Capt. Rey's Fishing Report Archives

This area is dedicated to archiving my weekly fishing reports on trips and includes information on the fishing conditions, types of fish seen and caught, tackle used, flies that are worked and other things of interest. If you have any comments about my reports you can either  email  me or comment in my  guestbook. Click here to go back to the  current report.

Week Ending - April 3rd, 1999 

It was another beautiful week in tarpon country. I think if the Lord granted me a last request, it would have to be a day on the flats, full of lay up tarpon.

Early in the season, the first group of tarpon that move into the flats, are usually lay up. Lay up tarpon looks like logs, floating just under the surface. Fish from 50 to 150 lbs lay up in water that is barely deep enough to cover their bodies. There is nothing more exciting than the opportunity to cast your bait or fly to one of these beautiful creatures.

This week the tarpon showed up in the flats in numbers, following the school of herrings that were plentiful in Pine Island Sound. Early in the morning or late in the afternoon are the best times to look for tarpon, and the calm days provide the best opportunity for sight fishing. Redfish and trout were available this week. Redfish were tailing on the lower stages of the tide, they were feeding heavily on the glass minnows as the tide was rising.

My customer, Bob Schuitema had a particularly good afternoon. The tide was incoming, so we fished a flat surrounded by oyster bars and deep depressions. reds along with trout and snook. On his 3rd try, Bob was finally successful......he got his first " SLAM ".
Trout fishing continues to produce quality fish, with trout over 20" becoming
a common catch. But snook fishing was pretty slow this week, we had a
few catches, but none were particularly of large size.

If you love fishing , then you owe it to yourself to try sight fishing.
There is nothing more challenging and exciting, and you will learn to
appreciate the total experience of being on the water.

Until next week,
Tight Lines,
Capt. Rey Rodriguez