Superfly report, Part THREE of THREE

After the last two days of fishing, each with a permit and one with a slam, it was either a great or a terrible way to walk into the Superfly. We had momentum, to be sure, but there was a distinctive possibility that we’d used up all of our mojo. Either way, off we went.
The tarpon fishing started slow, but we stuck with our plan and after a half hour hooked a fish. He stayed on and we secured the release, and Aaron took this photo:

We hooked another three fish in the same area, though none of them lasted long enough on the hook to be caught according to guide-leader-touch tournament rules. When the fish stopped showing up we left for where we had found our morning pon the day before, but instead found someone already there, idling down the edge. Frustrating to be sure, and while we fished for a few minutes it was too painful to watch and we left to find a bonefish. This didn’t take long. As soon as we arrived on the flat Aaron saw a group of three fish, and on our second cast we were tight to a bonefish that met the minimum and gave us 2 of 3 species:

It was only 10 AM, and we had another 5 hours to try to catch a permit for the slam. The issue was that we had nothing more than one of each, and if someone caught a few tarpon and a bonefish they’d have us beat. The light was gone, however, and while we looked for bonefish for another hour we didn’t find any and left to look for a permit. The next four hours were tense and defined by a lack of fish and a glut of cloud cover that passed by literally at 3:00 PM, lines out.
In the interim I had one good shot at a group of four feeding permit, though the fly became wrapped in turtle grass and prevented even a passing chance at a grab.
We headed to the dock, sad we couldn’t finish the edge we were on, and saw that our two fish was good enough for a win, barely edging out Justin Rea and Cal Collier, Jr. who caught three tarpon but broke off a bonefish.
It’s always nice to win, and an especially nice way to finish a great four days of fishing with two of the best guides on the planet.

I’d like to thank Aaron for guiding us to a win, our second in the Superfly.

I don’t have a lot of fishing planned in the next week, but I’ll keep these pages updated when I can. I’m beginning to write this book, see, and that’s what the next month or two is for. I will, however, spend two day with Will Benson fishing at the end of the month, a day with Doug Kilpatrick, and a week in Belize from the 5-12 October. Stay tuned.

ncl