Great fall fly fishing is here – and you should be too. Schools of redfish are showing up on the flats, tailing and taking well-presented flies. A lightly-weighted Clouser minnow in brown/tan  or a “critter” fly tied on a #1 hook or one of Joyce’s new creations (like the “CC” fly) are treats the redfish just can’t pass up. Of course, any fly you cast should have a weed guard. The spin fisherman can catch reds on a wide variety of artificial baits like hard and soft plastics, gold spoons, as well as cut and live bait. Right now because the fishing for redfish is so good, they remain the target fish. However, the snook action has picked up quite a bit, good sized seatrout and many other fish including mackerel and pompano are prevalent. This time of year I always have my eye out for tarpon, with a tarpon rod rigged and ready, just in case I run into them as they are migrating south. This is truly one of my most favorite times of the year to fish here. With fall coming on and the air temperatures cooling as well as the water temperatures cooling, this is the basis for stimulating great fishing over the next couple of months - before we experience some hard cold fronts in December and January.

One of my challenges during tarpon season is having spare time to take care of phone calls, emails and this year – my blog. I’m way behind getting current information to you but I’ve been on the water every day – usually picking my anglers up by 5:30-6:00am so we can get to the tarpon grounds just before first light. There’s usually a good bite starting early and I want my customers to have prime opportunities for hookups. In the afternoon, after dropping off my customers, I get home, wash the boat, get the trolling motor batteries (6 of them) on charge, take care of any boat maintenance, and drag myself upstairs where I look forward to a refreshing shower before dinner. Joyce usually has a snack/appetizer of some kind ready for me to munch on while she prepares dinner. After dinner, I go downstairs to check the battery chargers to make sure they’ll be charging all night and get tackle ready for the next day. Then it’s off to bed dreaming about tarpon.

 The fishing with the 10 & 2 Magazine contest winner, Jeff Minderlein and his buddy Jason, went well even though we didn’t have a hookup. Saw lots of fish – just no eaters. with Kerry Gubits from Colorado – he’s fished all over the world but never in Florida! We had lots of shots at fish but none willing to eat feathers. The next day was highlighted by Owen Chariton – also from Colorado. While we had some fly casting lessons early in the day, Owen just wanted to catch a tarpon. We switched to spinning gear with live crabs. He jumped 5 tarpon and landed the 5th one. His first-ever tarpon!

Actually even watched tarpon swim around the crabs, not eating. You think, where do you go from where when the fish aren’t eating live bait. Chicken feathers aren’t going to be that appetizing to them.  The tarpon were still acting “snooty” – wouldn’t take a fly. Jon Cole was going to travel from the east coast of Florida for two days of fishing tarpon after Bill Shultz. I called him and suggested we postpone the tarpon trip as the fish just weren’t acting normal…they weren’t eating…even the live bait guides were having trouble hooking up. The numbers of tarpon were diminishing.

Capt. Mike

The next day, fishing fly rodder Marc Adam we went out to the same area off Sanibel but a much earlier start – arriving on scene around 6:30am. Immediately we saw tarpon activity. I spotted a number of tarpon tails breaking the surface which appeared to be a large daisy-chain. Within the minute it took us to get a fly rod out, line stretched, my electric motors down, to our disbelief they disappeared. Then, it  looked like there were acres and acres of them. It was quite a sight. Every once in a while we would see some tarpon crashing through them. One time, about a half dozen tarpon together, kind of balled up, breaking the surface of the water, half jumping. Immediately, I put a white fly on. Marc made a few casts into where the tarpon were striking. No eats. I noticed some live bait boats throwing some threadfins with no eats. So, it became apparent the tarpon were selectively feeding. I’ve seen that before but not in this area. Down west of Key West in the summertime when I guided down there. Especially around Boca Grande Key and off the south side of the Marquesas. Then as we were slowly moving around on the electrics, we hardly saw another tarpon. It was like they hunkered down. Nothing.

So we left and ran the rest of the coastline of Sanibel heading north along Captiva, ducking through Redfish Pass into Pine Island Sound where we really struggled to find any fish to cast to. Heading toward Boca Grande Pass and turned south and traveled the whole shoreline of Cayo Costa without seeing a fish. Finally, early afternoon I was off the Foster’s Point area of Upper Captiva working an edge where we could perhaps find some cruising fish on the surface and where I’ve also found laid-up fish during the season. No cruisers but we did get casts to 4 separate laid-up fish. Some nice presentations by Marc. No eats. The fish just weren’t interested. That’s how our day ended.

