Hmmm it appears that photobucket now wants me to pay $300/year in order to allow 3rd party hosting. Looks like Google photo it is. Let's see if this works.















In action

Centerpole90 said:

---

You've got the mojo.

You need

B. O. A. T.

---

Indeed- Ayto is tearing it up.

Get your narrow ass on a Gheenoe or something. That's all you need to run around the Glades and the inshore bays in your neck of the woods.

https://orlando.craigslist.org/boa/6168575616.html

https://www.microskiff.com/threads/2013-ipb-14.46568/

https://www.microskiff.com/threads/2005-gladesmen.43577/

https://www.microskiff.com/threads/2012-154-gheenoe-on-2012-continental-trailer.46303/

Or bring your ass back to Texas and buy Rick Sawyer's BT Micro- keep it in the OB "family" as it were.

Buy my FJ40 to tow that micro with and panties will be hitting the sand all up and down the coast.


Male and female alike - errybody's.


ETA. oh my, that Gladesman on the Ramlin trailer. With a little elbow grease, some attention, & TLC -

8.75/10 WOULD FISH.

Centerpole90 said:

---

Buy my FJ40 to tow that micro with and panties will be hitting the sand all up and down the coast.


Male and female alike - errybody's.


ETA. oh my, that Gladesman on the Ramlin trailer. With a little elbow grease, some attention, & TLC -

8.75/10 WOULD FISH.

---

I need another project like a hole in the head (finished grinding out the project skiff and about to order glass, epoxy, and foam core) but I really want to get an old FJ or the like and have it as a project to restore so that Spawn of Finn #1 has it to drive in 10 years when he's 16.

I don't want to buy my boys new vehicles, I'd rather buy them old FJ's or Jeeps or even late-70's/early-80's era trucks. Something with a carburated engine that we/they can work on to keep running.

My rationale is that, living in the burbs there are few chances for them to truly get their hands dirty and work on something and it's a good experience for them to take care of it and keep it running. Maybe I'll send them south to you when they're old enough and you can put them to work in the cotton fields and make them sleep in the barn or something.

Anyway, I digress from the saltwater flyfishing/spending other people's money- now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Finn Maccumhail said:

---

Centerpole90 said:

---

You've got the mojo.

You need

B. O. A. T.

---

Indeed- Ayto is tearing it up.

Get your narrow ass on a Gheenoe or something.

---

I've been trying to spend Aytos money on a skiff for a while. So many good choices in Florida.

Every time I get the urge to buy a boat, I get a guide instead. Salt almost broke me down a couple of times, but the places I fish the most only have swampy kayak launches... and a few are in no motor zones. Have to admit though, seeing y'alls boats in action is inspiring. I wanna be in that club one day.

I am on that middle plan and I'm only paying $60ish and I have a lot of photos...

So if any of y'all are like me and can't tie flies for crap (I'm working on getting better) and prefer to buy them, I recommend looking up Destination Flies on Instagram. The dude who ties these flies is a good Aggie and friend of mine. I think he also posts here occasionally too. Anyway, here's a mess of tarpon flies he's sending me for my upcoming poon hunting trips.

https://instagr.am/p/BWO3PWylQ72

Homeboy ties some clean stuff. I really like that lowtide shrimp.

Outstanding! Blue parachute awarded for awesome trip report.

Love it. Did you throw sinking line at any of those mini tarpon?

Floating line only

Outstanding report!

One question... No bananas or no flip phones?

LRHF said:

---

---

Okay two questions... If it's no flip phones, why?

No bananas. Goes back to old sailor days when the trips were long and many died of disease en route. Fruit carried bugs and sailors thought bugs caused disease, thus no bannanas on long voyages. The superstition applies today with boaters but until this trip, had never seen a sticker like this on the boat. This is what I have been told through the years, perhaps there is a seaman on the board that can add additional color.

Late 4th of July trip report

Took the week of the 4th off and hauled the panga down to SPI. Went with the wife and a couple friends of ours. We found a condo on VRBO with boat slips so I got to conveniently leave the boat in the water the whole time.

Left Houston Saturday morning and after a few stops to check the trailer hubs and fill up on gas (20 mph headwinds suck) we made it to SPI. Dropped the boat in the water at Parot Eyes (nice ramp crappy parking lot) since the condo we rented was in the same marina.


