As you know Captain Mike and I are down south in Boca Grande until the end on this month and maybe a little into July. The tarpon are everywhere; I have never seen so many fish on the beach in my 15 years of making the annual pilgrimage to the tarpon capital of the world. The fishing last week was unreal. I fished Ray Thill, Nate “The Whooper” and Dominic Cendric with one of the best trips thus far this year. These guys hooked up a whopping 23 tarpon. I think the slept good that night. We even had a close call with a 17 foot giant hammerhead, a black behemoth, and captured the whole thing on video. The secret to catching these fish on the beach and up in the harbor is to get by yourself, don’t pull in and get in the crowd. It seems that when the fish are on the hill the pass mentality sets in and the pods of fish get over run with boats and fishermen that just don’t know better. There is a big difference between 50 feet of water and 10.
Off shore Capt. Mike’s been whaling on the Kingfish up to 40 pounds. I think his smallest is 25 with several 30-35 pounders. It seems that every wreck is holding permit with different size fish on different wrecks. For example on wreck will hold 10-15 pounders another 20-30’s and some 40 pounders. The farther wrecks are holding great numbers of greater amberjack and lesser amberjack, scamp, black and red grouper, and snapper.
Our typical day is tarpon in the morning, interrupted midday for the offshore stuff and then one last rally with the silver king in the afternoon.
Be sure to check us out on Saturday mornings on Channel 8 WFLA at 6:30 am and Sunday’s at 11 am. Call in your fishing reports on Sunday’s from 8-10am on ESPN Radio 1040AM and until next week, “Do yourself a favor and take a kid fishin’
