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This past Sunday my buddy Alex and I were in search of the wild hog. Alex has never shot a hog before so I desperately wanted to get him one and also get it on video. Right off the bat I saw two deer, big deer at that. Those guys have to wait until archery season. Any how, we walked for about 1.5 hours before seeing our first hogs which were way to big to take. They were easily 200lbs and I am not draging something that big, not to mention draging it a mile. As we continued we finally found two that we were able to take, we stalked these guys for about 30 minutes before we decided there was a shot opportunity. Unfortunitly this day Alex forgot the “dead sled” so we had to drag this thing by her legs and it was a real pain. The heat index had to be a 100 degrees and humid as can be. I am pretty sure I don’t want to do that again. DISCLAIMER: turn up the volume, there may be some curse words, and the video is shakey as my heart was pounding and I was trying to watch where I was walking in an effort to not spook the animals.

So yesterday Capt. Rich Osgood and I got out for an attempt at fishing the falling tide. The wind and storms put a big damper on us but all was not lost. We landed a decent snook and trout before we had to call it quits and make a run for Rich’s buddy’s house. The lightning was everywhere and approaching fast; there was no way we were going to make the ramp. We stopped off and took shelter for about an hour where Rich cleaned his friend’s pool for him. (thought that was a nice gesture) So after this storm cooled off we were headed for home until we noticed some baby tarpon rolling around. I grabbed Rich’s fly rod and made a few casts. I had one eat by tarpon and ended up catching two lady fish. The fish were still rolling heavy and I told Rich, “hey if I was to end up hooking one of these tarpon I would like to get it on my fly rod”. Rich was more than happy to hook me up with a gurgler on the end of my line and away I went. I saw two fish roll next to each other. I made two false casts and dropped my fly about 5 feet from the rolls, I stripped about 3 times and BAMN! Fish on. I could not believe this was happening, what a high I got from this. To top it off we landed this bad boy. I have caught tarpon on rod and reel before but never on fly. In fact this was my first time ever casting to a tarpon with a fly. Thanks to Capt. Rich for setting me up in the right spot with the right fly and good instructions. Also, Rich gave me the fly which I will place in the frame with one of the photos taken of my fish.
Photo Note: Earlier in the day I was playing around with my new 8mm fish eye lens, Rich was taking photos with it and it’s all manual. We were to engrossed in the fish and didn’t want to risk changing the lens for losing the fish by me doing something dumb. Sorry some of the pics are not the best but I had to post them any how. Fish taken on furled leader with 20lb test on the end.

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This morning I fished with my buds Ryan and Jon. I took em’ back to a little creek that opens up to a slightly untouched area. I love to fish this this place but sometimes it can be really tricky to get back there. Lots of chances to ding up your skiff getting in. Over hanging trees, branches under water covered in barnacles, etc. High tide is the only way to get in and when the tide is ripping out you have limited time to fish the area or you can’t get out. We were able to fish for about two hours there. We only landed 1 red which you will see in the vid and the pic. We did have a few other blow ups but couldn’t get the job done. The red in the video was awesome. On the platform I got to see the eat and he absolutely inhaled the lure from the front. It was bad a$$. I cut the video short because I did a poor job at handleing the Kodak Play Sport. I was on the poling platform trying to hold the boat in place and video at the same time. That’s right, all the talk with the play sport I had to get one and I love it. My video editing is poor as of now, I am trying to learn this editing program and I suck at it. Any how, here it is….

O’ya, vid also shows a good example of poor fish handling.  Little excited in the moment and the fish had an excellent release

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Had a great week of weather. Lot’s of overcast and calm waters and some days with high hot sun shining down lighting up the flats. When I got out on the water yesterday I called a buddy of mine, Tony. He was just coming through Boca Grande pass after a day of spear fishing. He stopped by to have a beer and gave us some fish. Tony hooked up us with two Hogfish and a nice Mangrove. Underneath their “little” fish in the cooler sat a bunch of nice grouper. I think I may do my diver cert and learn the spearfishing thing from them. Seems like a lot of fun. I also ran some bouys for triple tail this week but what a tough bite that was. I did however end up with one yesterday. These are my favorite fish to catch. Here are couple photos from the week….

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Whew! Long time, no posts. I have been extremely busy lately with long days at the fire house and super long days fishing leaving me little time to process and take photos. This past week I was able to get out with some buds “FINALLY”, get some pics, and enjoy sips of my favorite drink, Miller Lite. We have been stalking the flats for Reds but have been falling short in length and in quantity. We are getting good size here and there but not like it should be this time of year. The snook however are eating like crazy whether on the beach or in the groves. I went out this morning with my buddy Kevin and we horsed a few snook in along with a fair share of trout. Our intentions were to fly cast for triple tail but the weather man fooled us again so we reverted to plan B. We were using the “Ba donk a donk” top water lure. I am not sure if I like the lure because of the name or beacause it works. Sure is fun to say though. This time of year in a majority of places in the area I fish it is though to use trebile hooks due to the amount of grass on the water, but when I can find a place where I can pitch that bad boy I love it!Here are some photos of recent, sorry about the quality of this mornings snook pic, he weighed in at 17lbs but I didn’t measure him because it didn’t matter. We were in a tight spot and Kevin yanked his cam out of the case and when he did the humidity jacked the lens causing a crappy photo. I wanted to post it any how because the fish was a bute. I also included a photo of my son holding a his first “RED”, he was kinda scared of it, he wasn’t sure if he should let it go or hold it. Thought it was neat. Almost forgot, I encluded a photo of my new boat too. Enjoy

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Fishing is turned on big time. I went out this afternoon to catch the outgoing tide in search of some reds and snook. My buddy Kevin and I headed out in his gheenoe to Matlacha for the show down. Right off the bat Kevin hooked into a monster red that just peeled drag with no signs of stopping and eventually threw the hook. Kev was pretty upset and kinda comical to watch. We also hooked into to some monster snook on top waters but couldn’t get em’ boat side. The one snook I hooked into was just a massive fish and acted like a tarpon freshly hooked, he was tail walken like crazy and tossed my hook like he new the gig was up. It was pretty fun to watch happen in two feet of water. We did however end up with few reds. Also, I went out last week for an afternoon shot at grouper and did great. Gags were chasing up other grouper to the surface that were hooked. I’ve personally never seen that, however I am new to the offshore game. Speaking of offshore, I just installed downriggers on my boat so I will be trying some trolling this summer. Here are a few pics from recent…..

