Tarpon Fishing In Florida, 1997

Florida Tarpon Fishing

1997 Fishing Group
[Tom][ [Bob][ [Steve][ [Mike][ [Larry][ [Philip]

In 1997, Mike and Tom joined the group for the first time. It wasn't the best year for fishing due to rough water keeping us in the first day, and tarpon that we just couldn't get to take our bait the second day. It was however, memorable for the incredible dinner Tom fixed us Friday night. But first the fishing.
We arrived early Friday morning at the dock only to discover that the water in the Gulf was quite rough due to winds coming from offshore. Since the day was planned for tarpon fishing the guides weren't prepared to fish in the back bay with live bait and lighter tackle. Disappointed, we threw in towel for the day, making plans to come prepared for both types of fishing on Saturday. Steve, Bob and I managed to kill the afternoon, and some grass on the golf course, while Tom, Mike and Larry took a boat ride and relaxed. Before we all headed out for the afternoon, Tom announced he was going to take care of dinner for the evening. Since every last one of us probably eat out too much, this sounded great to everyone. But I digress. Back to the fishing.
On Saturday, we arrived again to discover the Gulf was too rough. This time we were prepared and headed off to catch some live bait, called green backs, that are great for Snook fishing.

Now, it's not as easy as you might think to catch green backs. First you have to position your boat over an area known to have lots of green backs. Then you get the guides to start doing their stuff, which at this point, means they are going to use a secret formula of fish food to create a slick in the water that will attract the green backs. Next year I'll get a photo of a green back.

Now, out come the cast nets. Throwing a 10' cast net is pretty darn hard. Actually, throwing it isn't hard, but throwing it so it gracefully spreads out over the water, without catching the boat instead of green backs, is very hard. If you're lucky you only need to throw it a few times to get plenty bait. Today we were somewhat lucky, but Doug and the other guides got plenty wet making sure we had bait. The very last thing you want to do is get into a bunch of Snook and run out of bait.

Unfortunately, this year I was only able to get one fish picture, and not a very good one at that. This photo has Tom holding up one of the eight Redfish they managed to catch. They had started a slick and were casting green backs up under the bushes and dragging them out pretty fast. However, we weren't really there to catch Redfish and soon decided to head out to the Gulf and see how rough it was.

A quick Manatee story: While Steve and I was fishing not far from Tom, I felt a gentle pull on my line, not like a fish, and just after that a Manatee rolled just beside our boat. It was the closest either Steve or I had ever been to one. I was pretty darned happy he didn't actually get hung up in it.
Anyway, back to fishing. We headed out to the Gulf to discover that the winds had moved to coming from the land and that we could try to get into Tarpon. I've written on earlier trips (below) how we hunt Tarpon so I won't go into that again here, but this year was a little different. For the first time the water was really clear and we were able to see the Tarpon schools near the boat under the water. Often we were able to see individual fish. Sidebar: Never go fishing in the sun without wearing Polarized sunglasses. Never. They are to glare on the water what night vision binoculars are to darkness. The good news is that we could actually see this huge school of Tarpon under the water, watch them come up to the surface and chain, even see them in a donut shaped chain school under the water. The bad news is that having all that luck, and being able to stay with the school over an hour, we were never able to get a Tarpon to take our bait. So, we moved on to try our luck at Snook along the beach.
This was the first time I had fished for Snook with live bait. As it turned out it wasn't that hard to get them to take the bait and I was able to boat three of them pretty quickly. They weren't large, only being about 12"-15" long each. Since I was so busy fishing for them I never took the time to grab my camera and take photos of the others caught by our group. I think we got in six or seven between us.

For dinner we really got a treat. We all arrived back at the house to find that Tom had been hard at work on the evening's meal. First he started us off with two tasty appetizers he whipped up. We had a little baked bread, Caesar salad, and waited for the main course, Salmon. Not just any Salmon, this, he cooked on a piece of 2x12 cedar wood right over the fire. Very different and very good. I think we were all surprised to see the fish being cooked on a burning piece of lumber. He also grilled asparagus, and we had more baked bread. And of course, the wine was superbly selected.

