It's been awhile since an update, so what better time to do it than after a great morning of fishing!  Today I had out client Anthony from Houston, TX.  He has never fished the area, nor caught Snook before, so I was hopeful I could "make it happen" for him...and as you can see by the pic, it all worked out!  Anthony's first fish of the morning was the largest of the year so far, a beautiful, clean, healthy Snook of about 10lbs.  What an awesome sight seeing her suck the fly in right infront of us!  Anthony also caught about 4 other more average sized Snook, and missed a couple as well.  Conditions for the beach don't get much better than this morning....a great morning of flyfishing!

It has been a LONG time since an update! The beach guiding ended a couple weeks ago, and now the Tarpon fishing on the Tamiami Canals has started up.  It is still inconsistent due to above average temps, but  I am looking forward to targeting these small Tarpon this winter until I return to guiding back on the beaches in the springtime.  I will post reports occassionally here through the winter, whether I catch em or not!  Here is a nice Tarpon caught along with me yesterday.

Today I did a local Naples fishing guide trip with Pennsylvania Trout anglers John and Dick on the beach searching for Snook with spinning rods.  Picture perfect weather greeted us, but the water was a little stained to start.  Once the outgoing got underway, it quickly cleaned up nicely.  We saw a TON of Snook, 1 tiny Tarpon, and several Jack schools.  We were able to connect on some Snook, miss a few strikes, and have plenty of really good opportunities.  Beach fishing should start to slowly wind down now with the cold front coming this weekend, so if this is a trip you are thinking of doing don't wait much longer!!  I will likely stop doing beach trips for the year sometime in November (or whenever the weather cools off considerably) and will pick them back up again late next spring. 

Spent a couple of days guiding Missouri anglers Bill and Eric.  They were new to Snook fishing, and I was eager to show them what it was all about.  The conditions played a huge role in this trip.  While the weather was great, for some reason an abnormally high swell was running both days, hurting the bite bigtime.  Of course the marine forecasts didn't mention this!  Despite that, we found some windows of fishable water.  By the way, the mullet run was in full swing!

Well it has been quite awhile since I posted an update.  I recently spent a week out in California fishing for Trout in the Sierras.  What a great place to escape to during the summer!  Fishing was good and the crowds were down which was nice.  I wound up with about 100 Trout, mostly small Rainbows with a few small Browns mixed in.  Also did plenty of hiking and sightseeing.  Before I left, the beach fishing here in Naples was a little tough with some small fish being caught here and there.  A few days there was simply too much bait in the water and I think the fish were stuffing themselves at night!  My favorite time of the year (fall) is approaching, which brings usually solid beach action through about Halloween, and soon after I will return to chase Tarpon and Snook on the Tamiami Trail Canals.

I was on the east coast for a few days last week with my sister chasing big Snook.  A friend has caught some huge fish up to 30lbs on fly there recently, so we headed over to try it out.  Tides and weather were marginal, but we caught a good number of fish, although none large.  The east coast average is very nice, in the mid to upper 20 inch range with the fish very fat and stalky.  I had some shots at fish up to 20lbs but couldn't get them to go.  We probably caught about 30 Snook combined, fishing just a few hours each day because of numerous storms around.

I went to an area I haven't been in a really long time and found some much nicer Snook today.  This was a nice change of pace because the average size has been small this summer in my usual areas.  I caught this nice one (pictured), as well as 4 others 22"-25" and had a real TOAD in the 15lb class come unbuttoned after about a 30 second fight.  DOH!  Also ended the day w/ a pretty stout Jack that was about all my 5 weight could handle!  What a blast using that little trout rod on these fish!

Went over to Stuart to scout out the beaches for the first time this year. It took a pretty long walk to find the fish, but it was worth it. Wound up with 14 hooked, 10 landed. Everything sightfishing on the fly. No hogs, but I did stick a few nice ones. I had many shots at fish over 20lbs, but they didn't show any interest which is pretty typical for those huge fish!  I was using a 7 weight rod, floating line, and one of my 2" epoxy minnow patterns.  Look for action to remain strong through the summertime!