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Laast Friday I pre-fished for the annual Bobby Hollaway tournament which is held on Pine Island, Fl. (tournament was on Saturday) It’s a great tourny and the money goes to benefit kids that live on Pine Island. The money goes for scholorships and such. For this tourny your team was allowed to turn in two trout, one redfish, and a mystery fish which ended up being a flounder. I figured a red shouldn’t be to difficult to get, I only needed one. So we set out on the chase for trout. Straight from the dock we hit my go to spot and the trout were there in the masses. It was one after another, all on arties. We ended up limiting out on them in no time. I partake in catch and release, however I do enjoy fresh fish from time to time; and not from Publix. So after that my plan was to hop in the tower and cruise looking for reds. This plan went to crap as we ended up meeting some friends on the water, having a cold one and hanging out. I still figured what the hay, I only need one red…So next morning “after a late nite” I am up at 4:45am ready to go. My ride shows up and we head to the boat ramp. We launched at about 6 and waited for the shot gun start at 7:30. The tide was low as can be so we cruised to a spot to fish waiting for the water to come up so we could hit the go to spot. So after about 1.5 hours we had enough water and were halling butt to the trout…….. Unfortunitly as we were going the motor shut down and wouldn’t restart. (in my buddy’s boat) Unreal! The power head took a dump. I couldn’t belive it. Two of the 3 other guys on board wanted a tow in and I was too proud for that so I pushed the boat for about 2 miles before another buddy towed us in. Hard headed I guess but I wanted to push. It was unfortunate but I still had an awesome time. To me, fishing is about great times with friends even if it doesn’t pan out like you want. I wouldn’t have traded that day for anything! Special thanks to John Trujillio for taking us in that last mile, my legs were spent. These are a couple pics from the prefish. Also, I know this picture is of poor quality, it was taken 11 years ago on Useppa Island. That’s me with a Yozuri lure hanging from my upper lip. A trebble hook got me and I had to take a ride to the hospital. My 2nd trip there due to hooks!

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I took reciept of a new fly reel the other day. I purchased a Helios H89a manufactured by Okuma. It seems like a pretty nice reel. It retails for around $180. It weighs 6.2 ounces as it should it’s mostly constructed of aluminum. It holds 250 yards of line so it seems quite big. I don’t know a whole lot about fly reels so I am hoping this will be a good reel for me. I can fly cast decent so I am excited to get out soon and try and nab my first redfish on a fly that I will tie myself. Here are two photos I just took of the reel,

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Today was a more than pleasent day to be on the water and I am hoping all that were able took full advantage of this beautiful day. I however decided to go hog hunting versus being on the water. I had the notion for some fresh pork for the table, however this didn’t happen due to poor planning and better hunters. I woke up this morning at 3:45 and headed over to my pick up my buddy Alex and head out to his parents house which is way out by Clewiston somewhere. Our goal was to be there at daylight which we made happen. We walked with guns on shoulders to the hunting ground where we intently looked for the wild beasts. After about a mile of walking we finally struck gold. We found a nice pack of hogs and we took aim. After missing a couple shots we continued walking looking for more.
As we were walking I saw this big boy hog standing there broad side to me and I took a shot, BAM I hit him. He started running and then I started running to try and catch up to him so I could have a second shot, next thing I know he is running right at me. I jacked in another shell and hit him about 10 feet from me and rolled him right there. Talk about heart pounding. It was awesome. Well, I gutted him right there and Alex and I drug him for about 150 yards and decided he was way to much to drag a mile. We figured we would leave him lay and walk back to the house and get a radio flyer wagon. We were gone about 45 minutes and upon our return to the hog there were about 100 buzzards hanging about. Those dang birds ate both hams out of the hog down to the bone, they ate the inner loins, ribs, and half of the back straps. We couldn’t believe it. I wanted to cry. What a shame. Anyhow, we put it in the wagon and drug it back to the house for some photos. Here ya go

For an idea of how big this boy was I took a pic of Alex next to the hog

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Went fishing today and braved the winds but the fishing was poor. The house project was getting on my nerves and I needed to get out. It sure did feel good to hang out with some buddies, have a few millers and really enjoy the day. My friend Jon has a big Eagle’s nest by his house so I decided to see if the big bird was there; to my luck he was in. I got some really neat photos but the bird was just to far and the pics don’t fill the frame like I had hoped. This is a shot as it went by for a close up

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Sorry my posts have been so limited. I’ve been so busy renovating a house I have cut my fishing to very little, plus this is a good time to do it for the wind has been quite over bearing. I plan on hitting the fishing hard next week though. Hope to gather a few good photos to share. O! And for the the fire caption the picture of the engine is the one I ride on every 3rd day. Just a part of my life so I thought I would include it, plus I thought it was a neat photo. These are photos I had sitting around but finally had a chance to edit

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