- The only known adult Orca in the world
- IGFA event April 14th and 15th.. Jose Wejebe event
- Fishing TV show Spanish Fly host Jose Wejebe Killed in a plane cash in Everglades City, Florida April 6th 2012
- Only in Florida
- CCA Florida – Tampa Chapter Announces Twenty-Seventh Banquet, April 22, 2012
- Fly like a bird
- Biscayne Bay Estuary deep dredge threat
- A fish named “Ball Cutters”, yes it is exactly what you think!
- Rod Naming contest, Win 1 piece 12 wt Fly rods or Spinning rods, Deadline March 26th 2012
- Ladies Only fishing tournament in Sunny Florida, March 23rd 2012, Chix n Stix
Capt. Willy Le
A short Keys and Flamingo trip
This past weekend I made the 3 hour drive down to Miami to fish with good buddies Capt. Honson Lau and Capt. Jeremy Alderman to do some Tarpon fishing in their home waters. We launched Honson’s 18ft Maverick Mirage HPX at Jeremy’s house in Key Largo and made the long run all the way to Islamorada. The 115 Mercury Pro XS made the run a piece of cake, and man, that motor scoots!
Fishing the Tarpon migration is not easy. You gotta know where to sit, what direction to point, what tides are doing, what fish to feed, what flies to throw, how to strip the fly, where to put the fly and so on, and these guys know it all, and exactly what to do.
Sure I wanted to catch a Tarpon on fly while I was down there, but what I really wanted were some good action shots of Tarpon jumps. I was on bow a couple times and had some good shots at some laid up and cruising fish, had a few follows but no takers. I had Honson take my place on the bow while I was behind the lens and Jeremy on the push pole. Sure enough after a few shots, Honson jumps a nice fish that gave us a spectacular air show! The cool thing about this fish was that the first cast at this fish, it tracked the fly all the way to the boat but didn’t eat because the fly was fouled, Honson quickly picked it up, fixed the fly, slapped it back in front of the fish and next thing you know, there’s explosions in the water. Of course like what most Tarpon would do, this one gave us a good short show then shook the fly out of its jaw. You can see the fly ejected from the fishes mouth on some of the photos.
In this first photo, you can see the fouled fly and the Tarpon just thinking about crushing it.
Next up on the bow was Jeremy with Honson on the push pole and me behind the lens again. After sitting at a spot waiting for fish to show up only seeing a few here and there, we decided to leave since it was a little slow. As soon as we were about to power up. a pod of 50-60 Tarpon come heading our way and Jeremy quickly grabs his rod, strips out some line and fires out a shot into the pod and hooks up! The fish never knew it was hooked and stuck with the school just daisy chaining around the boat and then shortly after, th hook pulls without a jump. Frustrating, but that’s the name of the game. After that, we called it a successful day and made the long run back to Key Largo.
The next day, my friend Ramiro invited Honson and I to hop in his Maverick Mirage HPX-T and fish the Everglades National Park. The conditions were horrible with 20-30kt winds and some storms brewing so it was going to be a short trip. We launched at Flamingo and made a good run to some spots that were holding a bunch of Redfish. It was too windy for fly rods so we all threw some D.O.A. Cals on spinning outfits. The fishery down there is amazing, beautiful water, healthy grass and lots of fish. We caught Redfish, Snook, and Sea Trout until we got chased out by storms. Great day on the water with great company, that’s what it’s all about!
I’ll be back down very soon for more action and hopefully better conditions. Stay tuned for part 2….
-Capt. Willy Le
www.NativeFlyCharters.com
Cape Canaveral Cobia fishing 2012
Spring means Cobia fishing on the East Coast of Florida. During this time of year, the Cobia make their way north for their annual migration. They will be either cruising in pods, singles, under turtles, shadowing bait pods, or shadowing Manta Rays. Most fish can be spotted free swimming on the surface and will look very similar to a shark. When you see Spring Breakers flocking the beaches of Cocoa Beach leaving their trash everywhere….. then you know the Cobia are here as well, lurking just off the beaches!
