caloosa bug

Crazy tornadoes all around Hendry and Glades counties a couple hours ago. Several very close calls to us. All of the pics attached were within a few miles me. Thankfully most have stayed over open sugar cane fields. Lots of damage in Lakeport right now though. All boarded up here in Moore Haven. It’ll probably be a long night. Best wishes to all who are going to be impacted by this storm. We may miss the brunt of the hurricane on the west coast of Lake o, but these tornadoes ain’t no joke. Swamp, please stay safe. Looks like your area may get pretty spicy.

I ain’t never caught a tilapia on a topwater plug before.

Great reports capt.! Your area of flamingo and whitewater bay is the only area that this south Florida native has never been to. I’ve fished out of chokoloskee several times, but never headed very far south. Also out of key largo, marathon, and islamorada, but never headed north. The caloosahatchee seemed to come alive this weekend. Landed and shook off a handful of slot sized snook on Saturday with a paddle tail jig. Season doesn’t open until October 1 this year, so I carefully released them. Sunday morning I slept in some and went bank fishing at a local culvert. Fish were busting my topwater plug every few casts. I had a dozen explosions before I hooked this little tarpon. Man do I love topwater..

It was. The first day had we 4 guys, including myself. A few times all 4 of us would be hooked up at the same time dancing back and forth around the boat to keep lines from getting tangled. We came across a floating pallet at one point the was holding a handful of dolphin under it. On the first hookup, the fish leaped, and landed flat on top of the pallet, flopping for a bit then it flipped back into the water still hooked. The second day was supposed to be 4 ladies. Two of them backed out leaving only my boss and one other girl. That’s what led to me getting invited out a second day. We knew it was going to be rough, and I wasn’t sure how long they would last in the waves and the heat. My boss turned green before the first fish, and the other woman was wore out after reeling in 1 and a half fish before asking me to take over. They were all bigger fish than the day before.I landed all the rest until around 10:45 when they said that they were ready to head in. I definitely enjoyed it. I’d much rather pitch to neon colored fish just under the surface, over deep dropping with electric reels like we did last year.

I guess so, I was expecting to at least get a shot at a baby tarpon somewhere. I didn’t even see any rolling at all. Sounds good! We’ll have to try that. Thanks for all the tips. in most cases the water was inches from the bottom of the bridge. I free lined a little rapala a few times with the current taking it under the bridge then slowly reeled and twitched and paused it back to me…same with a streamer a few times. Sounds like I should’ve done that a little more than I did. Truth is I’d hit a spot make a few casts with a couple lures, look around a bit on both sides of the bridges, then move along to the next one.

Since I didn’t get any fish pics on the trail, I might as well include some from Key Largo.

It was a pretty uneventful across the trail. I started at the Picayune Forest water structure. Fished with conventional for 20 minutes and the headed east stopping at several bridges along the way. I did see two small snook that saw me at the same time and took off. I saw several Oscar and gar at many places, and I didn’t see any peacocks until I got to the S12A water control structure where Tippy’s used to be. A few casts with a small rapala sent them retreating to deeper water. I tossed a fly around a bit at and had no takers or followers. I didn’t see another peacock until I missed two on fly at the Value Jet 592 memorial. The last stop I made was just on the east side of the Krome intersection at the casino. Last year I caught a handful there. This year the water looked like coffee with heavy cream. It was really brown and nasty looking. I tossed everything throughout the day, from jigs and swim baits, to rapalas and rattle traps. Then streamers from black to chartreuse with little avail. I also stopped at a couple spots outside of homestead on the way home and nothing. It was a neat experience nonetheless. Key Largo was a different story offshore. I ended up getting to go out two days in a row. It was pretty rough out 20-30 miles out in the Atlantic Tuesday and even rougher Wednesday. We were able to find several scattered schools of mahi and I brought home quite a few bags of fillets.

I’m going to Key Largo tomorrow for my annual managers meeting and offshore fishing trip. Last year, I zig-zagged my way from the south west shore of Lake Okeechobee to Key Largo and fly fished for the urban peacocks and other exotics along the way. I had several spots I had marked using google maps, street view, in areas mentioned in articles and reports. I caught a few fish and had fun exploring. This year I’m heading down hwy. 29 to Tamiami trail. Then fish the trail from the faka/union canal to krome ave.. Starting in the salt and going to the fresh. I am taking a couple conventional rods and a couple fly rods to see what I can stir up before meeting my crew in key largo at 5:00pm. Then I’ll be offshore Tuesday. Hopefully I can get some sleep tonight🙇‍♂️🐟🐊🐠🎣🎏🐊

I planned on doing some fly fishing, but it’s hard to put down conventional tackle when it’s working. Caught maybe 20 bass this morning before lunch . Mostly 2-3 pounders and this 6lb 13 oz kicker. I had a couple visitors too.

Been back out on the big O the last couple weekends….mainly just bass fishing and enjoying the scenery. All catch and release. ps. The second pic is a sea cow submarine that was headed right for me.

Caught some neat pictures of a thunderstorm with my iPhone on “Live Photo”.

It was a great morning for bass fishing in the caloosahatchee river. Dad landed the 3 biggest and lost another big one. We weighed the two biggest at 6lbs 14oz and 5lb 2oz. We boated more than a dozen fat and healthy 2- 3 1/2 pounders too. My son, somehow, didn’t get to join in on the action. Maybe next time.

I worked a half day today, and threw the 3wt. in the truck planning to cast at a few canals for gills and cichlids on the way home. With all the rain this week, I went to check to see if a productive culvert was running close to the house instead. It was, and all I had was my 3wt. and one streamer in my gill-bug box. It took 5 casts to land these two 3+ lbers. Certainly was a good battle on the little 3.

Good stuff man! Glad to see you back. Looks like a lot of fun.

They do fight well on the the 3wt. However, with all of the aggressive exotics here now in okeechobee, the steady tug of a big gill is a welcoming feeling during an outing when targeting them. Compared to the finger burning, fly shredding, horse of a fish that Mayan cichlids and oscars are. Anymore, most outings consist of 5 or more cichlids to every 1 gill. They are tons of fun when you need a backup plan on a slow day and can be caught almost anytime, anywhere, pretty easily. That's why I consider a big, native gill to be a more respectable catch than a 2lb cichlid. Here's a few of those non-natives that like to put a strain on the 3wt. 😁 love the trout pics..it's been way too long since i caught any of those.

Very nice!

Me and dad took my son and his friend from down the street fishing this weekend... who apparently had never ridden in a boat before. You know they're having a good time when they are laughing out loud as they were reeling in fish . We brought home enough for a few meals.

Man, that little goliath was probably a handful on a 8wt. I had a blast sight casting to bedding bluegill this weekend.

With snook season now closed, I had to dust off the 3wt. Had a blast this morning tossing bugs to bedding gills. Brought home 17 bluegills and released about 5 Mayans to every 1 gill. Tugged on fish for 3 hours and headed in with a smile.

A couple weeks ago me and dad spent 5 days out of an 8 day stretch on Lake O. We had an absolute blast. Explored many areas and patterns to try to win a little money in our annual one fish, big bass tournament during our county fair. We caught a lot of nice bass and had a lot of fun. I caught some big ones the first couple days, then a mid week front came through. I guess I forgot how to fish after that, probably because I was over confident in my pattern of a senko and weightless trick worm. Dad proceeded to kick my but the rest of the week on into tournament day on a tiny shallow crank bait. I didn't weigh in squat, and dad finished in 9th out of over 70 participants. It was a week to remember and I'm glad I shared it with dad.