Everglades Fishing – Captain Ned Small

Pouring rain. Tropical rain. Sweeping front and clearing nor’wester. We couldn’t depart in the morning due to lightning. Dan Teets on the foredeck in the afternoon, sight shooting snook and reds with fly rod. Several sightings and chances at big fish, which gave us the wallops. Dan likes to break ‘em off early.

I’ve been telling Y’all about it, I finally got my chance to go after those snook we’ve been seeing while tarpon fishing. Bob Patrick and Kevin McMichael sight shooting snook with fly rods for the past couple of days, for over two dozen releases on Snook Only. Release only.

Steady east wind veering, finally, for an hour or two into the southwest. We fished the high falling tide in the morning, a lot of water in the Islands, quirky winds, still we got into them in several spots. We are fishing the more esoteric pools, the small ponds and hidden lagoons. Each spot may have three to six or more tarpon in them. Conditions have to be just right to be successful, wind, water clarity, depth, visibility, etc., so that means a lot of hopping around. We had several shots at visible sleepers today as well as a few rollers but, in spite of a couple of good strikes, we were unable to get one in the air.

P.S.     There are a lot of snooks around, some really nice ones, and they’re on the bite. We can see them under the mangroves while we are tarpon hunting. Use whitebait imitations, small ones, with weed guards and hit the high falling tide. Look for birds and schools of baitfish.

A little Northeasterly shift in the wind today opened a few windows for us and one in particular was clear as a looking glass. Alan Small, sleeper on fly, fifty pounds.

Southeasterlies, benign breezes, quarter moon, decent visibility, shore breeze, the fishing should be dynamite. But it’s more like a steady burn. We are fishing for tarpon every day with fly rods, hunting sleepers. It’s hard hunting, hours of patient poling and quiet stalking.  Sometimes we think about an individual fish, or a small school of them for a couple of days before making the next attempt. Always hopeful for that sudden burst of migrating fish, we are honing our techniques for the opportunities that are here now, and they are demanding. Small flies, long leaders and light tippetts. Alan Small getting three in the air in a day and a half, all of them sighted sleepers, 35, 50 and 70 pounds.

Beautiful weather, calm mornings, variable winds into the afternoon followed by the shore breeze and a few thunderstorms. Tarpon are showing more all the time and there is a sudden push of smaller fish, 50 pounders, among the giants. The arrival of these tarpon will open up a number of bays and coves favored by the smaller fish giving us more room to move and a greater frequency of targets. It is very quiet on the water, snook season is closed and there is little traffic in the islands. As though waiting for the season to end, the snook are now on the bite, look for glass minnows and tiny whitebaits among the mangrove roots on the falling tide and match the hatch with appropriate imitations. Small flies, number 2-6, in white variations seem to work well. Tie some with weed guards for casting into the trees.