Everglades Fishing – Captain Ned Small

Hunting sleepers all day. Lots of Big Girls fresh in from the Gulf. You could see them swimming into the lagoon by twos and threes while we waited silently on the flat during the rising tide. Dick Schultz struck four Giants, getting one beautiful fish in the air, 130 pounds.

Beautiful weather, light winds, no tide (It’s two feet deep everywhere all day), quarter moon and tarpon. Green Giants. Dick Schultz on the foredeck today hunting sleepers. He sighted lots of tarpon and hooked up one for a half dozen leaps before it spit the hook.

We went south again this morning hitting some spots we missed yesterday. There were snook and reds in all the places they were supposed to be and some of the snook were size: awesome. We sighted one layed up on an oyster shoal that was easily thirty pounds.  It’s hard to get these big fish to bite, especially when they are in just a few inches of clear water in the bright sunshine but Mike Lawson got it done with both red’s and snook today. Here’s one Mike caught in Discovery Bay.

Northeasterly winds finally losing a little velocity and clear water returning to the flats. Time to run south! We had a beautiful day today, sighting numerous big snook on the shoals. They were on the move and hungry, if you got the fly in the sweet spot you got hit. It wasn’t easy but there was a lot of excitement when you saw three or five ten pound snook cruising the flats in a gang. I’d show you the Big Fish Picture but Mike Lawson accidentally dropped our fish of the day overboard just as I pressed the shutter button. We’re going back for them in the morning.

Tarpon. We’ve found a school of giants in a hidden lagoon in the Islands out front. The game is afoot! Dino Messina struck two of them yesterday and we are going back for them in the morning. It’s still windy but the breeze is onshore and the water is warming rapidly and the tarpon are right on schedule. Stanley Miller fished with me today on his first trip to the Everglades. We ended the day in a backcountry lake trying for a baby tarpon to round out a Grand Slam. Here’s a picture of Stan with the tarpon that did it. Stan Miller, tarpon, redfish and snook, all in the same day, all on fly.

Lostman’s River again today and they were there in force. We sighted over fifty Big Snook and reds. The wind made it tough to see through the chop and despite the clear water the biggest ones eluded us. We landed a half dozen, the largest, by no means the largest we saw, was twenty eight inches.

Randy Lane and Mike Moreau made the trek to Lostman’s with me this morning. As expected the wind was howling but we found snook and reds in all the right places. Here’s Randy with one of many we sighted on the flats.