Monster Winds

Report Date: June 28, 2007

The past few weeks would test the mettle of any guide or angler alike. Until tropical storm Barry, the winds were blowing a solid twenty with gusts way more than that. If it weren’t for the fact that it was blowing out of the northeast, there probably would have been more canceled trips. Still, most of us managed to catch bait and get on with slugging it out. The problem with heavy wind is it forces you to fish where you can and not where you want to.

Don’t get me wrong. We still caught some very nice snook and a few redfish on most outings. We just didn’t get the high double digit numbers that we are used to this time of year. My anglers caught a few large trout on each outing as well. They are the bigger fish as they like to hang out where snook do so they were kind of a byproduct of snook fishing. Larger jacks and mangrove snappers filled in the gaps.

This has been one of the worst tarpon seasons in our area that I have seen in my thirty years here. It is solely due to weather as they do not like heavy wind. They can’t get comfortable in shallow water so I believe that they hang out in deeper water. If the weather gets back to its mild normal self, a few may come back to our area but it is my experience that the main bulk of tarpon will remain to the north of us throughout the early portion of summer.

Right now, Barry has left us with winds out of the west southwest which makes getting bait extremely difficult. Many guides that normally like to use live bait have been having their anglers throw soft jerk baits and jigs. They can be a lot of fun as well as very effective in the right hands.

The normal east winds of June are bound to prevail and the fishing is sure to bust loose in a big way. I will be there when it happens. I’ll see you on the water.

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