Capt Kevin Merritt just phoned in to let me know how his day of fishing went...After netting some white bait Kevin fished the last of the outgoing tide in Caxambas pass and was able to catch and release some good slot sized snook up to 32". Catching the fish was the easy part- The hard part was dealing with the on and off spitting rain, the 20 mph wind and the 2 foot waves that were coming through the pass. We have had wonderful weather for the last couple of weeks, but it has been too nice, allowing the water temperatures to get very high. The fish have been feeding sporadically, because of the hot water but that changed yesterday. Saturday morning dawned overcast, rainy, and fairly rough. These are all conditions that will help to lower the water temp slightly, and they continued this morning. With a slightly lower water temp the fish seemed to feed more predictably and Kevin was able to capitalize on that.

When the outgoing tide quit, Kevin was able to follow the begining of the incoming tide into the islands. Most of the focus this time of the year is on the areas just inside the islands as opposed to the winter time when the fishing is more focused on the areas way up in the backcountry. More slot sized snook were fooled by Kevin's clients as well as some nice mangrove snapper which were cordially invited home for dinner. The snapper seem to move closer to shore and into the deeper areas in the islands this time of the year to spawn, offering some nice food fish opportunities. There has been a lot of fresh water draining out of the Everglades and it eventually finds its way out of the little creeks that feed the Ten Thousand Islands. When this fresh is coming out it will push many of the tarpon and snook out with it, and position them near the mouths of such creeks. Kevin was able to use this strategy put 3 tarpon in the air. The fish were up to 40# and of the 3 that were hooked, 2 made it to the boat. If you have never caught one of these small or mid-sized tarpon you are missing out on a real treat because it seems like these fish spend more time out of the water than they do in it once hooked. If you would like to give this kind of fishing a shot, give us a call and we'll see what Kevin's schedule looks like...