Monday, July 20, 2009

going deep



Everyone likes to chase big fish and there is no place better to target big fish then offshore. Stuart is well known for it's offshore fishery and July is the perfect month for me to take advantage of calm sea conditions and chase some pelagic species with a fly rod. My method of choice is live chumming, it's truly an amazing sight when you are 6 miles or more offshore seemingly in the middle of no where and a handful of live pilchards brings the ocean to life. The first to arrive are usually the bonito which is a local term used for little tunny or for those of you in the northeast false albacore. These guys typically show up in bunches and will put a big grin on any fly fisherman's face. If one is lucky they may get shots at dolphin, sailfish, blackfin tuna, cobia, kingfish. These are all actually pretty common to show up in the chum but, if someone is really lucky they may even get a shot at a wahoo. I apparently am not lucky enough yet for the wahoo but I know it has been done. Many of you that have been reading my reports for years know that I have a client that I call the "Midas man", Rob Alpers has the ultimate positive attitude and that usually is rewarded with memorable catches. I fished with Rob and some of his friends for a few days last week and day one was full of permit and mostly all big ones, one was over 30 and another was 25 pounds. Anyway, Rob made the comment that someday he wants to try and target dolphin on fly with me and all I said was, "It may happen tomorrow?" Sure enough we loaded up on live chum and at the first spot on Rob's second cast he hooked up. I fully expected a bonito until a dolphin came flying out of the water. My only thought was this guy is golden. On a side note, I am hosting a trip to Turneffe Flats lodge in Belize in November and Rob is coming along on the trip, I consider it trip insurance.




This past week yielded 3 sailfish, all be they were not on fly all three came up to the boat eating the chum and easily could have been targeted on fly if one had the patience, and the will not to throw a live pilchard at them.

This is what happens to your thumb if you don't get your hand out of the way when a tunny makes a blazing run.


Here is a shot of my buddy Mike Holliday releasing a permit. We fished a group charter with the owners and representatives of Plano Tackle last week. I fished with one of the owners and his teenage kids, we caught sailfish, tunnies and permit.

Unfortunately all my sailfish shots were taken into the sun.
Warren Cleveland with his first tunny on fly.

Christine and Gustavo came from Argentina to catch a few snook.

Eric's first permit.


Here is a shot of Ernie DeBlasi with a tunny. Ernie is the executive chef at Caffe' Luna Rosa in Delray Beach, stop in and tell him you saw his picture on my blog.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Long over due report



I know this is a reoccurring theme but gain I have been very busy and have not had time to report or edit photos. The tarpon migration has mostly come to an end so for the next few months I will be targeting tarpon that have decided to take up Stuart as a summer home. I love July and August because the snook fishing is as good as it gets and the live chumming for bonito (aka false albacore/ little tunny) is off the charts. It is also a good time of the year to fly fish offshore for dolphin, blackfin and even the occasional sailfish. Another favorite type of fishing for me this time of the year is the tarpon fishing in the rivers both the St. Lucie and the Indian. I have just finished an incredibly long stretch of charters and I have enjoyed the occasional day off this week but, I love to get out fishing and have plenty of openings over the next couple months so give me a call and let's get out and chase some fish together. I hope you enjoy these photos that I have taken over the last few weeks. I also included a picture of my permit mount that I picked up from New Wave Taxidermy last week, it is my largest to date 40 pounds. I am overly impressed with the mount and if you are ever considering getting a replica of any fish made I would seriously consider Mike and the team at New Wave.
John









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