My trip to Miami started with the long journey down south, we did a night down in Jacksonville then headed to Miami. We got into our hotel on Key Biscayne on Monday, with a great forecast for our fishing on Tuesday and Wednesday. We got to the docks around 6:30 on Tuesday where we met up with our guide, Captain Steve Horowitz. We were on an 18 foot flats boat and started the day heading out to the bay to try to get some Tarpon.
We threw out a spinning rod rigged with a cork and a good size crab about 6 inches under. Then I grabbed the Helios 12 weight, then picked a dark mullet pattern to throw.
Now this was my first time throwing a Helios rod and I have to say, that 12 wt felt like nothing. Super light and very easy to cast. I was also impressed with the Mirage reel, it was very light on the rod and had a great drag to it.
Anyways back to the Tarpon; we were on our third drift with no luck when out of no where the drag on our live crab rod starts to scream like crazy. We grabbed the rod to set the hook when the Tarpon made an epic leap and shook the hook. It was a huge disappointment, but out energy was high after seeing that beast surface.
We made about 6 more drifts with no luck. We decided it was time to leave and hit the flats. We ran over to the flats between key Biscayne and Soldier’s Key, there’s tons of flats and channels here. We were about to hit a flat when our guide spotted a school of jacks hitting a channel right next to us. We anchored up on the side of the flat and I grabbed the 9 weight which was rigged up with depth charge line with a shrimp imitation fly. We threw into the school and got hits like crazy. These we blue jacks, and despite their small size, these things pulled. We got about 10 of these guys the we pulled out and hit the flat.
We were no after the Barracuda and some possible permit and bonefish. Captain John maned the polling platform while I grabbed the 10 weight and a Cudda fly. Now these flies are strange, they’re made to look like needal fish, so I was using a green tube with a hook at the front and back, along with large dumbbell eyes. Then we had my dad on backup with an 8 weight with a crab fly just incase. We polled around a bit until we hit a lightly colored hole full of 50-60 Barracuda. The excitement hit and I made a cast about 50 feet then tucked the rod under my arm then started to strip with both hands like a madman. I saw a good size cudda following when bam it struck. I grabbed to rod and tried to are the hook but I had missed it by a few seconds. This same issue followed me until 5 fish latter when I finally got him. I had never guessed barracuda would run that hard, but boy was I wrong. The fish was pulling out drag like there was no tomorrow. It even took me down to backing. We finally got him in after a long fight, and I couldn’t have been more happy, my first cudda on a fly.
(Stay tuned for Day 1: Part 2)