For the next 2 days I had trips with non-fly fishermen. Phil and his son-in-law from Ohio, first time customers,  were anxious to tangle with some tarpon after spending a lifetime of catching walleye. I went offshore Sanibel in the same area hoping the tarpon were going to show like they did Sunday. However, after about an hour of exploring we saw only one tarpon sky rocket out there and that was about half a mile away from us. Enough of that. So we took off intending to run up to the Foster’s Point area of Upper Captiva which is about a 16-17 mile run. My tarpon boat is a 20′ Action Craft with a 225hp Yamaha. We ran  at 3800rpm’s at 35mph – didn’t take us long to get up there. Immediately we saw a number of tarpon scattered out, rolling on the surface. Water conditions calm. Absolutely beautiful. All in all, it didn’t take long before we had our first tarpon on.The son-in-law had the first fish on. I unhooked my release anchor and went after the fish using my high-powered electric motors.

Note: since it was his first tarpon trip, I had prepped him about what is referred to as bowing when the tarpon jumps. It’s so important to do. It’s been stated that 80% of tarpon lost are lost on the first jump because the angler didn’t bow. Even though I don’t like using the term bow it’s more clearly described as thrusting out with the rod pointing toward the tarpon like you’re trying to run them through with a sword. The term I use is “stabbing out” to the tarpon with the rod. As much as I try and prep a lot of people to do that, if they’re not used to it, they normally don’t. I understand that. A person’s first tarpon - most of the time they’re absolutely awe struck watching that 80-100 pound fish come flying out of the water. Not one time did that young man thrust his rod out. Even with a little coaching it didn’t happen. I told him the fish was going to hang him out to dry if he didn’t do that. (However, I do use circle hooks and it seems as if they are a little bit more forgiving than “J” hooks when a tarpon jumps.) After 5 or 6 jumps, even without stabbing out, I thought to myself we might land this fish. And, it looked like we would. We had the fish – probably 15 feet off the bow, slowing down. The young man was stopping and backing up the fish. All of a sudden the fish blew out of the water right in front of us and it was gone. He ended up hooking 1 tarpon and fighting  Phil had 2 tarpon one - losing one on its 1st jump and losing the second fish after 5 or 6 jumps lost  boatside.  All in all, we really should have landed 2 out of 3.

The next day I had a long, long time customer out, Charlie Henry and his daughter, Laurie. I’ve fished Charlie and his son before and between them we’ve caught a number of tarpon over the years together. His daughter is a retired 30-year school teacher from Michigan. She obviously had never caught a tarpon. I went straight back to Foster’s Point as we had another beautiful light wind day. We spotted several tarpon rolling – the best thing to do in that situation was to anchor out, casting live pinfish under floats and live crabs under floats. Laurie hooked the 1st tarpon and she was mesmerized by the fish as it went into a series of jumps, not bowing on any of the jumps, which is understandable with her first tarpon. The hook pulled and the fish was off. The three of us agreed that it was just as well because the fish had the appearance of being well over 100 pounds. It probably would have been a long fight. Shortly afterward, Charlie hooked into one. Again, after chasing the fish down, several jumps, the hook pulled on that one too. Also, just as well, another fish well over 100 pounds. Charlie hooked another one on a live crab, after a couple of jumps, it also got off. Then to end up the day, Laurie hooked a 4th and final fish. We had to chase it down, at that time she was getting the bows down, and she fought the fish extremely well. After about a 30 minute battle we had an 80-85 pound fish alongside the boat. By that time, all were happy with smiles and we took off heading for home.

Next day I had 3 fellows on the boat, John Lincoln from Wisconsin and his two fishing buddies Mike and Butch. John, being an enthusiastic fly fisherman and really wanting to learn hadnever fished tarpon on fly before. We found some fish early in the morning by the Captiva Rocks. While John was casting the fly off the bow, the other two fellows had spinning outfits loaded with live crabs casting from the stern. No strikes on fly. Mike hooked up and landed a 90# class tarpon. I felt we were very lucky in achieving that because looking around seeing live-bait boats moving into the area saw only one other boat hook up. Very fortunate with that one. We spent the rest of the day hunting for tarpon and saw very few.