I had a chance to sneak out last week to see if the Cobia run had started yet. It wasn’t in full swing, but plenty of fish were out there to be caught. Bright colored jigs work great, but I have best luck on D.O.A. Swimmin’ Mullet! Fly fishing for these brown clowns are a blast, and are pretty easy to catch. They will give you plenty of shots with the 12wt, just be prepared to strip the big baitfish pattern as fast as you can and hang on when it eats!
Woody, Marshall, and Chris joined me last week to search for these fish and try to catch a few for the grill. We didn’t see many, but we had our chance to catch our daily limit hooking 4 fish but only landing 2. Cobia are good at shaking hooks out of their mouths with their powerful head shakes. Here’s Woody with his first ever Cobia!
Of course I had to get in some of the action…
Here is a short clip of my buddy Lam landing a Cobia with the help of Romeo the puggle.
Give me a call if you would like to get in on some of the action whether it be inshore for tailing Redfish or Nearshore for the hard fighting Cobia. Large Tarpon should be showing up soon off the beaches as well for those of you who would like to tango with the Silver Kings!
-Capt. Willy Le
www.NativeFlyCharters.com
RCI Optics NEW for 2012
RCI Optics is a new sunglass company that was founded and designed by a group of friends from Brevard County that have a passion for surfing and fishing. Having been in the sunglass business for a very long time, these guys have put in years of research to create a company that represents the East Coast surfing and fishing community, hence the name RCI which stands for “Right Coast Independent”.
The names of each frame(which is 100% Made in Italy by the way) will be named after surf spots and fishing spots that are most popular by locals. The 2 frames that are available now are the “Monster Hole” with a copper lens/gold mirror and the “2nd Light” with a grey lens/blue mirror. “Monster Hole” is a surf break outside of Sebastian Inlet that only breaks on bigger days and is known for it’s big resident sharks lurking around the line up and “2nd Light” is a popular surf spot in Cocoa Beach that produced world champs such as Cocoa Beach’s own, 11x World Champ Kelly Slater and a bunch of other local rippers. A 3rd frame which will be named the “Mosquito lagoon” is in the works and should be available by Summer of 2012.
The lens on these are like no other. I’ve owned a lot of different polarized sunglasses and these are by far the most technical lens that I’ve ever used. I tested the copper lens with gold mirror for inshore fishing the other day, it was the first time that RCI Optics have been field tested by someone that has to rely on polarized sunglasses for their success and I have nothing but great things to say about them.
Not a lot of sunglasses fit my face, I need a more wider, flatter frame and the “Monster Hole” fit as if it was a mold from off of my face. I wore them on the water for 8 hours straight and had no discomfort what so ever. The frames and lens are lightweight and was suctioned to my face all day. The copper lens lightened up the flats which made spotting fish a heck of a lot easier like an amber lens would do.
The most amazing thing to me about the lens is that they have a special coating that is permanently bonded which repels water, oils, dust, etc. When I tested the lens while out on a charter, the crosswinds were a good 20-25mph which sprayed us pretty good from head to toe with salt water while crossing the larger waters in my boat, normally I would have to wipe the lens after a ride like that in order to see, but with these lenses on RCI Optics, I did not have to do that. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to, it was because I didn’t need to. I realized by the end of the day that I haven’t cleaned the lens all day, which if I had my previous sunglasses on, I’d have to wipe them off every time they got sprayed by water.
Here is what one of the designers from RCI had to say about the lens: “The Monster Hole is ANSI Z87.1 certified but by no means is it a safety glass. It is one of the most advance lens system out there. The Xiphos 4.0 lens treatments is a permanent application that is Anti-static (dust & stuff) don’t stick, anti-scratch, anti-water and anti oil or contaminants. It should hold up forever, but that needs to be real world tested.”
Lens test on Maui Jim’s polarize tester.
The lens took a T37 shape projectile traveling at 660ft per second at point blank and stopped it in its tracks.
