As some of you may know from my b'day thread, last week I was fortunate enough to escape the deep freeze for a while and take a cruise to the Caribbean with my family..Our ship sailed on Sunday morning, but we arrived in Fla. Friday afternoon.. giving us a day to spend in Miami.. I of course took the opportunity to squeeze in a little fishing
I had read good things about the winter Tarpon fishing around Miami.. which is a fish I've always wanted to tangle with.. so a bit of further internet scouting put me in contact with Capt. Gil Gutierrez of Lucky charters.. who offered 4 hour evening trips out of north Miami Beach.. After a fantastic day of taking in the sights of South Beach
with my niece and her boyfriend, We headed north for my meeting with Capt Gil. As the weather called for possibly some showers and t-storms, my tender-stomached brethren bailed on joining me..
So after ejecting the lubbers from the rental car, I met Capt. Gil about 5pm and boarded his amazing boat, the Lucky Vee..Holy crap.. What a machine!
a 32ft Sea Vee powered by a single 425 hp Cummins..totally loaded fish killer.. anyway.. we headed out of the TNT marina under some threatening skies.. but it just felt warm and fishy to me.. Now I'm not overly superstitious, but some signs are just to obvious to dismiss.. so I couldn't help but feel good about our chances after being greeted by this double rainbow while crossing Biscayne Bay.. I swear I could hear Judy Garland singin...
Shortly after, as we idled through a no-wake zone we got a visit from this guy.. who obviously thought the live bait well on the Vee was his personal sushi bar.. as he tried to peck his way though the clear lid.. strange bird is the Pelican...
After crossing the bay and getting out of the inlet amid some brief showers, we cruised down along the beach to the fishing grounds.. as the sun was setting we tossed live baits to some mouth-watering rock structure.. but got no takers.. however, the view and pure joy of casting once again in short sleeves, somewhat made up for a lack of action..
After the sun set, we set up to drift live shrimp along the beachfront.. If not for the hi-rises I may have thought I was back Fluking off the Hook.. After about an hour or so, we had only caught a few snappers, and sundry small fishes.. when we finally got the bite we where looking for..
the initial bite fooled me a bit, as the fish ate, and moved toward the boat.. making me think for a sec that it may be another little guy.. but I reeled hard, and when the circle hook came tight, it was on.. majorly..
Hard to describe the sensations of this 1st Tarpon.. the fish ran.. the reel shrieked.. there was sounds of jumping out in the dark.. for a while I just help on.. Capt. Gil was masterfully keeping the boat in position, while getting video snippets of the fight with my cell phone.. the whole scene was made almost surreal by the backdrop of a fully lit-up Miami.. After many runs, jumps and revolutions around the boat, we finally got the fish.. a healthy 50lber or so, boatside.. After a couple final still pics, Capt. Gil grabbed the leader, popped the fish loose and we watched him swim away..
That was to be the only Tarpon of the night... we had one other bite that I kinda screwed the pooch on, that we believe was another.. but I was indecisive on the reel and never got tight.. But that first one will be burned in a long time.. and I will surely be back for more!
Well.. thanks for lasting through this endless post and allowing me to share this..I'll post the Videos in a separate thread:
http://njsaltwaterfisherman.com/forums/index.php?topic=33660.0Thanks again to Capt Gil.. If any of my friends where to find themselves in Miami, and where looking to get onto a fish of a lifetime, I would certainly recommend they give Gil a call!
http://www.luckyfishingcharters.com/about_lucky_fishing_charters.htm