Friday, another tough fishing (catching) day with Marc Adam. We looked in all the obvious places and only saw a few fish. Nothing to write about.

Saturday, I fished Robert Armstrong from Minnesota, a guest of a long-time customer, Art Kaemmer. He was a non-fly fisherman. I headed to Foster’s Point first. Saw a couple of fish. Then I got a call from a good guide buddy of mine who told me to come on up to the trench (an area inside the south end of Cayo Costa). He said “lots” of tarpon. And, there were. We knew there was a weather front coming down on us moving fairly fast. The wind kept steadily picking up from the southwest eventually blowing a steady 20-25mph and gusting close to 30mph. It looked like the tarpon were clearing Pine Island Sound in anticipation of the front bearing down on us. There were lots of strings of fish heading straight for Captiva Pass and the Gulf of Mexico.  Even with the weather/wind conditions, we were very lucky. He ended up going 2 for 2 sight casting crabs in front of rolling fish.

I had 3 days fishing Milt Ignatius from Connecticut, an experienced saltwater fly fisherman and a very nice caster. Unfortunately, no tarpon to cast to. We got into a very weird weather pattern for this time of year. We had 3 cold fronts pass in 5 days. Steady high winds from the WNW each day. I did not use my 20′ tarpon boat on any of the 3 days. I used the 16′ shallow water skiff that I could push pole around the shallow waters mainly staying close to mangrove shorelines (out of the wind). All in all, it wasn’t super productive. It was kind of unusual.I saw snook striking at thewhite flies we were using but they were short striking. We caught some ladyfish near the bushes, caught a redfish, a beautiful big mangrove snapper. Actually I had thoughts of taking that fish home, had it in my livewell for a while,  but looking at it I decided to release it alive well and unharmed.

I’ll be heading out today fishing Jeff Minderlein and his buddy Jason. Jeff is from Maryland and won the Subscription Contest for Ten & Two Magazine. My wife, Joyce, is the Public Relations Director for the magazine. I donated two days tarpon fishing for the cause. Walter Hodges, co-owner, publisher and professional photographer came in from Seattle to photograph the experience here on Sanibel Island. It’s going to be an interesting 2 days.

I have high hopes that the tarpon will start moving back in. Thank God the wind direction has changed and is back to our prevailing ESE. Yahoo!

Can’t wait to tell you all about it – stay tuned!

Getting back to fishing. I had to cancel out May 28th, 29th and 30th due to high winds. However, did manage to get out Sunday, May 1st.  A long-time customer from Texas asked me to fish a couple of his associates (Andy from Texas and Big Tom from Tennessee). They were not fly fishermen so we were looking for tarpon to cast live crabs to. Wind conditions were still a little tough for finding tarpon. However, because of the recent cold front  that had just pushed through, the winds were blowing hard from the East/Northeast. The water on the outside barrier islands of Captiva, Upper Captiva and Cayo Costa was pretty roiled up. And, pretty much the same way in Pine Island Sound. So, I decided to take a look at some of the sheltered basins just south of Boca Grande, around Useppa area and Cabbage Key area – these are the areas where I was pursuing laid-up tarpon a few weeks earlier. I didn’t see any tarpon in a couple of places but in my most reliable area (the one near Boca Grande), the area was well protected and the water was relatively clear. We heard a loud splashing noise off the port quarter side of the boat and could see where the blow-up was – about 150 feet away from us. Andy shouted out there’s a big wake coming at us. As I focused in I could see a tarpon right on the surface coming toward us. Andy, already having cast his crab in the water under a float, I told him to reel it in quickly to bring  his crab into the tarpon’s path. The tarpon ignored it. As the tarpon was moving dead away from us, a long cast was made that landed about 20 feet in front of it, and to our pleasant surprise we noticed the tarpon veer off-course, moving right on the crab. As we watched him eat the crab and showing a side flash, the line came tight. Great hookup! Big Tom was fighting his first tarpon ever! Enduring several jumps, with Tom, having big game fish fighting experience,  survived jumps of the tarpon, applying a lot of pressure to the fish made short work and landed the fish - a beautiful 80-85 pound tarpon in just 20 minutes time. I grabbed the leader and held the fish steady next to the boat for a close-up eyeball to eyeball look. Both fellows were just so excited about the visual aspect of the take - watching that tarpon open up his mouth and eat the crab. We saw a few more tarpon but all out of casting range. On the way home to Sanibel, we checked out a couple of other places but no fish showing.

