The NorthEastern is Ready

The NorthEastern is in the water and ready to go. Now all we need is some warmer temperatures! Things should be hopping by mid April I hope. Bring on the warmer weather!

Joe Hughes

Spring Slam?

Don't get too excited. No I didn't catch these this spring. And yes I did get a haircut since then. But spring is right around the corner despite these cold temperatures. By mid April all of the big four species will be chewing like crazy. The bass will be first and everything else will quickly follow. The first weakfish was caught on April 14 of last spring and it will be similar this year. The end of April and early May are usually red hot in the bay. If you are interested in a spring trip, I would recommend booking soon as weekends fill up fast. Afternoon trips are also a great alternative.

Islamorada Day Two

Fished a second day with Dick and Mike. We had a blast. We broke off two tarpon during the day. We caught and released jacks to 12 pounds, snappers, a surgeon fish, and some yellow jacks. The top pic is a brown surgeon fish and the bottom pic is a yellow jack.

More Tarpon Pics

Some actions shots from Dick's tarpon.

Tarpon and Jacks

Fished yesterday with Dick and Mike in Islamorada. We had tough sight fishing conditions with clouds and wind. We managed to catch one bonnet head shark on the flats. We saw a bunch but just couldn't make it happen. We moved closer to town where we had a blast catching a bunch of fish. We released one tarpon and broke off another. We caught jacks to twelve pounds and a bunch of snappers to four pounds. We also caught a brown surgeon fish. That is a first for me. There were also a few yellow jacks mixed in. A very productive day.

Snook

Fished with Darryl and John on the last day. We headed to the Everglades for some snook. The bite was tough and we lost three nice snook before bringing two to the boat and releasing them. We returned to Islamorada where we caught one snapper and jack after the other. Great time and boy was it great to be warm!!!

Islamorada Mixed Bag

Fished again with Darryl and John. We stayed close to town and caught a bunch despite the windy conditions. It's such a great place to travel to because we can always catch fish regardless of the conditions. We caught quite the variety of fish. We had grouper, sheepshead, snappers, jacks, look downs, and a yellow snapper. In addition, we hooked a couple of tarpon but unfortunately they either threw the hook or broke off. But that's tarpon fishing. Lots of fish.

Yellow Jack

A bit unusual. Never caught one quite this big. Darryl caught this yellow jack. It is actually named yellow jack.

Permit!

Fished with Darryl and John in Islamorada. It was nice to be warm for a change. We started out on the flats sight fishing and had over ten lemon and bonnet head shark releases. We moved back to downtown Islamorada and set up on the flood. We caught tons of mangrove snappers, jacks, and a yellow jack. We also caught and released two nice permit. The permit bite has been great this year. What a fun fish to catch.