Goldenfly results, our fishing

Earlier this week, I fished the Goldenfly tournament in Islamorada with John O’Hearn. We had a good time, though some boat troubles plagued us the first day.

I would like to congratulate Andy Mill and Captain Rob Fordyce, who won the event. They gave a great account of themselves and made it happen with a great final day–hats off to them. Also with a great showing were Captain Jared Raskob and Mark Richens, who gave up an early lead to a close second on the final day. In third was Captain Scott Collins and Pastor Ed Young. John and I were in fourth.

It should be noted that Mark and Jared also caught the largest fish in the event.

As for our own fishing, I’ll keep the report brief. Day one we had a rough time of it, with a long run to fishless waters and a hard time with John’s motor. We had maybe 8 shots, and it’s a good thing we made the decision to keep the motor running when we pumped gas; when we got back to the Lorelei the engine wouldn’t start again.
Thankfully, Joe Rodriguez loaned s his boat for the next two days, and we were able to get back into a rhythm on the second day. We had a pile of shots and eight bites to show for our efforts. Unfortunately, we were only able to pull from these 8 bites two releases–all the other fish fell off.

The third and final day we ran to a far away place, and there had some shots at large fish. I broke off a smaller fish, and then later (after cycling through a number of different flies) connected to a fish that kept us occupied for the next hour and 15 minutes. When we finally caught the fish we had a good one, 95.9 pounds according to the formula:

After that we had one more bite from a big fish, though again (and unfortunately) this fish too broke off.

 

I’d like to thank John for a great few days of tarpon fishing, and we are both looking forward to the Gold Cup in a few short weeks. From now until then it’s practice practice practice, and reports will follow.

 

Nathaniel