trevor
Member
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2010
- Messages
- 75
For two weeks over Christmas vacation, I was fortunate enough to make it down to Marathon with my family for some vacation time. I headed down with hopes of fly casting to bonefish, tarpon, and blackfin tuna, but it turned out quite differently.
We have a 21 foot Carolina Skiff that we towed down, and a suburban full of all kinds of fishing equipment, both fly and conventional tackle. After a 24 hour straight through drive, we arrived in the house we had rented right on a canal in Key Colony Beach.
The first day, we headed back into some serious mangroves, until we came to a huge lagoon type thing, full of mullet. I cast vegetation flies to them for some hours, only catching the odd mangrove snapper. We looked around and made some casts to Barracuda, but had no luck.
After this experience inshore, we decided to head to the patch reefs for some better fishing. It isn't well suited to fly fishing, since I only had floating lines, so we used light spinning gear. We caught lots of small groupers, snappers, and other bottom fish.
We fished these patch reefs a lot, always doing very well. One day we were heading in, and spotted a school of Jack Crevalle cruising just under the surface. I jumped for my brand new 9 weight (Christmas present), tied on a clouser minnow, and proceeded to fire off some of the worst casts ever seen. It didn't help that I suck at casting to begin with, but the relentless winds and that big old 9 weight made for some truly pathetic casts. Mostly I just tangled the fly around myself, the rod, or a cleat, but every once and a while I would get off a good cast, and the Jacks were voracious unlike anything I have ever seen. I had really been wanting to catch a Jack, so when I finally connected on one it was awesome. The rod was bent in half, and what a fight it was. After releasing it, we continued to slowly motor around the area, looking for more. I tied on a popper in hopes of drawing even cooler strikes, and it worked, as I eventually landed another feisty jack. It was getting late, so we headed in.
Then it was pretty much more of the same patch reef fishing, because we never found the jacks again. I did manage to use some weighted shrimp imitations and catch yellowtail snapper, mangrove snapper, grunt, puffer fish, leather-jackets, and hooked a grouper. It was funny just how quickly the grouper got stuck, and I figured it was a decent fish.... and I wasn't loosing another fly. So I put on my goggles and fins and dove down and un-snagged him. The thing was maybe 12 inches, a little red grouper wrapped up in some weeds.
This whole time, we were looking forward to making it farther offshore for some dolphin action, but the winds never calmed enough. We went snorkeling and lobstering a few days, which was very sweet, but I found time for fishing every day of the trip but the last.
I started night fishing the canal with ultralight rods for catfish, and that was a good time. My sister came down to do it one night, so we rigged up three rods with circle hooks and shrimp: two ultralights, one medium baitcasting rig. She spotted the bites on the baitcaster, so I hooked the fish and handed it off. This thing was ripping some serious drag off, so let her know it was a good fish and she needed to be gentle. What a surprise when I looked into the net and found a nice redfish looking back at me! A fish I have always wanted to catch, and a nice one at that. She was thrilled, though, and it was a blast.
I did eventually catch some cuda on the fly, although they were only around 18 inches. But it's another species on the list.
One day it was very windy, so we went out our canal about 400 yards and anchored on some rocky bottom. We caught some nice triggers and hogfish, but then my dad hooked something that set his drag screaming. After a long fight, he boated a small permit. I was quite jealous. Another 20 minutes passed, and he hooked another fighter, but this was an even better fish. Another, bigger, permit. We snapped a picture and released it. I am still shocked at the fight of such a small fish.
While we were anchored up, some tarpon started rolling 30 yards from the boat. I made some casts with all three tarpon flies I own, but to no luck. Actually, barely any of my casts made it to the tarpon, since I suck casting.
One final recommendation. The 9 weight reel my dad bought me was an Orvis Access V. After a few days, the drag became super jerky. We called Orvis, and they said bring it up to our shop, and they would swap it out. So we made the drive early one morning to the Orvis shop in Key Largo. It was super nice, and I can honestly say I have never met a more professional, helpful person than the lady that was there helping us. She let us use their line machine, since she didn't want us to have to wait for the department manager to get there. Once we had spooled up the new reel, she asked if there was anything else she could help with, and I said that we should be good. She told me to go over and pick out some flies, on Orvis. I said it was OK, but she insisted. I have been wanting to learn to tie flies for a long time, so my dad found a really nice kit there he wanted to buy me. I originally cost $169, but she gave it to us for $105. She was so nice and friendly, just a great experience. So I really recommend Orvis customer service.
