At the end of June the 2018 Gold Cup wrapped up. It’s the biggest of the tournaments of the year, and is certainly the crescendo, and for many not the proper end, of tarpon season. There is one major tournament left this year, the Del Brown Permit Tournament, which will take place in the middle…

The Hawley finished last week, and it was a great tournament to watch from afar. Three teams entered in to the last day with 12 releases–Captain Brian Helms and Rand Holstead, Captain Rob Fordyce and Julian Robertson, and Captain Paul Tejera and Steve Ward. When the smoke cleared after the final day of fishing Julian…

Earlier last the week I finished up fishing in the Golden Fly Tarpon Tournament. John and I have both been working hard at what we were intending to do during those three days, and the fact that the fishing was impossibly difficult gave us a chance not just to flex our new hardware but our…

Earlier last week I spent a day as Adam Tondu’s guest on Lenny Leonard’s boat. Lenny is one of my closest friends and someone who’s company I enjoy immensely, and Adam is someone that I met first through the shop when Lenny was bitten by a lemon shark and couldn’t make their booked days. Adam…

Last week I fished with Ian Slater for a pair of days. Our goal was to tarpon fish, and while we had everything we needed to do this the weather worked to keep us from success. The two days we fished were the windiest within a windy week, and the gusts felt like they howled…

After the two days with John boy, I was invited to fish for a day with Drew Delashmit as a guest of Ted Margo. I’ve always enjoyed fishing with Ted, and part of the point of this trip was for him to test drive the beast skiff with an eye towards an eventual purchase of…

It’s a fine thing to be booked with a great guide on two fantastic weather days, and as much as I fish it’s still a surprise when the weather lines up with the days I’ve got scheduled. Earlier in the week the weather had been poor, cold and windy; by the time John and I…

Last week I fished for two days. The first was with Ian Slater, and we set our sights on tarpon. With the upcoming tarpon tournaments and my recent re-tooling of fish fighting, I was interested in getting the new boat on the water and us attached to some faces. We started early and had a…

After the facepunch that was detailed in the last report I had an opportunity to spend a few days fishing with a number of different guides and friends/family. Last Tuesday I fished with my mother, Vicky, and Aaron Snell. Wednesday last I fished with Howard Davis on our annual day together with Ian Slater, and…

After the March Merkin I traveled to Everglades City to fish with Steve and Chad. In my last six scheduled trips north I’ve been lining up quite closely with some far-from-perfect weather, and this trip was sadly no exception. We’ve kept ourselves occupied by snook fishing and some brief looks for tarpon on those trips…