Right now, the only shop carrying RCI Optics is Shady Characters Sunglass Emporium in Cocoa Beach, FL. and in Indialantic, FL. The website for the shops is www.opticflare.com and the RCI Optics website should be launched by March 2012. These 2 models that are out now retail for $240
Give the guys at the shops a call for more info on RCI Optics. I am proud to be part of the RCI Optics Team, with the technology in their lens and good sense of style, big things are coming for the future of this company.
-Capt. Willy Le
Native Fly Charters
www.nativeflycharters.com
“GO FISHING” by Action Sports/Lifestyle Photographer Josh Letchworth
I’ve always preached the importance of “shooting more” and showing more people. And what better way than to start with things that you are passionate about. For me…family and doing things outside. Simple. They are my best teachers, muses, subjects and reasons for capturing good moments. When you can let go of the restraints of “what you have to shoot” and get in touch with “what you like to shoot,” you will undoubtedly find who you are an an artist.
I had the privilege of going out to Mosquito Lagoon with Willy Le of Native Fly Charters. Willy and I became fast friends after we worked together down in the Keys during an Everglades Boats shoot. We share a passion for fly-fishing and followed through with a trip to the coast to chase some redfish around. Willy is an incredible fisherman, photographer and guide. He knows those waters well and can spot a redfish from damn near a country mile away.
I shot some photos of our adventure.
A huge thank you to Willy for hosting me and pushing that boat around all day. It was a humbling, yet more importantly, awesome experience.
-Josh Letchworth
www.JoshLetchworth.com
The American Shad – St. Johns River, FL.
Everywhere that I’ve lived in my life, I was at least 30 minutes away from the St. Johns River and I keep hearing about the Shad run that takes part every Winter and Spring but I’ve never went out and tried catching them until recently. My buddy Dominic Agostini invited me to join him on his new and improved Micro Skiff that he’s been working on for a while now. You may have seen it in one of my previous posts called Micro Skiff = Micro Poon. Well, since then he has added a poling platform by BT’s Welding and pushpole holders from Renzetti.
If you ask me one thing about Shad, I will probably scratch my head and say “huh?” This experience was all new to me, so I just sat quietly and took notes while Dominic explained everything there is to know about the American Shad. I never knew that these were saltwater fish that migrate down to freshwater areas of the river to spawn.
Once we launched the skiff and headed north through the windy creeks, It came back to me how pristine this part of Florida was. The scenery and all of the wildlife put me in a whole new world as if I was going on an African Safari Tour. What a great time to break out the Nikon DSLR and the long lens for a photography session while we were on the way to the fishing spot.
Once we came off plane, we immediately saw some flipping on the waters surface. It was Shad feeding on small minnows that were flowing in the current. It didn’t take long until Dominic hooked into the first fish of the day on his 3wt.
Then it was my turn on deck while Dominic was armed with the camera to capture some jump shots.
We caught several Shad each along with some pretty impressive Bluegill that put up a good fight.
After about an hour of catching Shad and Bluegill, we decided to just go joy riding and enjoy the great scenery that the St. Johns River has to offer.
I think I might started taking advantage of living close to the St. Johns River and make more trips out there to enjoy the great fishery and amazing scenery.
-Capt. Willy Le
www.nativeflycharters.com
Bottom fishing with D.O.A. Swimmin’ Mullet
Me, my brother and friends ventured out of Port Canaveral in the 22′ Pathfinder TE this past weekend. Conditions were sloppy but that didn’t stop the fish 80ft below from biting. We used nothing but D.O.A. Swimmin’ Mullet to jig the bottom and caught multiple species including Flounder, Red Snapper, Mangrove Snapper, Sea Bass, Trigger fish, Grouper, Cobia, and Toad fish this day.
-Capt. Willy Le
www.NativeFlyCharters.com
Video of a Space Coast Redfish on fly
A short clip of Honson catching a nice Redfish on fly while he was up visiting from Miami.
A special day for Kent Johson
Kent Johnson from Montana spends his winters in warmer climates to get away from the frozen lakes and icy streams back at home. This year he is in Florida with his 5th wheel in tow and his wife by his side and they plan to travel the whole state staying in each region for 2 weeks then on to the next. This week he is staying on the outskirts of East Orlando and called me up to target Redfish with a fly rod. Kent has traveled the world with his fly rod and has caught Bonefish, Salmon, Tarpon, Permit, Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, etc. but always had trouble with the Red Drum in Florida. After several attempts in the past years, he has failed to catch one until today, January 10, 2012, which was a very special day for him.
