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 26th, 1999 

When it comes to fishing , almost everyone has a favorite species that they like to pursue. Although my love for snook fishing has never declined, tarpon is definitely my favorite fish of all shallow water fish.

The water temperature had reached the tarpon comfort level, and this past week the weather also had found that same comfort level for the tarpon. The migration reached Southwest Florida, and along with permit and cobia, the schools of tarpon where feeding heavily on the threadfin herrings, that also migrate this time of the year to our coast.

Early this week, my client, Cameron Campbell and I went in search of the Silver King . Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, it was windy very early in the day, but we managed to jump one tarpon in the mouth of the river.  We decided to find some snook since Cameron had never caught a snook on a fly rod. We had shots at some cobia, black tip sharks, and finally, his first snook on fly. We fished the sandy mangrove shoreline, a small glass minnow imitation was the fly of choice.

After a couple of days of fishing for snook and jack crevally with some success, some large bull sharks showed themselves in the shallow flats. These sharks, some about 150 lbs are very aggressive and will eat your bait regularly. One of them spooled one of my clients reel to the end, 180 yards, WOW!

Bob Schuitema has become one of my regular clients, I have been showing him all the different species available in our area. This week was time for his first tarpon encounter. I had been telling him about the Silver King and the incredible power this fish has, and the flying capabilities of the tarpon. We met before sunrise and together we went to catch our bait for the day. Herrings is the bait of choice for this fish, and after netting about 50 of this bait, we headed for the " TARPON HONEYHOLE" . It took us a little while to find the fish, but finally, there they were, jumping and rolling all over. The look on Bob's face was one of amaze and discovery, and no matter how many times I could have told him about the SILVER KING, it could not describe the beauty of what he was witnessing at that very moment.

Bob's first encounter with the tarpon was educational, after hooking one, the tarpon spooled him, on the next one, Bob fought well, and he had it close to the boat when it spit the hook.

This fish averages about 100 lbs, but they jump like lightweights. 100 yard runs are not uncommon and the feeling of discovery never ends, even for me.

Many tight lines,
Capt. Rey Rodriguez