Everglades Fishing – Captain Ned Small

Light winds, clear water, sunny skies and tarpon. Shannon Norris had the foredeck today on his first trip to the Everglades for tarpon on fly. We hunted sleepers all day and Shannon had numerous shots at tarpon of all sizes; he struck seven getting three in the air, forty, seventy, and one moose about a hundred and twenty pounds.

Chuck Kenney on the foredeck hunting sleepers with fly rods all day. The water is clear enough, the wind has relented, the sun is shining and the tarpon are here. We had over two dozen shots at laid up fish and they would bite! Chuck struck six, getting three of them into the air, sixty to ninety pounds. This is just the beginning of the June run, some of the best fishing is coming up in the month ahead.

Steady winds from the east diminishing slightly and a shore breeze has been developing in the afternoon. We’ve been sightfishing snook down south using light and ultra-light spinning and bait casting rigs with topwater plugs and shallow runners, floating plugs with a short lip. There is still not an abundance of whitebait although glass minnows are beginning to ball up on the outside islands as well as the backcountry. The snook are skinny from the winter but they’re long, we’ve gotten quite few in the 27 – 29 inch class, casting to visible fish along the oysters at low tide. Tomorrows weather is looking good, we’re hunting sleepers with fly rods all day.

Winds continue out of the east with steady 15+ m.p.h. velocity. Tarpon tend to thin out when the wind blows offshore and this trend is no exception. Nevertheless Tim and David Dandt hung tough today, hunting sleepers all day with fly rods. It was hard work, lots of poling in sometimes unfriendly winds, but with the kind of dedication these guys bring to the game we were bound for success. Here’s the proof in the photo. Tim Dandt, tarpon on fly, Everglades style.

The weather has changed and the nights are finally staying warm enough to make the tarpon happy. Chris Dankan fished with me on Friday hunting sleepers all day with fly rods. The fish were in and we had numerous chances at giants, green giants, new arrivals in almost every spot we fished. At the end of the day Chris had jumped three, one baby about fifty pounds, another sleeper about 120 pounds that took the fly just ten feet from the bow, and an epic battle with a giant that might have been close to 150 pounds. We had this last fish on for maybe ten minutes, twice recovering almost three hundred yards of backing and finally losing it on a magnificent leap almost two hundred yards from the boat.

Everyone has to let their hair down once in a while and we’ve done a couple of jigging trips over the past few days. The fishing has been excellent, if you catch the tide right, and if you’ve got the spot, you can catch fish on every cast. We’ve probably caught over a hundred of various species including, spotted sea trout, jack crevalle, spanish mackeral, ladyfish, bluefish, pompano, whiting, redfish, snook, and permit. Here’s one in the photo that Bob Lunsford caught jiggin’ in the Milky Way Swash.