Tarpon season is upon us!

June is just days away and with that comes the feeling of Tarpon in the air. The morning air is thick and humid and the ocean is a sheet of glass. It's the one time of year that really gets me jazzed to fish. After four or five days in a row guiding if the Tarpon are around you'll still find me getting up to fish on my days off. Whether it's with my wife Amy or my dad you will usually find me out looking for the Silver King. Today even though we didn't catch a Tarpon we did see what I consider my first migrating school of Tarpon moving up the beach. After looking for another hour or so to no avail I decided to go Permit fishing and hit the jackpot of silver. I pulled up to the spot to see black sickle tails protruding above the glassy surface. I called my good bud John Meskauskas who was also on a charter up the beach looking for Tarpon and told him to get here ASAP the Permit are thick. We each hooked quite a few and landed a couple a piece, if we had more Crabs we could have both had a banner Permit day.

Phil Beranato and his 25 pound permit.

For everyone who comes to fish here in the winter and gets blown out. This is what the Ocean looks like in the summer.

Summer is in our sights

Bud Scheie with a nice beach Cobia on fly

We have seen some hints of summer in the past few weeks, and the fishing is showing it. I was training my 3 labs at a ranch west of Stuart this past weekend and the thermometer on my truck read 88 degrees. The ocean has flattened out for us a few times and luckily I had charters scheduled and was able to take advantage of the great conditions. Local resident Bud Scheie has been trying to get out with me to fish the Giant jacks on fly but the conditions in the ocean never cooperated with us. Last week though it all came together and we were able to make it out. The weather was perfect, flat seas, no wind, warm water, and a full tank of gas so we could track the Jacks down. Unfortunately the Jacks had other plans on this day and didn't want to show up and play our game. We covered many miles up and down the beach to no avail, but the fish Gods didn't leave us empty handed they bestowed upon us a couple nice schools of Cobia. Bud made some great casts with his 12 wt rod and was rewarded with a nice cobia on the fly and a great dinner that night. We'll get those jacks next time Bud! On a side note my charter the next day yielded a dozen Giant Jack hookups on fly and we landed probably six of them the biggest being 27 pounds the smallest around 20. My clients that day where Mark Denigris and his buddy Marc Brock from New York. It just goes to show that things can change on the water very fast, for the good or bad. To bad for Bud he was a day early.