April 26th April 26
We are currently being battered by some strong winds in the lower keys. After some nice weather, the breeze, really the wind, picked up last Thursday during the day. It hasn’t really stopped for the past three and a half days either. It has blown between 20 and 30 knots causing a lot of tarpon to move off the flats and take shelter somewhere that we really can’t sight fish. Luckily, if you put in the effort there are some fish to be found. The old adage, “If you pole long enough the fish find you” is definitely very much a truism in these kind of conditions. Perseverance and constantly being ready are the keys to having any measure of success when the fishing is tough.
Before this weather moved in I had some good days fishing with Dan Schaeffer of Bozeman, Montana. We alternated between backcountry edges and the oceanside having success on both sides of the highway. In fact, last wednesday was one of those incredibly beautiful days - cloudless for the most part, low humidity, temps in the low 80’s and a light breeze. That day we found huge schools and strings moving along the ocean as well as the smaller pods and strings that we had encountered earlier this month. It was one of those memorable days with a lot of shots and some cooperative fish.
Jacob spent the past week with Howard Davis of Montana. They had some great days on the water really getting into some fish on Thursday. Jacob got most of the action captured on the video camera and quickly edited the piece and uploaded it to YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3iZTYRsmVs
Hopefully the wind begins to settle a bit this week. The forecast doesn’t look too promising but the National Weather Service doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to predictions, so we are taking hope in that. Maybe, just maybe, the weather gods will smile upon the keys and the winds will back off and the tarpon fishing will return to the madness that we have grown to expect this time of the year. Just in case, I’ll cross my fingers and do a little dance - I mean it can’t hurt right?
Drew