Sally with her first mackerel...  or fish on a spinning rod..

It is that time of year again..  Two days ago there was tons (literally) of spanish mackerel on the gulf edge..   

Keep an eye out for gulls...  If you see pelicans and gulls repeatedly diving to the surface..  you can bet you will find mackerel crashing bait....   They have very sharp teeth and wire leaders are a good idea..

Sally and Jeff from Austin Texas were on vacation. They hired me to show them around the back country to check out the scenary and the wild life..    We saw sharks, cuda, rays, egret, heron, frigates , etc..  But watching mackerel  attacking bait and jumping complete out of the water was too much..  I rod had a rod aboard.. showed Sally how to use it and she landed her first fish with a spinning rod.... 

                                             Tarpon release..

Speaking of fish crashing bait...  Yesterday we found a 5 acre mud in the back country..  A mud is usually created by mullet or other bait fish stirring up the bottom..  Muds can also hold , jacks, lady fish, sea trout, etc..  This one had some 4 to 5 foot tarpon  crashing bait and free jumping..   Mostly out of range..  how ever one did  roll and swim straight to the boat,,  My buddy was able to put a chartruse toad fly in her path and she ate it..   Later on we found some smaller and hungry tarpon rolling near by as well..

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                               November is a good month for permit.. 

Day time highs around 80 degrees and lows around 70 degrees have made for some good fishing this week..  Yesterday was pretty windy but we still found some fish out of the wind and had a fun day..

Permit fishing has been good this week..  they have been hungry..  Also some very big sharks on the gulf side flats now..  The bigger the shark the better the chance it could have some jacks tagging along..  if so.. throw your fly at the shark and strip fast...  Jacks are aggressive feeders and strong..

                                                      Ed with his first barracuda!

Speaking of aggressive feeders...  it is cuda time!!   These fish are aggressive, fast and just flat out fun!

We fish for them with tube lures...  cast beyond the cuda,, reel it were he can see it as fast as you can...when he starts to follow... reel even faster...  Cudas can hit speeds of 30 mph...

If you have a heart condition you may want to stick with some thing tamer...

                                                         November in the Florida Keys.

Current weather conditions... lows near 70 at night, near 80 during the day and wind out of the north east..  Typical fall conditions..    Cooler night time temperatures lower the water temperatures... the good news is warm day time temperatures raise the the temperatures....

Fish will seek out the warm up spots and flats, just like we would stand near a fire place in a cool room....

Cooler water temperatures (below 70) make finding permit, tarpon and bonefish very difficult..  However when the temperatures are low we can target barracuda, sharks, redfish, lady fish, jacks etc...

 Yesterday we targeted tarpon and permit on fly..  Water temperatures were low, we had to work hard and look a lot of places..  We found some BIG resident tarpon on a warm up spot off a channel along with a bunch of permit..  Dan did a great job of getting the fly to them..in the wind... 

Coincidently, I had the pleasure and privilege to fish with Dan Cook on Veterans Day.   Dan is a very interesting guy..  He has twice rowed the length of the Yukon River in Alaska and Canada and recently completed a 27-month, 75,000 mile around-the-world fly fishing odyssey. In 2009, Dan rowed a 17 ft rowboat 3,500 miles down the Missouri & Mississippi Rivers to raise awareness of issues facing disabled service members

Dan is the founder of Rivers of Recovery.  This nonprofit organization delivers direct support to physically and psychologically injured combat veterans through innovative, outdoor-based therapies and pioneering research.  

                                                       http://www.riversofrecovery.org