# My solo kayak trip part two



## Chris V

*Day Three*

I left Big Pine Fishing Lodge this morning and moved further up in the chain, back to Marathon where I'm more familiar with the area. I kinda said screw Bonefish and went where I knew Id have better luck with Tarpon and Snook.

I checked into Curry Hammock State Park around 10:30. This is a super nice place to camp or just visit for the day if you're in the area. It has a nice launch and the surrounding area offers a ton of different opportunity for a kayak angler.

I hit the water around 11:30 and paddled straight to a spot where I knew some of my "buddies" would be hanging out. When I got there, there were a half dozen 12-15lb poons rolling and popping small baitfish. I didn't have any matching baits, but if you free line a live shrimp past a young poon's nose enough times, he will eventually eat it. It took a while to get the first hookup, but in two hours I hooked four and landed three. On light gear they were a handful! 

Later on while casting a yo zuri crystal minnow along the mangroves, I got a hookup, but it didn't feel very big. It shook its head and them swam toward me. As it got closer I realized it was a solid 16-18lb Snook who hadn't pieced it together yet. When he did a second later, he ran straight back in the mangroves and wrapped me up. I had 8lb mono and 15lb fluoro on and somehow eventually got him out of there! It took a minute but eventually I got him close and as I grabbed the leader to pull him over, out comes the plug. Ugghhhhh

I hit some other deep mangrove edges and caught some really nice mangrove snapper, but no more Snook. I started heading towards the campsite and took the long route behind the island on purpose. It was beautiful back there and I think I wasn't paying full attention because I ran up on and spooked a massive school of Bonefish! I tried setting back up on them, but the wind and current combined with their fast and erratic movement made it impossible. They eventually disappeared.

I made my way over to a long sandbar just ESE of the park and anchored up for last chumming of the Bones. As you can imagine, I did catch a few Bonnetheads, but nothing like it was further South. I even caught one on the fly rod for the hell of it. By the time the sun went down, I was Boneless yet again

I'm gonna see what conditions are like in the morning and if the allow might try it, but we will see...

*Last report for this excursion*

This last report for my trip is not a yak report, but figured if you yakkers wanted to read it, you may get some info about a couple places that I normally do hit from the yak and are well worth the trip if you ever make it to the Tampa Bay area.

I left the Keys Saturday morning heading north to see family in Tampa and jaw-jack the local marine life. Of course, I stopped in Homestead again to try for more Peacock Bass and was rewarded with one, small one. I them stopped twice on the Tamiami Trail and caught two bass, an Oscar and a very beautiful, healthy, trophy Gar (no sarcasm I promise). Got to Tampa and had dinner with the gang and planned the next day while fantasizing over what a nights sleep on a bed would feel like.

The next day, I met up with my cousin Sean to launch the 16' skiff at the Anclote River Park for a family hangout at Howard Park in Tarpon Springs. Howard Park is one of my favorite places on the West Coast of Florida. The main park is in the mainland and there is a causeway with two small bridges that lead to the beach/island in the park. There is expansive grass flats, channel edges, spoil islands, etc, etc within an easy paddle from the various launching locations. 

We fished both live (mullet/pinfish/pigfish) and artificial (mirrodine 17mr, crystal minnows) in grass beds in 4-8ft of water and had nonstop action with speckled trout. No, these were not monsters, but plenty of them! We had a few triple headers with trout and I caught three specks on consecutive casts with the same mangled pigfish. We did get some bigger trout and even a few keeper mangrove snapper on the artificials. We also caught a few small Bonnetheads. There was a large Bull Shark that showed occasionally but we decided to keep to ourselves. At the end of the day we had a nice little bag of fish.

I had planned on launching last night at the 123rd Ave launch on Treasure Island (just outside Tampa Bay) but if Sean was up to it, we'd take the skiff instead since he doesn't have a kayak yet. We launched around midnight and headed towards Johns Pass. The current is extreme around the pass. On the yak, I always make sure I'm very well lit and cross the channel after paddling East (inland) to give some drift room. The fishing here is outstanding. There are good numbers of Snook, including some very large fish. Trout, Redfish, Mangrove Snapper and others help fill out the main inshore fight card while Tarpon, Grouper, Sharks and HUGE Snook can be taken around the pass and its jetties.

We hit my first spot and were instantly into Trout and Ladyfish, making sure that a couple Ladyfish went into the live well for later. On our second spot, I hit two, very nice Mangrove Snapper on the fly as well as a good number of trout. We hopped a few more lights with similar results although a majority of the trout were just legal or undersized the further inland we went. 

We took a BS drift break and then headed back to the pass. The ladies were thick there and first cast I hooked a huge Ladyfish who threw the plug on the first jump. The significance of this was the plug rocketed at me super fast and I couldn't dodge it's path; I caught it right in the left calf and buried the front hook. I got it to round out and pop free so I could cut it and get back to the "job". Not the highlight for sure...but back to the fishing. 

