Ft. Lauderdale Grand Slam

I always enjoy heading down to Ft. Lauderdale. I booked a trip with the Lunker Dog Jeff Maggio to chase tarpon. Jeff is one of my favorite guides and I had a blast with him on this trip. He got me my first Ft. Lauderdale Slam by landing a tarpon, snook, barracuda and a jack on the same trip. We started off sight casting to feeding snook. I messed up a few casts, but managed a nice one to start off the trip.

We switched tactics to get some tarpon and soon had one on that really tested me. I'm convinced that tarpon are the hardest fighting fish there is. the roughly 75 pound fish took me near my limit (I'm so freaking out of shape) during our 25 minute fight. we got the fish to the boat and took a few pictures before the release. Jeff looked at me and asked "you ready for 10 more" seeing how beat I was. He was joking that there are guides that tend to over-promise the amount of fish you'll land on a half-day trip. Even if you hooked that many, I don'd see how someone has the stamina to reel that many in. 

We went to a different spot and landed a few pup tarpon in the 20 pound range. They were very acrobatic and a blast to fight on light tackle. There were a few small horse eye jacks mixed in as we ended the night. Jeff also invited me to do a podcast with him later that week. you can hear the podcast here.

Snook caught while sight casting.

1st and biggest tarpon of the night.

2nd tarpon of the night. 

Horse Eye Jack

Third tarpon of the night.

Chasing Clowns

Earlier this year Brandon and I had a work trip that took me to Palm Beach County, FL. we were staying close to a lake that I had researched years ago that held Clown Knifefish. They've been on my catch list for some time but I had never targeted them. I booked a guide to shorten the learning curve and went with Captain Skip and he did a great job keeping us on fish.  While we were targeting Clowns, there was plenty of cool by-catch that kept us busy including Largemouth Bass, Peacock Bass and Florida Gar. The peacocks put up a great fight and are a blast to catch.

We booked a half-day trip and didn't hook up with a Clown until the final hour before heading to the dock. I hooked up and when I saw that I had a Clown on, my adrenaline really started pumping. I could see I didn't have it hooked well so I did everything I could to keep it from jumping out of the water. The fish made a few hard runs before tiring out and coming to the net. I was STOKED!! We all high-fived each other and even had a couple of the home-owners cheering us on after getting it in the boat. Catching any new species is great, but one as unique looking as a Clown was extra special.
After our fishing trip we had some time before our flight home so we headed over to Everglades Holiday Park to take an air-boat ride through the everglades and see an alligator show.  I always enjoy air-boat tours and the different wildlife you see. The Alligator show is always entertaining and something I encourage everyone to do if you're touring South Florida.

we started off with a beautiful sunrise and it only got better from here.

One of the many Peacock Bass landed.

Urban fishing at it's finest.

Brandon with his first ever Peacock Bass!!!

Our only double of the trip with a Peacock and Largemouth Bass.

Small Florida Gar.

Reaction to knocking another species off my list!

Clown Knifefish; Such a unique fish!

Alligator we spotted on our air-boat tour though the Everglades.