Everglades Fishing – Captain Ned Small

 Some nice things are happening.

Soon the redsnook tournament will be over and things can get back to normal. ‘Nobody fishing and the whole place to ourselves. There’s a few tarpon in the river, a few big ones in that cove across from you know where.

 Tonight is the first cold front, there should be reds. That is to say, more reds.

New palms, thanks to Bill L.,  are taking hold in the yard. Gossia Maya, Hurricane Palm, Cat Palm, and more. I’m trying to raise a flowering hedge along the southern edge where we launch. But Captain John Stark keeps running over everything I plant, trying to launch his boat in the pre-dawn darkness by backing up to the water. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, the helical steering route that Captain John takes through my neighbors yard and over the hedge,  …crushing all seedlings,  …well,  …I guess,  …I could understand how someone could say, …you know what I mean?  …That there might be something wrong with that.

 I haven’t found them myself yet, but there are some marauding schools of juvenile snook in the back of beyond. You have to pole forever and then catch lots of 17 inch snook. I know where to look.

 We just blew through Teal Season. Me an’ Lindsay limited out in that tropical storm. We paddled in the darkness through the jungle wilderness in tiny canoes to One Mile Prairie. It was awesome.

Snipe season is coming up.

The second duck season too.

There’s small tarpon.

I will guide for food.

Anglers won’t be able to keep a snook in Southwest Florida until September 2011 under rules approved today by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Catch and release still would be allowed under the rule.

The decision extends a closed season for snook that has been in place since January throughout South Florida in the wake of a devastating cold snap last winter hammered snook populations.

On the East Coast, where the freeze had less of an impact, the Conservation Commission voted today to reopen the snook fishery as of Sept. 17.

Captain Bill Blanton had the foredeck this morning, tickling a few small tarpon at daylight and then sighting this red on the way home.

August 5, 2010
Contact: Henry Cabbage, 850-488-8843

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has temporarily extended the emergency closure of snook harvest and possession in Florida through Sept. 16. (Executive Order 10-39 )

This action will continue the prohibition on harvest and possession of snook in effect since Jan. 16. The FWC enacted the closure in response to possible effects of prolonged cold weather on the snook population last winter. Catch-and-release fishing for snook is still allowed under this extended closure.

“We took immediate action to prohibit harvest of snook as a proactive, precautionary response to the freeze.  We want to make sure that if we reopen the fishery, we will be able to do it knowing the snook population is secure and will continue to rebound from the effects of that unprecedented cold snap,” FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto said. ”Snook is one of Florida’s premier game fish species. Anglers expect us to manage them carefully, and we will.”

The temporary extension will enable FWC Commissioners to hear a report by staff at their Sept. 1-3 meeting at Pensacola Beach. They will review the latest information on the status of the snook population, receive public input and determine whether to reopen the fall harvest season or continue to prohibit harvest and possession as a precautionary measure.

The extension of the snook closure will remain in effect until 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 17. The season normally would have opened on Sept. 1 statewide.

While the temporary harvest prohibition remains in effect, no person may harvest or possess snook in state or federal waters off Florida. The FWC may reopen the fishery, if warranted, before the order expires or, if necessary, the agency may extend the closure by issuing another executive order.

On Sept. 2, during the meeting in Pensacola Beach, Commissioners will hear a report on the extent of damage to the snook population and consider a range of management options covering the next 12 months.

Will Campbell caught nine of these on Saturday using the slo-mo crab technique

This wasn’t our first trip fishing for Taimen in Mongolia.  My husband Lee and I had fished with Sweetwater  Travel Company in Mongolia in June of 2008 with great success.  We each caught a fish over  50″, which may have been world records, so this time we decided we would come prepared to record any monster we might catch, knowing very well that a repeat of our luck on the first trip was not too likely.  Frontiers had booked this June 2010 trip and helped us plan a follow-on itinerary through Irkutsk, Lake Baikal, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Mongolia is an interesting country with beautiful women and changeable weather.  We arrived in Ulan Batar  through Seoul, Korea, and had planned a day of recuperation before heading to the camp on Monday, but found that we would be flying to Moron on Sunday, the next day, and then driving over the mountains to reach the camp, actually adding one day of fishing to our trip.  Weather did not permit us to fly into the closer  Erdenbulgan.  We left UB in 85° weather and were surprised when the flight attendant said the temperature in Moron was about 38° and sleeting.  New snow had fallen in the mountain passes and the almost non-existent roads were even more difficult to follow.  After  five and a half hours of driving, we arrived in camp past midnight  to warm soup, cold beer,  and a group of  fishermen enthusiastically  talking about taimen.  Charlie, one of our guides, had photos on his computer of the 53″ taimen Lee caught in 2008 and the 57″ I caught that trip with him as our guide. Our ger was cozy  and warm when we finally entered it after talking late into the night. 

 We knew the program:  don’t get up too early, as one of the Mongolian camp staff will silently enter your ger about 6 a.m.,  re-light  your wood stove;  letting you wake to a warm ger and hot water in the tank; coffee ready by 7; breakfast  at 8; guide and river assignments; get your rods setup  and head for the river.  Rigging rods the first morning took  a little time,  and Charlie loaned us an additional rod so we could each have  two taimen  rods, one set up with  Jim Teeny 300 sinking line and one with floating line as well as two  six weight rods set up for grayling and lenok.   Our guide for the day, Gana, put a white, green and red streamer on the borrowed eight weight rod I was to use with my favorite 3N Abel reel, set up with a 16 lb. tippet .  Lee made certain we had the certified scale, a tape measure and cameras in the boat.

We didn’t get to the confluence of the Eg and Ur Rivers until almost 1:00 p.m.   The Ur River is a wide slower flowing river that ends where it meets the Eg, which is a fast flowing river that comes out of Lake Hovsgol to the northwest.   Gana set us up so that we were anchoring, casting, drifting, with me near the motor casting to the Ur and Lee near the anchor, casting to the drop-off on the Eg.  After six or seven  minutes I had a good strike, but it got off.  Another six  or seven minutes and another good strike but couldn’t keep it on, either.   Well, I was getting nervous that I was doing something wrong, but Gana reassured me that I should just keep fishing.  Another six or seven minutes, another strike and  it did not get off!  When this monster surfaced we all gasped at the size of the huge circular jaw and the gleaming white throat, reminiscent of the great white in Jaws.   Two more times it surfaced, shaking its head, trying to spit out the fly as we drifted and Gana guided us to shore.  I remained in the boat, while Gana successfully netted the fish from shore on the second try.   A 30 minute battle. Thought my reeling hand might fall off.  What elation!  58 inches long, 24.5 girth, 47.5 weight.   If accepted by IGFA, a new world record! 

The rest of our week passed with more “normal” results, Lee had several taimen in the 30 and 40 inch range, while I was relegated to catching some of the smallest taimen ever seen, including one about 19″ as part of a Mongolian Grand Slam (taimen, grayling and lenok in one day).  On the afternoon of the  last day, we drifted with our guide  Bayaraa through the same water at the confluence of the Eg and Ur where the monster (and a number of other good fish) was caught, this time Lee casting to the Ur and me casting to the Eg,  my fly occasionally hanging up on the rocks along the drop off.  Bayaraa was about to come help me get my fly off another rock when I sensed some movement, another rock? movement, a fish!  When this taimen surfaced, we could see the entire body and a beautiful, huge, red-orange tail.    Bayaraa guided us to shore where we landed a 50″, 36 lb taimen.  What a way to start and end a trip!   

Marles Frankman.