AN EXCERPT FROM MY JANUARY ’08 COLUMN IN “OUTDOOR FLORIDA” MAGAZINE:
It’s one of my greatest memories as a young man saving a “hot woman!” I was the second mate on the “Knightlines,” and we were taking a break from slow blue fin tuna fishing. The yellowtails were chummed up, and I was unhooking fish and baiting hooks – BAM! There’s a big crash behind us. Wheeling around I find a 4 foot barracuda snaking wildly across the cockpit right towards the boss’s utterly gorgeous girl friend, dressed in a very tight string bikini, fully endowed. She is screaming as she gets cornered by this big barracuda.
Now’s my chance! I hop over the barracuda, pick her up, and hop back over the barracuda! From total panic to total elation, she whips around and jumps on top of me scissoring my waste and hugging me. She buries my face in her bikini top, and screams “thank you, thank you, thank you…” As I withdraw my face “first with elation, then panic” thinking of the boss’s disapproval, she kisses me several times on each cheek. Shocked and stoked, I peek up to the bridge and see the boss and captain having a good laugh. Needless to say, she never got too close to me again, though I always saw a twinkle in her eye for the rest of that trip.
AN EXCERPT FROM MY JUNE ’08 COLUMN IN “OUTDOOR FLORIDA” MAGAZINE:
We wait all year long for tarpon season, now we can not wait until it is over. My hands hurt from all the line cuts, mullet spine infections, and fatigue from lifting heavy cast nets, handling big fish and hauling anchors. These are long days of full day trips (8.5 hours), and then going out for your “sunset tarpon trip” (4.5 hours). When you account for preparing for fishing and then washing down tackle and boat at end of the day, it is almost a 16 hour day for me on the boat. At the end of the week on my one day off, every muscle, every tendon, every joint, and every bone ache from tarpon.
Every year I wonder, can I keep going… and going, and going? You “betchya,” after days like yesterday. We had 14 tarpon crashing our mullets some four and five times before getting hooked up. We hooked up 7 tarpon and released 4 big tarpon all between 120 to 100 pounds. We also hand fed two big hammerhead sharks that were 650 – 800 pounds. Unfortunately, the first shark got one of the tarpon.
After the shark ate off the tarpon’s tail, I quickly gaffed the mortally injured tarpon. “Now let’s have some fun!” I told my clients. They weren’t really sure what I was talking about, still dazed from the horror. But when the big S.O.B. came right back and grabbed hold of the 100 lb. tarpon again, heaved and thrashed me, about pulling the gaff out of my hand, then hitting the side of the boat with its huge tail and soaking all of us – now those boys came back to life! Yaaaaah, awesome!
So we did this another 15 minutes letting that hammerhead eat about half that tarpon. He was almost lazy about coming back each time to have a bite. Then he faded away. Well we were about to go back fish after waiting another 5 minutes in the current, when another hot, very “amped up,” hammerhead of equal size but much blacker came charging up the scent trail. It hit that remaining half tarpon right up along side the boat, rolling on its side with half its hammer and eye out of the water looking at all four of us down the side of the boat. Then it buried down pulling hard on me, and with a big kick of its tail, soaked us all and felt like it almost pulled my arms out of my sockets.
He came back a few more times and got the better part of the tarpon just leaving us with the head before he had enough to eat and enough of us pulling on him. It was a debate on which one was bigger. As I remembered when he first came up and rolled on his side, it’s girth which was about 3 feet from base of it’s dorsal down its side to its belly in a straight line. Then you got to think about the width of the belly, I’d say it would have to be at least close to an 8‘ girth if not more. It was probably at least 14’ long. I have never personally seen a big hammerhead out of the water, but I have just seen giant blue marlin on the scales down in St. Thomas (1004, 918, and 910 pounders). I gaffed a few blue marlin too, one that weighed 542 lb., and along with catching 104 blue marlin there in three seasons, we released one that was estimated 800 lb. So I have seen some big fish in the water and on the dirt, but I can not give you a very accurate estimate of big sharks
One of my clients summed it up pretty good yesterday, “the Chicago Aquarium will never be the same.
AN EXCERPT FROM MY DECEMBER ’07 COLUMN IN “OUTDOOR FLORIDA” MAGAZINE:
This is a very exciting way to fish for sailfish, and everyone has to be on their toes to get it done. An accurate cast with a very fresh bait is often the rule. Sailfish will refuse a perfect cast with a tired bait, or a perfect bait cast off target. Then by the time you’re ready for the second cast, the sailfish might have sensed the boat. They’ll settle down a little, stop chasing the bait, and definitely refuse your bait. This is why you have to monopolize your chances while the sailfish are in the heat of the moment.
Believe me this is the “Heat of the Moment” in the boat too. There can be “overly excited directions” being vocalized by the “captain in the tower” to the mates and anglers in the cockpit, that can be heard over a hundred yards away. This can make for some great bar stool stories for years to come, and I’ve got some classics. One of my favorites is the “Reel Circles, not Squares!” story which happened while I was a mate for one of Islamorada’s great captains.
The Islamorada charter boats are experts in fishing the “ballyhoo showers” and can catch up to 20 sailfish in a day, and a few have even caught more than 20 sailfish. Now do not be intimidated by my extreme portrayal of “the heat of the moment” coaching by the captain to the team in the cockpit. Typically everyone is very professional, it’s just at times we got to yell over the wind and roar of the engines so all can hear exactly where the fish are to cast at. If it seems “a little over the top” let me give you a tip, refrain from making comparisons to Nick Saban down here in S. Florida. ;-)
I could go on and on about this past fall, but I’ll wrap it up with a hurricane Wilma fish story. I was getting sick of all the news hype. Same crap all the time! Wilma was approaching Cancun at barely 2 mph at Cat 5, but the forecast was it was going to turn with a cold front (which will weaken it) and come right at us. Hey it had not even turned yet and it was hundreds of miles away and barely moving, and they started evacuating tourist and mobile home residents on Wednesday! Remember it hit on Monday morning! Thursday they started evacuation of lower keys, and it had not even left Cancun area and was drifting North.