Did a quick couple hour trip to get reacquainted with the area since I hadn't boated around SPI since I was in grade school. Headed North past the convention center and poled the sand flats for a bit to see if we saw anything. Found a bunch of crystal clear water and some huge mullet milling around but no gamefish. Not surprising for a low afternoon tide in the heat of the day.

Sunday I fished with the wife for an hour or so in the morning. Drifted some deeper water and she caught some dink trout on a color change. My in-laws came down to hang out for the afternoon. I took out my brother in-law, nephew, and buddy. I played guide with the packed boat and my nephew caught more trout than the other two adults combined.

Monday the wife slept in and the rest of us made a run up the Brownsville ship channel to do nautical nerd things. Checked out the shrimp boats, moored drilling rigs, and air-craft carrier that is slated to be scrapped. Felt a tad Somali piratish rolling up on an aircraft carrier in a tiller panga.




Unfortunately no rolling poon were spotted. One of our friends is a huge porpoise fan and we found a good sized pod near the mouth of the ship channel. Putted around and watched them for a bit.

Spent the afternoon chilling on a sandbar with the wife. Finally got a better idea of what the panga will draft on hard bottom. It'll do about 7 or 8 inches with the weight shifted around to float as flat as possible.


Tuesday the wife decided she wanted to see the porpoise too so I ran down towards the jetties to see if we could find any and maybe see some sea turtles too. Saw a few small turtles pop up but the water was pretty rough and green so we didn't have great visibility. Back to the mouth of the ship channel it was. Found a pod with some baby porpoises and watched them for a bit. Went back home and relaxed until the evening and then putted over towards Louis Backyard to watch the killer fireworks show from the water.


Wednesday we packed everything up early (checkout day) and our friends hit the road. My wife was patient with me while I got some fly fishing time in for my Birthday. Poled around some, drifted, and blind casted the fly at potholes in clear water north of the convention center but didn't see much other than mullet and rays. I knew the wife was getting worn out from the heat, but she said I needed to catch something since it was my b-day. I decided to make the run to the spoil banks along the ICW on the other side of the bay to find some fisher water.

Pulled into the first cut I saw that looked good and started drifting onto a flat behind the spoil bank. Didn't see much activity so I blind casted artificials while we drifted in. Picked up a small red and started seeing activity around a bend in the spoil bank. Got on the pole and worked across the flat to set up a nice drift to try and finally catch something on the fly rod. Missed a couple shots at bigger reds because I was drifting too fast. I don't have a drift sock because I'm always poling around, but one would have sure been handy down there. Drifted into some grass and it slowed me down enough to see my fly get snubbed by a few smaller reds. They had their noses in the grass and wouldn't look up for my fly until I plopped it in front of them and then they'd take off.

Highlight of the day was a huge trout (25"+ and had some shouders) laid up in the grass. I led him with the first cast and realized he wasn't moving. Stripped in and knew the second cast had to be closer. We'll I got it closer alright, lined it over the back. Luckily it didn't go too far, just kind of scooted 50 ft away and laid down in a pot hole. I poled for a better angle and drifted towards the pothole. Got a couple casts into the pothole but no bites. Once we got closer it spooked out and left the flat. Drifted a little more but most of the activity was behind us and we were coming up on the last cut out of the spoil banks for a while. Decided to call it a day since I could tell the wife was tired. Ran back across the bay, loaded the panga up on the trailer and went to Harlingen to see some family. Trailered home on Thursday with no issues.

TLDR - No fish on the fly, but got to put some friends and family on fish and spent a bunch of time on the water in the skiff.


Side note There was a pristine 13' dargel scooter tied up at the condos we stayed at. I'm sure it poles like a steaming pile of it, but that used to be my dream boat. Now I'm jonesing for a small scooter that I really don't need to add to the fleet.

Awesome report. That was a tough week wind-wise. This week has been better, but it allows for some thunderstorms I'm not enjoying as we defoliate cotton.



