Yesterday with Captain Sandy Horn and David Weeks

David Weeks invited me along with Captain Sandy Horn for a day of fishing yesterday. We left out of Big Pine.
Our morning began with a number of schools of fish, some very large, in a channel. We threw at them for an hour before moving on; during this time I would estimate that we had over 20 shots at fish and were in the company of more than 100 at times. Despite their numbers we couldn’t buy a bite (even after I tried the Skoker) and left them in search of more accommodating behavior.
In short order we had a group of small fish that gave me a bite, then David hopped up and summarily fed three small tarpon before we left in search of larger quarry.
As we were ready to leave our second spot we saw a fish roll. Sandy hopped back up on the platform, and I quickly hooked the crab trap buoy that was near the roll we’d seen earlier. As we were retrieving my fly from the rope, we saw a group of six large fish on the bottom–enough of a reason to stay for another 15 minutes. It was a good thing we did, as in the next half hour I had more than 20 shots at large fish, both laid up and sliding.
It took us a while to find the right fly; when we did, we were almost through the fish. We had a few almosts and many leans once we got the bug right, and finally a large fish that was primed to eat gave out at the last second when it watched my fly get tangled in some grass. With that the fast-paced action ended, and we moved on.
We saw perhaps four or five fish where Sandy had seen a pile the day before, and had another four shots at a special edge–none of the fish seemed too happy about what we were offering, and we moved on.
At our penultimate spot I caught a little tarpon on the Skoker, which was thrilling since I was convinced it was a permit until it ate the fly…sometimes it isn’t so obvious, ha.

We finished with the light low and called it a day; great times with good friends and many thanks to David Weeks for inviting me along–also for showing me how to properly fish for baby tarpon: like a boss.

Tomorrow with Dave Dalu and Friday with Andy Mill, a report surely will follow.

Regards,

nathaniel