Again Friday morning still drifting North and just north of Cancun, hey screw these “jack asses” this thing is not going to hit till Sunday night Monday morning – I’m going fishing!!!! And what a day of fishing I had!
Hey I did the math on when this storm would hit: number of miles away and even if it increases speed I still got Sat. to get ready if it was going to speed up and hit on Sunday. On Friday I told my wife its going to hit Sunday night Monday morning. And every day the forecasters kept pushing back the track 10 to 12 hours. First forecast it was supposed to hit us on Friday night Saturday morning and at that time it was still 100 plus miles southeast of Cancun and moving at 4 mph to the NNW. All of us captains go through this crap every storm, ignore the hype, do your own math, call each other, come to a reasonable consensus, prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
So I load up the fly rods and a couple spinners, a few beers, lunch, and a block of ice because I’m putting one of those snook in the box. I run back to Flamingo, and pole into this spot and the snook were going crazy! They were blasting bait so hard I could see them almost a hundred yards away. I fished my way in and caught one on a top water plug on the spinning rod. Then I got my fly rod out, tied on a deer hair popper and poled in to these fish. I caught another one just short of the slot. I catch another one just short. Then I finally hooked this nice fish that was just blasting the bait along the shore line. What a great strike on that popper! What a tug-a-war! I had to keep him out of the roots. He pulled the boat this way and that way. I finally got him up and netted that 30″ snook (29 3/4″). Nice snook on top water fly, and dinner! I got a couple self portraits too.
So I keep fishing this stretch of water for 5 hours. It was awesome! the snook keep blasting bait, and tarpon are rolling. I get a couple short strike by the tarpon, and just cannot hook one. I was having so much fun. It was beautiful. The Everglades at its best, and I got it all to myself. I get home at dark. I fuel up, and ask Linda at the Marlin gas station if they are still evacuating. Yep, they have issued total evacuation of all keys residents – Bah Humbug!
Saturday morning, same forecast crap!!!! Going to hit Sunday night maybe Monday morning – now finally they concede. The Florida Keys are now in “total mandatory evacuation.” Bull crap I tell my wife. We got all of Sunday to get ready – LET’S GO FISHING!
We pack the cooler and take off to the same spot. The fish are not blasting like they were the day before. She hooks a nice snook on a plug. She has to tease it. It takes her three strikes on the same cast to finally hook it. It’s a nice one but just short. Her first snook on an artificial. A little later she hooks a nice tarpon on the same plug. What a jumper. Strong short runs to the mangrove roots. She stops it numerous times. She gets it up along side of the boat, I get a few photos, and it flips off before I have to get down to unhook it. We move spots, and I get back into this creek. The snook are blasting the bait, but I just can not get a strike from one. I catch a couple lady fish. We pole deep into this creek, its getting dark, she hooks a tarpon, snook are blasting, and two owls start hooting at each other – spectacular these Everglades and it is just an hour boat ride from my house. We get back at dark.
That night at the the Marlin gas station Linda confirms what I believe, Wilma is hitting Monday morning. Roads are vacant. I see the famous painter Milard Wells and his wife. I give him the fish report, he cracks a big smile, whispers good job. I know that must have touched his heart. He is famous for his dramatic water colors of fishing the flats with these great big Everglades thunderstorms in the background. I just gave him an Everglades fish report while the whole Florida Keys are in a “total mandatory evacuation.” Hey there are a lot of us down here still holding the torch.
Only 20% of the residents evacuated. We had 110 mph gusts, and 5.5 feet of surge in my neighborhood, but most houses are above this level. Only one house got water in it, an older house on the canal. My house is 22′ above flood, 12′ above at the garage. Houses facing the water got most damage. The further south the higher the flood, 6 – 8′ I think. Flamingo had 13′ surge, I talked to a ranger. We are protected from the huge network of flats which act as flood gates on a hurricane coming from the west. We will be totally exposed to the full surge on a storm coming from the east.
BIG SHARK ON FLY, (TOP WATER POPPER):
A week after the storm, we went fishing again mostly to see the effects of the storm. Slagle ditch had an incredible amount of trees ripped out and aground at the mouth of it extending out maybe 100 yards. The next ditch west the sand bars were 2 – 3 times as big as before. East cape beach looked the same. You can see how high the water got.
As we headed to Snake Bite, I came across lot of sharks feeding in the shallows, black tip sharks and lemon sharks. So shallow their backs were out of water. I rigged my #12 fly rod with a shark fly popper. I got three bites before I finally hooked one. Now if you never have seen a shark take a top water fly or plug, it is great. They stick their whole head out of water, jaws wide open, just 30′ or less from the boat, trying to eat the fly. It is tricky to hook them, but worth the effort. This lemon shark I hooked was about 105 lbs., and he took off like a scolded dog, because it was so shallow, at least a 100 yards. I could barely motor out of there. I ran the boat and fought the fish. Elena got video. We chased it around a grounded tree. I got it up to the boat in about 20 minutes. I put the lip gaff in it. Pulled it up on the boat and got some good photos. I’ll post them soon along with the snook shots.
Lets Go Fishing, Rick