Monday, I had  3 buddies celebrating the end of grad school at Chapel Hill -Andrew Graves (who I fished last year for tarpon) and his buddies Dillon and Brad. Three young men who were a pleasure to have on my boat. Andrew, who is a fly fisherman and his two friends that who were not but did want some fly casting lessons (which I gave them) and it looks as if they will be future fly rodders. The day looked promising with lighter winds. We saw some tarpon in a basin just south of Cabbage Key and did have a fairly decent cast to one tarpon which was cruising by the boat right on the surface but the fish ignored the fly. We also placed a few crabs out there under floats but no strikes. After 30-40 minutes, we moved on heading north continuing our hunt for tarpon. I turned around the north end of Cayo Costa by Boca Grande Pass and slowly headed south along the shoreline of Cayo Costa. The water really looked beautiful being on the lee side. However, we didn’t see any tarpon. So, I kept moving south across Johnson Shoals. Halfway down the island I came upon another shoal in an area which guides call “the pines”. We began seeing tarpon and we put crabs under floats and cast to them.  It wasn’t long before Brad hooked up. Off we went with a beautiful tarpon that was at least in the 90 pound class. A little over 30 minutes later, we released that fish – Brad’s first tarpon ever. Returning to where we hooked up, continuing to fish, we had two more fish eat and lost both of them in quick time. The tarpon kept coming heading north down the beach but it became apparent to us they weren’t eating as many of them had to see our “offering” and passed it by. It was getting late in the day and our trip was coming to an end.  All three anglers were so excited at the end of the day and apparently hooked on tarpon fishing, said that this would not be the last time they’d fish for tarpon.

The next day, I was fishing a long-time customer/friend, Marc Adam. I consider him a lucky tarpon angler. I first thought that about him many years ago because the first tarpon he ever cast to was a laid-up fish. He actually put the fly line right across the fish’s back, I told him to strip so the fly line wouldn’t sink down and touch the fish. The fish went down, out of sight, Marc was disappointed. But I told him to keep stripping. Like I’ve seen a number of times, the tarpon came up right underneath the fly and ate it. That was Marc’s first tarpon caught on fly. Since then, he has hooked up to a number of fish – both lost and caught. We started out the day launching my boat on Captiva Island. It was a little windy on the Sound side, blowing from the south/southeast. We quickly went through Redfish Pass and stayed tight to the island, sheltered from the wind, heading north. I got a call from a buddy fishing guide of mine who said he was into some fish just north of Captiva Pass along Cayo Costa Island with several groups of fish moving south about 300-400 yards offshore.  So that’s where I sat my boat up. It wasn’t long before Marc and I spotted strings of rolling fish coming at us. Being that far off the beach, we were more exposed to the wind and the  the water was off-color (not crystal clear) and choppy. Not being able to see the fish in the water, only rolling fish, it made the tarpon tough to fish. When we saw them roll, we would “guesstimate” where they would be, making a calculated cast to try to intercept them. No hookups. We’re not sure whether any of them saw the fly or if they just weren’t eating. When the fishing started slowing down, so did the wind. We went back through Captiva Pass and headed north in Pine Island Sound checking out a few spots by Useppa Island and Cabbage Key. Then we went around the north end of Cayo Costa and moved on to the north end of Johnson Shoals. The Shoals is one of the hot spots for intercepting tarpon moving into Boca Grande Pass. We sat there looking for tarpon the better part of an hour with no sightings. I was checking Boca Grande Pass and saw only a couple of boats fishing tarpon – that was odd – there should be a fair amount of tarpon in the Pass. We left, I went out the north end of Cayo Costa into Charlotte Harbor. I could see a number of live-bait tarpon boats. By then, the wind had dropped off even more and water conditions were really improving in Charlotte Harbor. As I proceeded toward those boats, which was a few miles away, the water was very clear. As I got near the boats, there were about 8 boats spread out over a half mile. Marc and I could see each boat was on their own individual schools of tarpon. We could see the tarpon sides flashing in the sunlight and splashing water in the air with their tails. We continued cruising around hoping to find our own school of tarpon. And, we did. What we were on to was a daisy-chaining school of tarpon which very easily could have been close to 200 fish. I figured our work was cut out for us casting synthetics and chicken feathers to these fish because I didn’t see any of the live bait boats hooked up. Not a good sign. Our first fly pattern Marc cast was a black/purple EP fly which is normally a good pattern to use inside Charlotte Harbor. However, after several well-placed casts our offering was totally ignored. Fly change! All white, approximately 4″ fly with BIG hologram eyes – a fly and color that I’m very confident with. Not too many people use white flies on tarpon but I have had a great deal of success on tarpon both here and in the Key West area where I’ve fished in the summer over 20 years. Other tarpon fishermen look at me with doubting crossed eyes when I tell them I use white flies.  But, that’s OK, I’ll just continue to use them and continue to hook up. And, that’s what happened with Marc. His second cast, we saw a big flash and Marc was tight with the fish. Unfortunately, the fish came toward us and a little angler error involved (Marc came straight up with the rod, trying to catch up with the fish, trying to strip down, but too late). The fish shook his head and the fly came unbuttoned.  Marc quickly shook his head and said “I don’t know why I came up with the rod!”  No sense saying anything to Marc, he knew what he did. And, then a funny thing happened, as he started stripping the fly in so he could recast, another tarpon struck at the fly. A huge sideflash, what they normally show when they strike, but the line didn’t come tight. After that, fish totally ignored the white fly. Several fly changes with no results. Later I put the white fly on again. The first cast, Marc was tight with a fish again. After a short run, the hook pulled. But that’s tarpon fishing. By that time our day was well over. We headed back home.