It seemed a little slow but it soon became obvious that we had some large, Silver residents sharing the pass with us. Being the Tarpon junkie I am, the works stopped and I rerigged my heavier rods. We got anchored upcurrent and deployed two live ladyfish. Live Ladyfish are prime baits for FL west coast Tarpon and Snook around passes and docks. Big Grouper that live in the deeper channels will eat them too. After a few minutes I had a take on the big ladyfish. I fed the pass monster for about twenty seconds before coming tight! It was a big fish too, peeling line against heavy drag. Unfortunately, the hooks pulled and I'll never know if it was one of the Tarpon or a giant Snook. We went without a bite for a while so we went to check our known Snook haunts now that the current was moving. 

First spot was nerve racking. My blood pressure went through the roof with 50+ Snook milling around the dock with some big ones too. Light gear went away, heavy guns came out. If you've never caught a big Snook around a dock, let me assure you, he is not merely a bigger trout. They are fast and very powerful and a mangrove or piling bound Snook cannot be stopped on modest gear. I threw a Daiwa Jerk plug ahead of the light on 50# braid and got slammed. I had the fish turned at first but he charged forward enough to get slack and turn his head and back in the dock he went. I eased off and took when I could and gave when needed and eventually worked the big Snook off of the pilings to my open hands. This fish was in the 32-34inch range and released himself while trying to measure. All was good since they are out of season and was to be released anyway. 

We continued bombing lures at the spot. Different sizes, colors, etc. but the Snook had grown wise. There was one in particular that was obviously the head honcho. This fish was pushing 35-40lbs and is probably the best lure salesman in the area if you know what I mean. After all was said and done, Sean and I had thrown pretty much everything but not _everything_. I did something ballsy and grabbed my 8WT. I threw a few patterns with no result. Fourth pick was a kinky muddler in an olive flash with a whitish/smoke belly. The snook chased it a couple times, but no takers until the sixth cast. The snook cleared to the inside of the dock with the bait, leaving my fly complete isolated. You know where this is going. Big boy came up behind it slow and then shot forward destroying the small fly. I pointed straight at the monster and did two hard strip-strikes and stuff got real quick! "HOLY (insert expletive) SEAN!" "I GOT THE BIG ONE!!!" The fish shook its head a few times out of the water and the dive for the dock but stopped short and turned away from the dock. This was a huge mistake on his part. If I could keep him clear, Id play him out in open water and Id be in good shape. I see-sawed back and forth for a minute before he took off for the dock again. This time he knew his goal and as I palmed the spool, the tippet shredded. You'd think we landed him with the celebration we had. I was more proud of hooking up on that caliber of a Snook around such insane structure and current and controlling him for so long than landing the other Snook.

We were awake at this point for 28 hours and on fumes. There was no better conclusion to my road trip than that big, bad ass fish eating my fly so it was time to call it.

Heres a few pics. I should've taken more but just didn't. I was too laid back for all of that!


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## JD7.62

Awesome man, just awesome. That peacock would have looked fantastic in my tank!


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## Ivarie

We fished the keys back in June and got screwed on the weather as well. Most days we fished in the rain, but still managed to see the big three and have shots at bones and Tarpon. Tarpon were cruising ocean side flats all day around Duck Key. Frustrating to see them in the hundreds and have them ignore everything but a giant live mullet i managed to cast net. I also hooked one on a scrounger jig that promptly tossed the lure. We spent most of our time anchored on the channels amusing our selves with yellow tails, grunts, jacks and grouper (all juvenile fish) on light tackle while we took our shots at the tarpon that came by.

Our two trips to Big Torch kept us hiding under Mangroves to escape the storms that would blow through. The shool of reds I was stalking also was stalked by a BIG lemon. When I cast at the school, the Lemon went into berserker mode out of the channel and spooked that school of reds and I never found them again. But we were fishing in heavy winds so it was tough to see them anyhow.

For anyone wanting to target Permit and Tarpon, the flats around Hawks Cay/Duck Key are just about unbeatable in June. Easy access from put ins at the bridge. You can either bridge fish with mullet/crabs or go to the flats and toss lures and flies at them.


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## Bodupp

Great report, Chris.


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## PBTH

Nice report! Too bad about the weather. The weather has been weird all summer down there. Sounds like you made the most of it. There is nothing that makes me angrier than losing a bonefish to a lemon shark or cuda. Well, maybe if I had one eat a permit...


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## Kim

That was a great read.


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## COALTRAIN

Getting ready to move now. Gotta get with your brother down there. Hell learned alot from the read. Sad to leave pcola fishing but ready for something new. Tampa bound 10-21-13.


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## Chris V

Coaltrain. I may be down there the last week of October. If I am, I'll send you a PM and maybe we can meet up and fish.


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## COALTRAIN

Sounds good.


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## Shane Lewis

Great post.


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## Gafjry

That was a great read.


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## THE Bull Gator

Awesome story. One of my friends and I are going down to Largo to visit one of our buddies. We're going fishing and were planning on going to the inlets and jetties. We'll be fishing from the jetties. Are there any tips you could give us? I'd greatly appreciate it as I've never caught a snook before and desperately want to.


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