Happy Fishing 2008

Report Date: January 7, 2008

Happy fishing for 2008. New Years Eve was non eventful for myself down here in Key West. Chicken on the grill hanging with my sister and her family and a good friend of mine. I guess she woke me up to tell me it was new years, so in my world I was happy. Hey I had to fish the next morning so what do you expect. We have to prioritize. In most cases I am very reluctant to book a New Years day trip because for some strange reason people make the trip date and then have a hard time getting out of bed with a major hangover. However, I had met my sport a few days earlier and realized that he was all about the fishing. So when I showed up at the dock New Years morning, he was there a ready to fish.
The whole Holiday season from a week prior the Christmas to the week after Christmas in Key West had been nothing short of spectacular weather wise. I told Bill on New Years day that I had been resisting the temptation to go look for Tarpon all week and had figure that the time was finally right to go looking for Tarpon. I knew he was a fly caster, and if well, if he could cast it would be a great opportunity. Thanks to Bill and his casting ability, it made the days worth while. I headed from the dock out the Key West bight and made a turn for the backside or the Gulf of Mexico, as we arrive to the spot I shut down the motor and told Bill or actual Bill told me, hey was that a Tarpon rolling over there. Yes, I do believe it was. As I climbed the top of the tower to pole the boat up current, another fish rolled, and then another. Yahooooo, there was a large wad of Tarpon. At this point the water was slick calm and we had to take our time getting into position as I knew this would be imperative for success in fishing, as to not spook the fish. So we did just that slowly crept into positions and finally we good a good cast into the school Bill came tight on a bight fish. What directly followed this hookup was a very bad thing. The fish broke the fly line off about two feet above the start of the shooting head. Not a typical breaking point, however, the end result was bad. So now very upset we fished, hoping to yet again hook another mighty Silver King. If the weather would hold we could certainly hook another. However, as known when we left the dock there was and exceptionally large cold front on the way in from up North. In fact you could see this weather slowly rolling in our way.
The Tarpon where no moving around a bit more that when we first had arrived. Two treason for this, we had be throwing flz at them for over and hour and now the wind had turned toward the North. We stuck with the fish and finally while having a wonderful meaningless conversation the water turned silver under Bills fly and at this point he realized this big silver was a Tarpon that had just munched his fly. So with very little time gone by the fish had now proceeded to jump several times and smoke off the fly line way into the backing. Keep good pressure on the fish Bill pulled on this Silver King and the Tarpon pulled back. Then a Bull Shark tried to eat the Tarpon, then the Tarpon tried to eat us, and all the while the weather was deteriorating. Time rolls on in the battle and after forty minutes Bill had his fist Salt water fish on fly to the boat. About an 80ld Tarpon. Great fish! His fist saltwater fish, and definitely my first Tarpon of 08’, and very likely the first Tarpon caught on fly of the New Year down in the Keys. Congratulation Bill.

You never know what you will be fishing for this time of year down here in Key West. Just depends on the weather.
I can’t tell you what we’ll be fishing for; however, I can tell you that well have a good time.

 

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