The Glades on Monday

On Monday I fished in the Everglades with Captain Joe Rodriguez and Fitz Coker. After a long drive from Key West to Islamorada, and another long drive from Islamorada to the Everglades, we arrived in great conditions and immediately started seeing a lot of redfish.
The issue we had with the redfish was that they were seeing us first, and while we saw a great many we did not have proper shots at most of them. I caught a puffer, as well as a small redfish, though every tiem Fitz set foot on the bow the fish seemed to disappear. Another spot and I got another bite, though once again Fitz stepped up to the bow and the fish vacated.

Following the search for redfish, we went to find a tarpon. At our first stop we saw a single fish roll and blew out another before we relocated to our final area of the day. There, Fitz ceded the bow to me and I immediately saw a giant tarpon spook from the boat. Soon thereafter, I had a shot at a laid up fish and then another at a pair of large pons. On my third cast I hooked a fish that we estimated at 120 pounds, and we gave chase. I leadered the fish, but before we could grab the fish for a photo the hook fell out and we went back in search of a fish for Fitz. He had two shots, though the light was failing and we couldn’t see the fish before they were 15 feet away from the boat. Once the light was gone, we were too.

I’d like to thank Joe Rodriguez for a great day and my first tarpon of 2014. I will also mention how great it is to have Fitz back in the Keys.

Next week with Huff, in search of the six.

ncl