From the Publisher
This month’s cover has Brody showing off his first Tarpon which reminded me of mine. I was about his age watching juvenile Tarpon roll at night in our canal in Key Largo when a neighbor taught me how to catch them.
In my late teens I worked at the Ocean Reef Club in North Key Largo at the Perdue Dean ship store and bait shop. A lot of Tarpon swam their deep-water canals and some days I’d go in early to catch one. A bucket of water splashed the floor of my El Camino, which was a step-up from the green Pinto Wagon I previously drove, with my first stop being a salt-water ditch off Card Sound Road to net a few finger mullet.
I made my way to a long seawall facing a 200-foot wide canal in the Ocean Reef Club where a hooked finger mullet acted like it was trained to swim all the way across on the surface. Not one finger mullet successfully made the swim before getting hammered by a Tarpon.
Most fish were 15-20 pounders, but one morning a Tarpon well over 100# sucked-up my finger mullet and over an hour later I had it beside me at the dock. Residents claimed it was private property, but ended up cheering me and taking pictures. When I told my boss why I was late, he called it “product research” and told me to tell our bait shop customers about my morning. Perhaps they’d buy fishing rods and tackle to try and catch one for themselves?
Minimal tourism, not much traffic, and the only red-light in Key Largo stayed green unless someone pushed the button to walk across. What a great time to work at a bait shop in the Florida Keys!
Fish cleaning at the Ocean Reef charter fleet docks attracted huge Mangrove Snappers, so you can guess where I spent my breaks and lunch time. The shop manager made custom fishing rods for the club, which was quite a side-business for him, and he once made a rod for what we called the “The Big Dock Snapper Tournament.” It was my first tournament win.
I only worked there for a few months, and the memories are priceless. One day headed into the grocery store for a sandwich I ran into Burt & Dom sitting on the steps. I wanted so bad to stop and say hi but employees engaging with guests was against the rules. My boss said it would have been ok so I ran back but they were gone.
The sport-fishing charter fleet included Viking, Hatteras, Ocean and Bertram yachts, well rigged and all new. If a first mate didn’t show for a charter, I was the back-up. One day I was bragging about close Bimini was and the charter wanted to make the cross. The captain and I ended up staying overnight & fishing more while the charter took a seaplane home. Good times!
The shop manager favored one of the inshore-flats guys when calls came in, and in return he’s let us use his skiff to Bonefish after work. Bone-fishing on the flats north of Ocean Reef in the 80’s was world class!
This was also at a time when I attempted to catch a world record Cubera Snapper. There had never been one recorded on 16-pound tackle, and I found out why. A live lobster and 2-pounds of lead 150-feet down in strong currents tends to break 16-pound line…
I learned to free-line for Yellowtail Snapper back then, plus I also did a lot of Hog Snapper fishing. There’s a lot of both of these fish in SW Florida but people don’t know how to catch them so most think they’re not here. People in the Keys fish ON the patch-reefs and catch mostly grunts and small snappers. The Hogfish like it in the grass just outside of the patch-reefs. We’d snorkel with a stubby fishing rod, and when we spotted one we’d surface and cast, pull a shrimp right to a Hog, and catch it every time. The reels didn’t last long, but snorkel-fishing was unique and productive.
The same applies here in SW Florida, (except for snorkel fishing,) Hogfish are not on top of the structure, they hang out in grass around structure. I know a spear-fisherman who dives in about 30-feet out of Redfish Pass and comes home with big Hogs every trip.
For Yellowtail in our waters you need to be past 80-90 feet to be productive, and you’ve got to learn the art of free-lining. Our Yellowtail here are much bigger than in the Keys. One night a few years ago I caught two fish that both broke the record Yellowtail, but didn’t know they were records till weeks later. That was foolish of me, I probably would have held the record forever.
Summer is upon us, drink lots of water, watch for quick forming storms, and if you have a bad day fishing, just tell people you were only out scouting new waters :)
Jim Griffiths
Publisher, Nautical Mile
