[TarponWes]

Has anyone had a good experience with a guide in the Key Biscayne area? I will be there in August and will have an afternoon at least to fish. Thanks in advance. My brother did but I am looking for other guides in case his is already booked.

 

[davidb]

George Lemay-I have not fished with him but have read his stuff for years. He originated the Big Eye style of Tarpon fly and is still very active as a guide and fly tyer. He has numerous posts on the Florida Sportsman web site.

That time of year he does night Tarpon fishing and trips to the Everglades. There are other guides that specialize in the flats fishing but I don't have first hand experience.

 

[TarponWes]

Thanks for the info--Bob is available one of the days I will be there.

 

[davidb]

Oops, I am glad you got it right. I did mean Bob LeMay. Looking forward to a full report.

If you are interested in the Keys, I would recomend Capt. Joel Dickey on Big Pine Key. We fished with him in June and I am hoping to go with him again soon.

 

[TarponWes]

I fished with Tom Kokenge on Big Pine Key three years ago--it was awesome. The snook in my avatar is from that trip. I caught my first tarpon on that trip. How was your trip?

 

[davidb]

I think Joel Dickey & Tom know each other or definately of each other.
We had a Great time. I had chronic **** fever the entire time I was there, It turned me into a complete klutz on the water. Joel was thinking I might need medication or something. Saw 100's of fish hooked one about 90 but only landed a couple of babies around 30 on fly. Got about five other big ones to eat but missed them. Had shots at finning permit and double digit bones as well.

My son was using crabs and had five on up to a guestimated 150+ had a 120 or so cut off under the boat. He also hooked several Barracuda.

The perscription is more Tarpon.

 

[TarponWes]

I am proud to admit that I am a full-blown tarpon addict. My trip with Tom was my breakthrough Keys trip. I had been to Islamorada 3 times over the past 15 years before committing to a "serious" trip to the Keys. I tried to book another guide in Marathon who was recommended by a friend here in Houston. He was not available but he referred me to Tom--Tom was available only because he had a cancellation a couple of days before I called him. The day I arrived (3rd week of May, 2004) the wind layed down for the first time in 3 months. The fish were very cooperative, it was easy to cast, but I was definitely a spaz the first day--**** fever, I guess. I ended up landing 7 tarpon (10 to 50 lbs.) out of 11 or 12 jumped over 5 days of fishing. Tom had me using a small brown shrimp pattern with a light, incredibly sharp Tiemco hook. In the Everglades, we only landed tarpon on spinning gear using offset, laser-sharpened hooks with soft plastic jerk baits. We jumped fish on flies but never landed one--those fly hooks were not sharp enough, in my opinion. I will be fishing with the Everglades guide, Kevin Mihailoff, again in 10 days. We caught more snook with him than anything else. I hooked my first Texas tarpon last summer at Pass Cavallo on a fly. For me, it has been a lot easier to hook Florida tarpon.

 

[Bruce J]

I just got back from fishing the general Biscayne Bay area this weekend. Two guides I can highly recommend are Capt. Dave Saddler (www.turtlegrasscharters.com) and Capt. Raul Motoro (www.biscaynebayfishing.com).

Both are excellent fly guides, but they will also carry a couple of spinning rods with some crabs and shrimp if you want. We were primarily fly fishing, but would have a crab rigged up on a spinner for whomever was not on the front deck with the fly rod. Both the guides have all the traits I like in any guide: urgency to find fish, but patient and educational approach with the anglers. Both also have top notch boats and rods/reels. You would enjoy either one.

Bruce

 

[TarponWes]

Thanks BruceJ for the recommendations. I did not get to flyfish the Key Biscayne area--we went offshore on the Cutting Edge. We had a great day, "the best dolphin day since April," according to the captain. I did manage to catch a tripletail on my 7-weight; however, I could not get a dolphin to take anything other than a live bait on a spinning rig. I did speak to Bob LeMay a couple of times--it just did not work out to fish with him. Had two awesome days in the Everglades on tarpon and snook--jumped an 80 pounder the first morning, but he threw the DOA mullet on the first and last jump. Jumped almost 20 tarpon in 2 days and landed approximately half of them. We caught about 20 snook in the 20-25" class and had some big ones charge the fly without taking it. If you are interested in flyfishing the Everglades, I highly recommend Capt. Kevin Mihailoff, website is snookin.com .