Camping and fishing

Report Date: March 2, 2005

This past week was a big one for me. It was our annual camping trip. We load up four boats with nine guys and all the gear and headed to Everglade National Park for three nights of camping. The trip began Thursday at 4 am and ended Sunday at 3pm. That?s door to door. The weather was fair to nasty. We had a lot of south to southwest wind and that is never good for the fishing.

Mark and Jack took a break from crabbing

We ran into quite a few tarpon but didn?t have any luck with them. The bait was scarce and the snook and reds were too. We caught a few small snook up in the backcountry. Crabbing was the best bet. We caught 30 or so for the crab boil.

Crab boil with sausage potatoes corn shrimp crabs and Everglades seasoning

The best catch of the trip was on Mike Millers boat. Saturday they got a little window with the wind and ran offshore to one of the wrecks. They boated a 40 lb permit, a 35? cobia, and a big goliath grouper. Brock and Jim brought in a couple trout and pompano for fresh appetizers on the grill every night.

The crew

The camp fires were great and the food was plentiful. Fishing was slow the weather was tough but a good time was had by all.

Monday was right back to fishing for me. Bob Sasso and Charley went tarpon fishing with me to catch one about 75 lbs. We missed 2 bites throughout the day. Rather slow. We saw plenty of fish but just didn?t get the bites. We went to the bluefish spot to kill some time waiting for the tide to change and go back to the tarpon. The blues and ladyfish bite was good and we lost one to a shark. Then we went back to the tarpon spot. We found them again and had the same luck. I don?t know what there deal was. I thought the bite would be better before the front.

Bob and Charley and the poon

Tuesday was no better. The front came through, the wind came up and the temps went down. We saw less tarpon and found it even harder to get a bite. I?m glad it was only a half day of torture.

It looks like we are going to have a little warm stretch and the fishing will improve. I would love to be so sick of catching tarpon that I never want to see one again. We will see. The bones and permit will be around and you can never catch enough of those to get sick of it.

March is pretty much all booked up for me. Start thinking about April and May. That?s still a great time to plan a trip. Until next time, I hope you catch a big one.

Back to Main Fishing Report Page

Miami ~ Ft. Lauderdale ~ Calendar ~ Charters
Reports ~ Photos ~ Links ~ Home

AWOL Fishing Charters
Capt. Carl Ball
Home: 954-565-2457
Boat: 954-383-0145
CaptBall@awolfishingguide.com

Hosting by Mainstreethost.com