this state our retrieve with the lure was also slower than usual twitching in with a slow walk the dog technique.  Roberto ended up landing one 60 LB Tarpon using an ultra light rod I honestly didn’t think would be possible.  Oh and I forgot to mention he did it in 14 minutes flat!  Beat that guys.  Next up was a spot for Refish and Snook.  We used live shrimp on a Chartreuse jig head and were successfull catching Redfish, Trout, Jacks, Ladyfish, and Snapper.  Because we didn’t get the Snook I decided to make the haul over to Hell’s Bay and try in a remote Secret Hush Hush spot.  Which after several missed fish we struck out.  It wasn’t Roberto’s fault they just were’nt totally committed to the strike.  I think it was just too late in the day and if we were there earlier we would have gotten a few Snook.

Pod of Dolphins Swimming With The Boat

Pod of Dolphins Swimming With The Boat

Another cool thing that has been happening here in South Florida is the appearance of a whole bunch of Dolphins in Florida Bay.  We have them all year long but for some reason there seems to be double the amount I am use to seeing.  Just the other day were were cruising across Whitewater Bay and saw a pod of dolphin that must have had well over 25 in it in about 4 feet of water.  We were able to get them to cruise with the boat for several minutes and got some really cool video.

What else is going on? Offshore bite of Mahi Mahi has been really good.  Yellow Tail Snapper and Mutton Snapper has been consitently good.  Permit and Cobia’s have been already showing up on the Gulf Side wrecks.  And the Big Jack Crevailles are all over the place in the Gulf near the Everglades National Park boudary signs.  Well I’m Captain Rich Smith with your backcountry and South Florida Fishing Report.  If you have any feedback drop me a line.