On a sandy flat of 8-12″, we would encounter Laid up Sea Trout, laid up Redfish and also large schools of Redfish. The water was crystal clear and not a lick of wind making the whole river sheet glass, which also made the fish very spooky. Kent had over 50 shots of both Trout and Reds but most of them blew off by seeing the fly line soaring through the air. The ones that didn’t spook off are the ones that either trailed the fly for a few yards before turning away, or ate the fly that imitated a small baitfish.
After landing a few nice Sea Trout (which Kent can also check off his list now) I see a pod of upper to over slot Redfish approaching us. I quickly position the skiff for Kent to fire off a long cast next to the school which he did perfectly without spooking the fish. Once the pod of fish headed towards the fly, Kent makes 3 or 4 quick strips which gets a fishes attention which then turned on the fly and ate. Now Kents first ever Redfish is hooked up on the end of his line and the battle begins.
After about 20 minutes of tug o war with the fish, I give Kent a hand to land his first ever Redfish on fly that he’s been after for a long time.
Kent cherishing the release of his first Redfish which measured 28.5″.
It wasn’t too long after the release of his first Redfish when he made a perfect cast to his 2nd Redfish ever caught.
After a bunch more shots and spooky fish, the wind picked up which made it tough to get the fly in the right spot so we called it a great day and headed back to ramp.
Congrats Kent on your Redfish and I hope you enjoy the memories that these photographs will bring back to you!
-Capt. Willy Le
www.nativeflycharters.com
Great end to 2011 in the Mosquito Lagoon
The last 2 trips for Native Fly Charters was with new clients Kyle and Chip from Georgia on the last couple of days of 2011. This was their first trip to the East Coast of Florida to do some fishing and their main goal was to see and catch tailing Redfish. On the first day of the 2 day fishing adventure, it seemed like it was going to be cloudy, cold, and windy for the first half of the day so I took them in the Indian River along the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge for some big Trout that have been roaming the flats. Making long casts with topwater lures around sand holes resulted in some nice trout and some fun blowups.
Once the clouds finally cleared up, the skies were blue bird and the wind laid down giving us the perfect glassy conditions for an afternoon of tailing Redfish. This day was the first major cold front of the year for Florida, making the fish a little sluggish. Most of the fish refused Kyle and Chips offerings except for this one Redfish at the end of the day that was tailing 10ft from the boat. Kyle made a perfect presentation by slowing down the retrieve and dropping the D.O.A. 3″ Shadtail CAL right in front of the fishes nose.
The next day our main goal was Redfish all day in the Mosquito Lagoon. The morning temperatures were in the 50′s with slick calm conditions and blue bird skies. We found Redfish in small groups pushing on the flats first thing in the morning but these fish were on a mission to get somewhere and were pretty spooky. After chasing those fish around for a while with no luck, we headed to another flat where we would see some single fish cruising around still sluggish from the cold morning and also spooky. They too did not want to cooperate with us. It wasn’t until the sun heated up the flats late in the afternoon when the Redfish wanted to tail and start feeding. Kyle and Chip both had numerous shots at tailing fish but did not quite get it close enough to the fish until the fish saw us and took off. A couple fish did get hooked up but only one came to the boat at the end of the day. Both Kyle and Chip ended 2011 in a great way, they got to see some great Wildlife including a family of Wild Hogs wading in the water, Momma Dolphins teaching their babies how to catch mullet, Manatees, Alligators, Exotic Birds, and best of all they got to see the Tailing Redfish that they came here to see. They get to go home with great memories and great photographs! Next on the list for them is Tarpon so we will be seeing more of these guys in the future!
This was a perfect way to end my 2011. Weather was beautiful, I got to spend it on the water and met 2 new very cool friends that work hard for a living and love to hunt and fish! Happy New Year everyone!
-Capt. Willy Le
www.nativeflycharters.com