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| 6' long Tarpon just swimming around the boat landings. Hooking one of these babies on a small boat is called the, 'Florida sleigh ride'. |
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| World Wide Sports, Pro Bass shop on Islamorada. Just about everything you need. |
Two weeks holiday touring Florida was very frustrating for me being a fisherman. everywhere we went it seemed there was no time, the guided fishing price was too expensive such as in the Keys at $750 a day, I had the wrong gear/bait, or I was with the wife!
In Florida fishing seems to be the local pastime and everyone is doing it. I managed to persuade my wife to come party boat fishing with me but it was not the best fishing day and for the most we caught a few yellow tail reef fish although there was a Barracuda and a shark caught by some anglers using the yellow tails as live bait.
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| Yellow fin reef fish. |
I eventually bit the bullet and paid to do some sport fishing around Naples on the Florida West cost. I was taken Back water fishing around the everglades with a guide using live wapping great shrimp as bait. Not being the most accurate of casters with an open faced reel led to a lot of tangles with mangroves and way off casts. Eventually after more missed takes than I care to remember I managed to hook this beast. It put up one hell of a fight and the light wait tackle we were using made the adrenaline rush even more potent. The dock behind me in the picture would have been the fishes refuge if it wasn't for the captain screaming at me, "get it out", over and over.
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An average size Snook.
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