We have a 21 foot Carolina Skiff that we towed down, and a suburban full of all kinds of fishing equipment, both fly and conventional tackle. After a 24 hour straight through drive, we arrived in the house we had rented right on a canal in Key Colony Beach.
The first day, we headed back into some serious mangroves, until we came to a huge lagoon type thing, full of mullet. I cast vegetation flies to them for some hours, only catching the odd mangrove snapper. We looked around and made some casts to Barracuda, but had no luck.
After this experience inshore, we decided to head to the patch reefs for some better fishing. It isn't well suited to fly fishing, since I only had floating lines, so we used light spinning gear. We caught lots of small groupers, snappers, and other bottom fish.
We fished these patch reefs a lot, always doing very well. One day we were heading in, and spotted a school of Jack Crevalle cruising just under the surface. I jumped for my brand new 9 weight (Christmas present), tied on a clouser minnow, and proceeded to fire off some of the worst casts ever seen. It didn't help that I suck at casting to begin with, but the relentless winds and that big old 9 weight made for some truly pathetic casts. Mostly I just tangled the fly around myself, the rod, or a cleat, but every once and a while I would get off a good cast, and the Jacks were voracious unlike anything I have ever seen. I had really been wanting to catch a Jack, so when I finally connected on one it was awesome. The rod was bent in half, and what a fight it was. After releasing it, we continued to slowly motor around the area, looking for more. I tied on a popper in hopes of drawing even cooler strikes, and it worked, as I eventually landed another feisty jack. It was getting late, so we headed in.
Then it was pretty much more of the same patch reef fishing, because we never found the jacks again. I did manage to use some weighted shrimp imitations and catch yellowtail snapper, mangrove snapper, grunt, puffer fish, leather-jackets, and hooked a grouper. It was funny just how quickly the grouper got stuck, and I figured it was a decent fish.... and I wasn't loosing another fly. So I put on my goggles and fins and dove down and un-snagged him. The thing was maybe 12 inches, a little red grouper wrapped up in some weeds.
This whole time, we were looking forward to making it farther offshore for some dolphin action, but the winds never calmed enough. We went snorkeling and lobstering a few days, which was very sweet, but I found time for fishing every day of the trip but the last.
I started night fishing the canal with ultralight rods for catfish, and that was a good time. My sister came down to do it one night, so we rigged up three rods with circle hooks and shrimp: two ultralights, one medium baitcasting rig. She spotted the bites on the baitcaster, so I hooked the fish and handed it off. This thing was ripping some serious drag off, so let her know it was a good fish and she needed to be gentle. What a surprise when I looked into the net and found a nice redfish looking back at me! A fish I have always wanted to catch, and a nice one at that. She was thrilled, though, and it was a blast.
I did eventually catch some cuda on the fly, although they were only around 18 inches. But it's another species on the list.
One day it was very windy, so we went out our canal about 400 yards and anchored on some rocky bottom. We caught some nice triggers and hogfish, but then my dad hooked something that set his drag screaming. After a long fight, he boated a small permit. I was quite jealous. Another 20 minutes passed, and he hooked another fighter, but this was an even better fish. Another, bigger, permit. We snapped a picture and released it. I am still shocked at the fight of such a small fish.
While we were anchored up, some tarpon started rolling 30 yards from the boat. I made some casts with all three tarpon flies I own, but to no luck. Actually, barely any of my casts made it to the tarpon, since I suck casting.
One final recommendation. The 9 weight reel my dad bought me was an Orvis Access V. After a few days, the drag became super jerky. We called Orvis, and they said bring it up to our shop, and they would swap it out. So we made the drive early one morning to the Orvis shop in Key Largo. It was super nice, and I can honestly say I have never met a more professional, helpful person than the lady that was there helping us. She let us use their line machine, since she didn't want us to have to wait for the department manager to get there. Once we had spooled up the new reel, she asked if there was anything else she could help with, and I said that we should be good. She told me to go over and pick out some flies, on Orvis. I said it was OK, but she insisted. I have been wanting to learn to tie flies for a long time, so my dad found a really nice kit there he wanted to buy me. I originally cost $169, but she gave it to us for $105. She was so nice and friendly, just a great experience. So I really recommend Orvis customer service.