After we finished off the main course, Tom headed into the kitchen and started working on Bananas Foster for seven. With a little help from Bob, who scooped the ice cream, we were hard at dessert. Mighty tasty stuff, and quite a bit fancier than we are used to on these trips. Then came after dinner B & B, and Tom whipped out some special cigars he had recently been given and we finished off the evening in fine fashion. Actually, the cigars finished some of us off, right Bob? Pretty disgusting don't you think? I can't wait to see how he tops this next year!

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	Now, it's not as easy as you might think to catch green backs. First you have to position your boat over an area known to have lots of green backs. Then you get the guides to start doing their stuff, which at this point, means they are going to use a secret formula of fish food to create a slick in the water that will attract the green backs. Next year I'll get a photo of a green back.
	Now, out come the cast nets. Throwing a 10' cast net is pretty darn hard. Actually, throwing it isn't hard, but throwing it so it gracefully spreads out over the water, without catching the boat instead of green backs, is very hard. If you're lucky you only need to throw it a few times to get plenty bait. Today we were somewhat lucky, but Doug and the other guides got plenty wet making sure we had bait. The very last thing you want to do is get into a bunch of Snook and run out of bait.
	Unfortunately, this year I was only able to get one fish picture, and not a very good one at that. This photo has Tom holding up one of the eight Redfish they managed to catch. They had started a slick and were casting green backs up under the bushes and dragging them out pretty fast. However, we weren't really there to catch Redfish and soon decided to head out to the Gulf and see how rough it was.
	A quick Manatee story: While Steve and I was fishing not far from Tom, I felt a gentle pull on my line, not like a fish, and just after that a Manatee rolled just beside our boat. It was the closest either Steve or I had ever been to one. I was pretty darned happy he didn't actually get hung up in it. Anyway, back to fishing. We headed out to the Gulf to discover that the winds had moved to coming from the land and that we could try to get into Tarpon. I've written on earlier trips (below) how we hunt Tarpon so I won't go into that again here, but this year was a little different. For the first time the water was really clear and we were able to see the Tarpon schools near the boat under the water. Often we were able to see individual fish. Sidebar: Never go fishing in the sun without wearing Polarized sunglasses. Never. They are to glare on the water what night vision binoculars are to darkness. The good news is that we could actually see this huge school of Tarpon under the water, watch them come up to the surface and chain, even see them in a donut shaped chain school under the water. The bad news is that having all that luck, and being able to stay with the school over an hour, we were never able to get a Tarpon to take our bait. So, we moved on to try our luck at Snook along the beach. This was the first time I had fished for Snook with live bait. As it turned out it wasn't that hard to get them to take the bait and I was able to boat three of them pretty quickly. They weren't large, only being about 12"-15" long each. Since I was so busy fishing for them I never took the time to grab my camera and take photos of the others caught by our group. I think we got in six or seven between us.
	For dinner we really got a treat. We all arrived back at the house to find that Tom had been hard at work on the evening's meal. First he started us off with two tasty appetizers he whipped up. We had a little baked bread, Caesar salad, and waited for the main course, Salmon. Not just any Salmon, this, he cooked on a piece of 2x12 cedar wood right over the fire. Very different and very good. I think we were all surprised to see the fish being cooked on a burning piece of lumber. He also grilled asparagus, and we had more baked bread. And of course, the wine was superbly selected.
	After we finished off the main course, Tom headed into the kitchen and started working on Bananas Foster for seven. With a little help from Bob, who scooped the ice cream, we were hard at dessert. Mighty tasty stuff, and quite a bit fancier than we are used to on these trips. Then came after dinner B & B, and Tom whipped out some special cigars he had recently been given and we finished off the evening in fine fashion. Actually, the cigars finished some of us off, right Bob? Pretty disgusting don't you think? I can't wait to see how he tops this next year!