The fishing this summer has been nothing short of spectacular. We had a very long stretch in July and August where the winds were light and the sun was out, pretty much the perfect recipe for sight fishing on the flats. The baby tarpon were plentiful along bonefish and permit. The redfish population in the everglades was great as well as the snook fishing.
One of the most rewarding accomplishments in flats fishing in the Florida keys or anywhere in the world is to catch a grand slam which includes Bonefish,Tarpon and Permit. The most memorable grand slam of this year had to be when Erwyn stepped on the bow of my boat. He had rather low expectations as he had never fished on the flats before and had never caught a bonefish, permit or tarpon.
The first spot we pulled up to the small tarpon from 10-30lbs were going nuts! We happen to come across a shrimp hatch in a spot I fish often and there were tons of these tarpon taking advantage of the shrimp and they were eating everything in the path. Erwyn hooked a couple tarpon on fly and was finally able to land his first one rather quickly. We had a nice rising tide for permit and when we pulled up to the spot in less than two minutes I spot a large school of permit floating on the surface with their tails and dorsals sticking up out of the water, one of the prettiest sights you will ever see. He made a long cast with a crab and quickly hooked up and he fought this permit for about 10 minutes. He was so happy when I grabbed the fish, he was speechless. It was only about 9am by that time and I thought to myself, we gotta get the slam now! We pull up to our first spot and we had about 6 shots at big tailing bonefish but for one reason or the other he couldn’t connect to one. We changed spots and had a couple more shots at fish mudding in deeper water and he was able to catch his first bonefish and complete his grand slam. Its pretty awesome to have someone on your boat who has never caught any of the 3 species and for him to catch his first tarpon, bonefish and permit was highly rewarding for my angler and myself.
Coming into the end of summer and beginning of fall I still have some days open in September and October. Also I have plenty of days available in the winter time on my Bay boat to fish the glades for Snook,Redfish,Trout and Cobia to name a few of the targeted species. Its also a great time of year to fish the patch reefs for a wide variety of species of snappers and groupers. Give me a call and lets book your fishing trip!