Baby Tarpon eating a dry fly

I arrived a day ahead of the group and was talking with Sandflea about how my left handed casting with a 12wt was going to be a little different than the 5wt I had just left at home.  Sandflea said he knew of a place very close where tons of baby tarpon had congregated, I said let’s go………..

I had brought down a bunch of smaller foam poppers that would pop on the first strip and the wiggle back to the surface, the takes were amazing!!

Some of the takes were down right explosive

When the rest of the group arrived I talked Nick the “C” Cozmo into spending a day fishing for the babies, it was a tough question because I could tell he wanted to fish for the big boys and it was a short trip.  Once he heard that we were getting them on dries, he was ready to go……..

Eat into jump

Explosive take and jump

Cozmo with a baby gone vertical

Like the Old Man used to say “opportunity in every situation”, had I not had shoulder surgery I would have never experienced these fish eating dry flies

Cozmo with a big leap

Myself, Bart "ZZZaaabbaaarrff" Langlois, and Sandflea on our way

The Crew, Kareto, Cozmo, Bart, Sandflea, Dawes, Eaton

We found the big boys as well

17 Permit were caught for the week which was impressive as not everyone was fishing for permit.  There was some great Tarpon and Snook fishing and the Bonefish were plentiful and tailing.

I loved hearing the stories during the week of several people holding the Tarpon Fly in hand on 50lb shock, while in search of baby tarpon, seeing a Bonefish, throwing the Tarpon Fly at the Bone and watching him eat it on 50 lb shock!!

Says a lot about the area in which we were fishing.

Heading back at the end of March.  Some Permits shots from the group!!

Early morning, new fly!!

Grant Wood with 1 of 2, his first congrats Santiago!!!!

Austin Watson's first permit that ended with a Grand Slam!!!!

Jon Fenn, with 1 of 4, his first as well Congrats Jon!!

Don Watson with a great fish!!!!

Chuck Moos with a fine Permit

Jim Hickey with a nice sickle fin!!

The Fall Classic Crew!!!! (In order left to right) Jim Finley, Bill Egan, Mike Dawes, Alex Maher, Don Watson, Sara Cart, Austin Watson, Ben Cart, Jon Fenn, Dale Endris, Grant Wood (Santiago), Jim Hickey, Chuck Moos, Susie McDowell

After a long summer filled with high water and a casting arm surgery, it ended on a high note, I got hitched!!  After an amazing wedding filled with family and friends my beautiful wife and I traveled to the Cooks Islands for an amazing honeymoon.

What an amazing honeymoon it was!!  The Cook Islands are very special place,  New Zealand meets the Caribbean if you will.  Fishing, Kayaking, Hiking, Diving, Relaxing, everything you would expect on a Honeymoon.

Our digs

Pool from restaurant

Fat Bone

Onefoot Island

Until next time………………….

yes that is a jaguar

The Jaguar was witnessed by Bob and Ian Markstein on the final day of our trip. It should also be mentioned that not only did Bob and Ian witness the Jaguar, it was there first trip on the flats!!! While they both landed numerous Bonefish and Tarpon, Ian managed four permit and a grandslam as well!!!!!!! Time for a lotto ticket?  Another great trip to PLaya, make sure to check in to see some of Douglas Barnes of Now Picture This work on the next entry.

Sara Cart with her first permit on the Fly!!!

Just back from the March Merkin where the weather was a little different than 2010.  By the end of the tournament we were in shorts with bright blue skies, a nice change from the down coats and wool hats in 2010.

The Goods

Another nice part was that Capt. Don Gable and I won!!  Each day we were able to find a willing fish to cooperate.  We had a bittersweet ending as we were both convinced that we needed two fish in the boat on the last day, and we had a big fish come unbuttoned in the final hour.  After we learned that we had won, this fish was soon forgotten.  Jon Ain and Capt. Doug Kilpatrick came in second place and  Douglas Behrman and Capt. Kevin Guerin came in third.

Thanks to Jon & Shirley Ain for putting on a great event that seems to gain in popularity each year as well as raise a large amount of money each year to be donated to the Bonefish Tarpon Trust (would like to see a P in there some day) as well as the Don Hawley Foundation.

It was great to see everyone and as always there was plenty of laughs and frustrations about the rubber lipped bastards.

Can not say enough about Capt. Don Gable who put us on the fish and made it all possible, truly a team event and I am lucky to have Capt. Don as my teammate and good friend.

Looking forward to getting back on the Roller Coaster next year and seeing everyone again.

#1

#2

#3

All of the permit caught in the March Merkin were tagged for BTT’s Project Permit

Vance Hooking Up

We all get that feeling when to much time has passed since our last fishing outing, and it is not a good one, actually it has been proven that too much time away from water will make certain people go crazy.  Lone time friend and fishing partner Vance Freed and I got out on the Henry’s Fork last week as the temps slightly crested above freezing, and we were able to remain sane.  We has another fishing partner  with us who truly was going crazy “Trigger” and I think he is going to be ok.  Winter fishing in the Teton region can truly be amazing when the weather cooperates and the size of the fish can be equally impressive.

Trigger & Fish

We all rode home feeling a little better as the Henry’s Fork had definitely scratched the winter fishing itch.  Of f to Panama!!

Nice Henry's Bow

Trigger wondering where the fish have been!

Congrejo

I had the honor of joining arguably some of the best fishing guides in all of Mexico for a day on the water.  These jokers are very good friends of mine and as good as they are as guides, they are even better fisherman!!

Careto, Russo, & Tarantula

Permit came first …….

Mr Sandflea aka Russo

Then the Bonefish……..

Congrejo

Then of course “The Tarpon Guide” loses the first Tarpon

Russo

But he gets the second one……

Russo gets the Super done!!

Then the Snook

We capped off the day with a sunset boat ride back to Punta Allen, a couple of cold ones and Lily’s fresh conch ceviche……I need to go back

The swing of emotions from thoughts of “this is the wrong fly” “there are no fish here” “how old is my backing” “is my tippet to big”  “what did I just do wrong” “did he eat it” “did I strip right”  “how much money am I wasting” etc. to “oh my god he ate it” “clear the line” “this could be the fish of your life” “I need to land this fish” “the hook is going to pull” “that was incredible” swing in a matter of seconds.

Last week the pendulum swung in the right direction quickly.  After getting wrapped on rocks twice and jumping out of the boat each time to clear the backing, tailing the fish twice only to watch it runs another 150 yards each time because the guide could not hang on to the fish in the water, we landed this beast.  I do not know how much it weighed, the guide thought it was around 37 pounds, but we will never really know.  All I know is that after we landed the fish, permit fishing made sense, for now, until the next refusal and the pendulum swings back to reality.