Miami: Trip 2

Well, I had another "business" trip the last few days in South Beach and managed to get some fishing in while I was down there. Day 1 was only a half day so we stayed close by and hit several flats (same flats I fished last week for the most part). I had a good day catching a dozen bonefish (used a crab pattern) and had several more break me off on the bottom. The conditions were much better this week and my ability to see the fish also improved a bunch. The second day was a tarpon day. We set up along the outer bank and waited for the fish to move. And boy did they. We saw singles, doubles and two schools that had over 50 fish, in all I saw well over a 100 fish. If you have never fished for tarpon, you have no idea the excitement you get seeing a 6 foot long submarine coming your way...it's way cool. I never landed one, but managed to hook up on three (used a worm fly). The show they put on is unbelievable. The guide said two were between 100-125 lbs and one was close to 150. One jumped several times and swam right at us (I couldn't keep up) and the other ones just came un-bottoned. After all day on the water I went back to the hotel and prepared for my night trip which started at 10:30 and ended at 5:00am. We started off using top water for snook and I had several blow ups, but they didn't connect. Since the tide wasn't running enough we went looking for tarpon under the lights. This was both an amazing sight and very frustrating. We saw another 100+ fish, mostly in the 60-90 lb range. They would just swim back and forth along the shadow line slurping shrimp (only 20 feet from us). We were both casting shrimp after shrimp, but not one even looked at the bait. I even hit one on his nose, but got no reaction. So, I'm still waiting to land my first tarpon, but this trip I saw so many (not all in casting range) and have a much better feel for what it takes to get one to bite. My next trip will be the one!!