This carrier, The USS Independence, was surveyed by an Ag from Harlingen whose probably not far from your age. He goes and surveys projects for that outfit and then if they're successful winning the bid he oversees the tow to browntown. The carrier came from a port in Washington state and was towed by a seagoing tugboat that left Wash., around the Horn, and up to Brownsville. Somewhere along the way the tug lost one of its engines and slowed the tow. Later, somewhere in the Gulf it turned the tow over to a smaller tug so it could go to LA and get repaired. It made the whole trip without refueling. The anchor up on the bow of the carrier was rigged with explosives to deploy it in case anything happened on the tow.

Brownsville Herald article about the arrival of the Independence

Great report! FYI....there are no porpoise in the Gulf of Mexico. Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins.

CP - yeah it blew all week... Get back to Houston and then... glass in the Gulf. Oh well.
That's neat about the Chouest tug, I hadn't heard that part of the story.


Tursiops - thanks for info. I used to refer to them as dolphins as a kid and then was taught to call them porpoises offshore fishing to limit the confusion with dolphin fish (mahi-mahi).

Spent a week in Holbox.

Day one we messed with big tarpon and didn't get bit. Had two bites and jumps on babies.

Day two I can't recall well so it must've sucked.

Day three we went to the Cays toward Isla Blanca and my buddy caught a permit and bone before 10am. I caught a good bone...my first on a fly...and then we rushed off to see about getting him a tarpon. He had two tarpon on but couldn't boat them to finish the slam. We got caught in a rain storm on the way back so we waited it out in the old lighthouse at Cabo Catoche. Epic day.

Day four my stepson caught two bones and I caught one. His first bones and he's got the fly sickness bad.
Bonefish release

Day five the ocean was slick and the big fish were easy to see. I hooked up on my first cast of the day at like 645am and 35 minutes later had my career record boatside...on a fly I tied. It laid there for a minute, took a good breath, and broke the leader at the fly. I'd have liked to taken some better pics, but that fish whipped my ass and I was glad to be shod of it. Guide said 150.

I then sat and drank while another buddy threw jigs at them. He had five bites and jumped three. One of them produced a series of jumps that you can hear me say on the video, "that's a crazy sum*****." They all came unbuttoned.

Then we went to the babies and I had a leader cut and my buddy jumped five and caught two on bonefish jigs.

Day six was tough. We went out for big fish and saw none. Ocean had a little rip on it and those little whitecaps just make it hard when there aren't gobs of fish. Then, the babies skunked us, too. On the way home, though, we did some jig drifts for snappers in like 8' of water and took home eight fish 1 to probably 4 pounds. Ate them the next day.

The last day I blew my easy shot at a permit and I'm still pissed. It's in easy range coming toward me, slightly right to left. Wind behind me. Like a f'ing movie.

It's right on top of a ray and he's tailing here and there on whatever the ray spooks. He's gonna eat. I make a great cast, but the line slips out of my left hand as I shoot. It sort of wraps on the rod and while I'm sorting it to strip the fish picks up the fly and spits it out. A decent bonefish then picks it up as I strip it away from the permit and the permit spooks.

I had a couple other shots at permit, but they were cruisers and that's just a little above my skill level at this point. Plus, those 7 meter pangas have a pretty good early warning system. If a permit wasn't eating on a ray, it was generally moving well away from us.

We caught a lot of other little crap....jacks, blue runner, needles, barracuda, etc.

Best fishing trip of my life so far. The pics and video are on Holbox Tarpon Fishing on Facebook.
Buddy's jig tarpon jumps

Great report.

Congrats on the big poon! Was most of the poon fishing sightcast or dredging flies on intermediate or sinking line? Heard the holbox fish hold deep pretty often.

I was commiserating with a friend on the skiff yesterday. We'd both recently blown shots at big trout because we got the yips, shakes, fumble fingers, or whatever you call it when you get excited and screw up a shot. I feel like permit do that to even the best of anglers.

What were your impressions of holbox? I've heard it's very walkable with a decent variety in eateries? Enough other stuff to do to take a group if some people don't fish?

On the big fish it is casting Rio Leviathan 600 grain sinking line in the line of travel of the rollers. I saw this fish flash when it ate because it ate close and the water was flat calm. Usually, though, it is not sight casting in the clear water, Key West sense. You can use 8 feet of 125 pound Ande for a leader if you want and the flies are 6/0 monsters of flash and bright colors. That tells you a lot about water clarity.

