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SW Florida Tarpon and Snook Report 5/29-5/30

3K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  Meadowlark 
#1 ·
Cru and I flew out last Tuesday for a 2 day guided tarpon and snook trip. We fished with Capt. Andy Lee out of Chokoloskee per a recommendation from a buddy, and we couldn't be more happy with how it turned out. The upper Everglades area is absolutely gorgeous, and the number of fish there is just unreal!

The Instagram links are the videos if you want to see the fish jump and the dolphin.

Wednesday

We had a strong SW wind up to 20 mph, so we started by hitting inside mangrove islands for snook with topwaters. First spot we had some big blowups, but only caught a few trout. We island hopped for a while and ended up near the gulf pass. We immediately hooked up on small jacks, both got snook (small one for me, and a 26" one for Cru), and I hooked our first tarpon of the trip. He was about 40lbs and fought hard with several jumps. He went under some logs and I felt a big thump and couldn't move him. We motored over to the brush and broke the line. Capt. Andy said it may have been eaten by a huge Goliath Grouper, but we'll never know. From there we moved to the inner lakes working mangroves and creeks. We ended up with 6 snook, 5 tarpon takes/jumps, several jacks, and about 15 nice trout. Even had a dolphin escort our boat to a spot. Dodged a few thunderstorms, and after about 12 hours we'd had enough for the day. Saw some beautiful spots, and experienced a part of the country we'd never seen. Great way to start it out!







Thursday

The gulf was glass, so we ran way south. Capt Andy stopped the boat looked around for a few seconds and said "It's ON BOYS!" Within a couple minutes we had tarpon literally rolling as far as we could see. We rigged up soft plastics and started casting wakes. Cru took first try and had several big blow up takes, and soon he had a big one hooked up within 15 minutes. It took him about 30 minutes, and he had the 90lb girl at the boat! First one landed! Next it was my turn. I had probably 5 or 6 takes before I got the hang of it and finally hooked up with a 40 pounder. Fought her about 15 minutes, and had her at the boat. Andy grabbed the leader, and as he was pulling her up, she flipped and broke off. Oh well. Still got good video and a couple nice pics. We stayed on the flats and had close to 20 takes/jumps total in ice cream conditions. Next, we moved to a river mouth and had a few more tarpon takes, and I fought another one for about a minute before it shook the hook. We moved from there to a backwater creek to sightcast snook. Just got started and caught a small one. After about 10 minutes a big thunderstorm chased us off the water. Headed back to the dock with a long boat ride and called it a day around 2pm.





















This was a trip of a lifetime, and we are already planning for next year. I now understand this sickness!
 
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