South Florida, June 2002

Glen Cormier, Jacob Cormier, Steve Lee and I flyfished southern Florida in early June.

The first night we were there, we fished with guide, Capt. Pat Gould.  We fished the lighted piers and docks along the canals in Naples.  Despite the constant rain, the four of us easily caught over 40 snook in about 3-4 hours.  If I remember correctly, Jacob landed a tarpon on a 6 wt. rod.

Capt. Gould is holding one of the larger snook I caught.

Steve with a snook.

The second day of the trip, we rented canoes and fished the mangroves for tarpon.  Without a doubt, this was the most exciting part of the trip.  Using poppers, each of us had about a dozen strikes from tarpon.  Occasionally, we were able to set the hook, but landing them was a different story.  I only managed to get one small tarpon to the canoe.  I thought the mosquitos were bad in Louisiana, but the Everglades has LA beat.  Steve hooked a tarpon that was at least four feet long that totally straightened a 1/0 hook and had his 8 wt. flyrod bent into the grip.

The final day of the trip, we drove to within miles of Miami fishing along the Tamiami Trail.  We hoped to catch peacock bass and oscars, but only caught oscars.

Jacob caught this oscar on a Rooster Tail.

After fishing the Tamiami Trail, we returned to Sanibel and fished until it was time to drive back to Tampa to catch the morning flight to New Orleans.