On the babies it is real sight casting. The water in a lot of the mangrove areas near the Cape is super clear. In the lagoon between Holbox and Chiquila it is not and it's casting to rollers. On the permit and bones it's clear water, but that's about a 90 minute run from Holbox.

Holbox has changed a lot since we started going there. It's a terrific little town with a main square that's pretty busy every night with everyone walking around and golf cart taxis running people up and down to the beach hotels on the northeast side. Food is good at Mawimbi and a couple of other places.

The beach is a slow slope for a long, long ways and the water looks like Florida west coast water. Not near as pretty as Playa or Tulum. It's not blue like that. The main attractions are whale sharks, beach type recreation, fishing, and kite surfing. There are little tours for snorkeling and visiting a spring to swim in and a couple of islands.

Since the island lays SW-NE, the sun sets NW off the beach back towards Texas and it's beautiful. My wife loves Akumal. But Punta Allen and Holbox are both 3 hours from there and it's gotten too crowded. So, Holbox is our compromise for beach/kids stuff and fishing.

However, if it rains a lot, Holbox is awful. Sandfleas and mosquitoes are always tough there. The streets don't drain in heavy rains and it's just a mess. After storms the beach can get very silty because the sand is so fine and that's a mess as well. It ain't perfect for sure. I have four kids so we always stay where there's a pool. In Holbox that is pricey.

Other than that, the fishing is good. The babies are becoming a little better educated, but are still gullible enough to be lots of fun.

A brief visual report of my tarpon trip to the FL Panhandle last week...

https://instagr.am/p/BWnBGXggtAJ

Daggum tarpon. Did they at least have the courtesy to give you a rain check?

Fished Thur-Sat.

Thursday was the only day with decent conditions and I had a bunch of shots. A few follows and some downright refusals but I did get 2 to eat.

However, I was so jacked up I fouled up the set. I can't really say I trout-set because I don't trout fish. Call it my vestigial bass fisherman hookset and I did a Bill Dance impersonation. The rest of the time it rained.

Finn Maccumhail said:

---

Fished Thur-Sat.

Thursday was the only day with decent conditions and I had a bunch of shots. A few follows and some downright refusals but I did get 2 to eat.

However, I was so jacked up I fouled up the set. I can't really say I trout-set because I don't trout fish. Call it my vestigial bass fisherman hookset and I did a Bill Dance impersonation. The rest of the time it rained.

---

Sounds like me fail trip. Especially the set part.

Checking-in for the vestigial bass fishermen hookset group therapy. I don't bass set if I see the fish before I cast, but the surprise bites get me.

Has anyone fished with Marcus Haralson out of CC? I'm thinking about booking a trip with him in late August.

Do any of y'all have a favorite fly for belly crawling redfish (backs out of the water)? My go-to redfish fly (olive and tan crack) got straight up snubbed by a belly crawling fish yesterday. Scenario below:

Shot 1 Fish is moving from 12 to 11. I cast to 9 or 10 o'clock and bring the fly across his field of vision about 12-18 inches in front of him. No response.

Shot 2 Fish is moving straight towards the bow from 11. I laid it in his path, he eased up towards it, and I tried to make jump like a shrimp maybe 6 inches from his mouth with a quick little strip. He turns to his left and gives it the side eye but doesn't make a move.

Shot 3 Fish is now moving perpendicular to the boat from left to right. I drop it on his nose and he blows out.


The fly got inhaled by a similar sized laid up red a couple hours later so I don't think there was an issue with the way it was tied.

I'm thinking a crab fly that I could drag slowly along the bottom may have been the ticket but I don't have a crab pattern that will land quiet enough in that skinny of water.

I know they're spooky in shallow water but this fish was just easing along and didn't have any darting or sporadic movements that spooked fish usually make.

KBo and I destroyed a few belly crawlers with the S.S. Flies camo crab a few months ago. The fish didn't even think twice. I also like using *gasp* spoon flies for super skinny fish.

Saltydog - T&P for your pocketbook. Did you ever end up picking up an outfit?

Rick - thanks for the rec. Is that a spun deerhair body? Sounds like they had to weight it to get it to sink.

Not yet I'm still trying to decide. I was thinking of maybe the Orvis Clearwater since it's under they're warranty vs the cheaper outfit.