I have some scheduled days off now so I could get my boat in to my marine mechanic for preventive maintenance (replacing a few things). That way I can eliminate potential boat problems going into the heavy schedule of tarpon season.  Just as well, having days off, another front is moving through with gusty winds out of the north.

Sunday, the 8th, I’ll be taking Joyce (my wife) out for her annual Mother’s Day tarpon trip. Last year the weather did not permit us to fish. However, the year before, she did capture a beautiful fly-caught tarpon. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do it again this Mother’s Day.

Friday, another fly rodder (Craig Nitterhouse) was with me. We were hunting and casting to a few fish inside Pine Island Sound. Around 11:00 the wind started picking up from the east/southeast making it uncomfortable to cast. We decided to take a look along the beach (more protected from the wind). We moved up onto a white sand shoal off the south end of Captiva Island (alongside South Seas Resort). Like the previous days, no more than 100 feet offshore. Before I even had a chance to stake out, we had 2 strings of tarpon go by us with about 8-10 fish in each string. As we settled in, we really settled in. For 4 straight hours Craig was casting to fish. The last 2 hours – in all my years of tarpon fishing I have never been so overrun by so many fish!!! Great fishing off the beaches is when a string of fish comes by every 5-10 minutes. For the last 2 hours of the 4 hours, the strings were coming by every 30 seconds to a minute. Sometimes 3 or 4 groups at a time - separated by a matter of just a few yards. It was unbelievable! However, we were getting no bites. I literally had flies laying all over the boat because we made so many fly changes. Craig made great presentations – he had flies working right in the middle of several fish’s dinner plates. The best reaction we got was when one fish made a 90-degree turn and moved about 5 feet toward the fly. Then I think one of his buddies said “Hey, Joe, we’re not supposed to eat today.” Then the fish got back in line with his buddies and headed north.

Over the last 3 days, tarpon fishing seems to have slowed down – somewhat confusing. There are still a few fish moving off the beaches and we’re finding some fish scattered out on the inside, but with few eaters. I’ve been watching some of the bait fishermen and every once in a while I’ll see one of them jump a fish. Not many.

A cold front is coming through this Friday. It won’t affect our air temperature,  it’ll just change the wind direction – coming out of a northerly quadrant. Usually, that wind will  slow down the fishing. But the outlook for next week is good. Our water temperatures will stay around 84 degrees in the Gulf. That is the temp we usually see around the third week of May. Just means happy tarpon! By the way, I just had a week of dates re-open as well as other contiguous dates – prime time tarpon fishing dates – June 12 through June 22. Give me a call (239-472-3308) or email me if you want to hook up to a tarpon.

I’ll keep you posted!