I was recently in Stuart last week with Jimmy Nelson of Extreme Fishing Adventures TV show.  We met up with Mark Nichols of DOA lures for a morning of fishing.

We hit the water at 6am and worked our way to a marina in search of tarpon.

I wish every day started this way; on my first cast, my terror eyes was greeted by a 40lb-50lb tarpon looking for morning grub.

I had the fish on for a few minutes and things were looking good until the tarpon but she managed to shake free on a jump and throw the lure.  There were fish rolling in the area but after an boring hour of watching tarpon roll and not eat we decided to more on.

Our next location was a brackish water canal which holds smaller tarpon.  We did see some rolling fish but did not see much activity.  While working a rock pile with my terror eyez I was pleasantly surprised to catch this little guys.  I would guess he was about 4-5lbs.

We decided to call it a morning and get out of the heat.  Mark invited us to swing by DOA’s headquarters and show us where the magic happens.

 

I have been incredibly busy lately with a few projects but now that things are starting to settle down I figured it was time to do some fishing. The redfish bite has been excellent in the area, with schools of fish everywhere in the bay so I decided to sign up for KBF’s July Saltwater Challenge.

The weather looked iffy as it always does this time of the year in the late afternoons. We get alot of scattered thunderstorms every evening, thankfully that for the most part they are small storm cells that blow over quickly. I like fishing with company this time of the year, especially when the forecast calls for storms. I called up Chuck Statham, a good friend of mine and successfully convinced him to join me on a hour roadtrip south to target tailing fish.

We arrived at the launch with storms all around us. We probably had 15 minutes before a cell would be overhead. After checking the radar we decided to quickly launch, wait out the storm under the mangroves and then head out to the flat to start fishing. After 30 minutes the storm was far enough to wander over to the open flat, we knew that we were no longer at risk of being struck by lightening.

Once on the flat, it didn’t take long to locate the reds, Chuck’s spook was the first to strike home after a couple of casts.

 

A few minutes later tails started popping up and it was time to go to work. The fish were in schools but they were not clustered too closely together which made them easier to pick off without disrupting the whole group.

 

I love this type of fishing. Watching a red as she rolls up to my DOA shad tail, hesitates for a second when she makes eye contact with the lure, and then charges at it making a powerful SWOOSH which is followed by screaming drag is priceless in my book.

 

Chuck and I ended up with 6 reds ranging from 25.5″ to 29″, we could have caught more but we ran out of sunlight so decided to call it a day. A great afternoon session in my book.

My first attempt at a kayak fishing video, it took a lot more time than expected.

 

http://youtu.be/b1YN48q4auY

About a month ago I managed to do a second trip with Jimmy Nelson, host of Extreme Fishing Adventures TV show.

This time we only brought one kayak;  We had kingfish on our minds so the plan was to troll until we found the kings, once found put the kayak in and try to hook up.  Everything went according to plan, we had a great day on the water.

 

I showed up to the marina with these shady characters

 

 

 

Getting the boats loaded

 

 

This is the worst part of every trip

 

 

 

 

We started the day by trolling some Yo-Zuri Crystal minnows in a area Jimmy said would hold kings.  The hookups were instant.

 

Mike T hooked up!

 

 

 

 

 

The kayak went in the water

 

Mike T and his king

 

Mike Wior and his shark right before getting in the kayak

We decided to drop some Hooker flutter jigs down and ended up catching some nice fish

Mike W got a nice gag on his first drop

 

And a monster right before we left

 

Cameron and his best gag of the trip via the flutter jig

Recently I had the pleasure of fishing with Cameron Ripple and Capt. Jimmy Nelson who is the host of Extreme Fishing Adventures.

Jimmy and I had talked about doing this trip for a while; stars aligned, schedules were cleared, the weather was perfect, and Mike Wior of The Collective Tattoo added the finishing touches that made this trip possible.

We met up with Jimmy at the marina at 7 am, gassed up, and headed out; A few hours later we were hooked up to fish 70 miles offshore.  The game plan was to stop at a few reefs and do vertical jigging.  We used Hookher flutter jigs which worked like a charm.

Here are the pics:

 

 

 

 

 

Cam dropped a flutter jig down to see if there were any reef donkeys around.  The answer was obvious.

 

 

And cam was stoked

 

 

 

 

Jimmy got in on the action

 

 

We got the cameras ready

 

 

The kayaks went in the water

 

 

The bite was on (Mike T doesn’t mess around)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike hooked up

 

 

And got pulled around

 

 

Back and forth

 

 

The grouper showed up

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace out

 

 

 

On our last stop we hooked a hog fish while jigging; time to bring out the spear gun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my all-time favorites.