Everglades Fishing – Captain Ned Small

Another September snook on fly, Everglades style, Scott Zoltowski at the wheel.

Captain John Stark and I went on recon a few days ago, we do this all the time just to see what’s happening. Here’s a close up of the mighty tarpon.

Scott Washburn, snook on fly, Everglades style!

Hey Ned,

…….. I also wanted to let you know that Scott and I had a great time on Friday.  We were talking about it afterwards and we were both extremely pleased.  I know the water conditions were far from ideal but you worked hard to put us on fish and we both truly appreciate that. 

There were a few things that really stood out to me.  The first was that you let me fish for a bit, observed what I was doing and then came up and gave me some simple pointers to help me improve.  You didn’t overwhelm me.  You were not barking orders from the back of the boat.  You were not telling me what I was doing “wrong”.  You showed patience and provided guidance.  Not easy when you are dealing with a couple of New Englanders who are used to making crude casts to busting Stripers I’m sure.

There was another point when we stopped at a spot, you looked at it and decided there was too much water and moved on.  I’m willing to bet that most guides, after traveling to a spot would have allowed us to waste our time “giving it a shot”.  You did not. 

Lastly, you covered 70 miles.  That’s a lot of water.  You could have given into the conditions, stayed close to home and chalked it up to a loss. However you respected how much time, effort and money we put into coming down there and put in the effort and gas to make it a success for us.  Again, greatly appreciated.

Oh..and by the way…I did end up getting my Tarpon.  Shortly after you dropped us off I walked down to the dock and saw some rolling.  I ran back, got my rod and managed to land a real nice snook and then a nice little Tarpon.  Mike managed to hook into one that was about 3′ but it finally got him wrapped up on a piling and broke off. 

All in all a great couple of days.  When we come back to the Glades, we’ll be sure to look you up.

All the best,
Scott Washburn

     Doctor John, Patrick, and Kris White have been alternating on the foredeck these last few days, trying to get a few trips in between hurricanes. It hasn’t been exactly easy, and there has been some form of wind every day from passing storms.  We’ve had to endure a few slow periods,  drift through wads of Jungle Alligators, thirty of them, some of them hissing at us, I kept the pole ready in my hands to defend the boat. Thankfully it wasn’t necessary.  No snook in that cove.

     We’ve been all over the Everglades looking for fish, there are still tons of fresh water spilling from the uplands and there are a few snook in the most likely places out back, but the best fishing has been on the outside, when the weather will let us get to it.  

    September is a turning point, everything is changing, the snook are on the move, the reds are feeling amorous and schooling up on the flats, several times this week we were surrounded by schooling reds, lots of them, thirty, fifty at a time. They’re hard to catch when they’re like that, somehow they don’t seem interested in eating, but they can be caught, check the gallery for a couple of redfish pictures.

     On the last day, when “Ike,” was bearing down on us, the forecast was for high winds and turbulent seas but it was fishable when we left the dock before sunrise. We had to fight our way home before noon, but not before Kris had clipped about fifteen snook, three reds and this tarpon, all on fly, for a Grand Slam, Everglades Style!