Gary Meyer | Tuesday, 9 May 2017
Sometimes things just add up and I don’t go fishing. Recently that has been the case. For May in South Florida the weather has been a tad unusual. We had another front push through this past weekend, a rarity that is outside the norm calendar-wise. While it did not get very cold, the humidity dropped and the winds picked up. Unfortunately, they were not from the direction I was hoping for, so I chose to sit the weekend out.
With the traditional beginning of the monsoon season, our official start of summer, usually beginning at the end of the month there essentially might be no Spring. It will probably go from cool and windy right into hot and humid, with a few weeks of downpours in between.
The tarpon addicts I know are not happy. The tarpon migration through the clear saltwater flats of the Florida Keys is a lot of fun, and beginning to crank up, but the backwater Everglades fishery has been a bust so far. It is a distinctly different fishery and preferred by folks I know. The fish are fewer but those that are found are much more likely to eat a fly, and the waters are much less crowded. In the Keys, you may get dozens and sometimes hundreds of shots, but the fish are moving with something other than eating on their mind. You start early and race the other boats to a spot, anchor up, and wait for your shots, hoping that someone doesn’t jump in line ahead of you. Tempers can flare. It is not what I call a laid back experience. Unfortunately, to pull and a big poon it might be necessary this year.
So, instead of fishing I did a bunch of casting and tying flies. I’m feeling it in my forearm tendons today. Might have overdone it on the distance practice. A good friend stopped by and we put in some time. He recently had an extended stay in a western state where recreational marijuana is now legal. My casting suffered.
To sooth the itch I chased Snakeheads after work today. They have been quite obvious in the western canals, commonly swimming along the banks in pairs, blatantly black, with small schools of very immature fry hovering over their fat flat heads. If another single Snakehead or bass wanders too close one of the pair will flare off and challenge the intruder. I should be able to entice one to clobber a popper, but of course, since I have been carrying my phone for the photo I’ve not been able to put it together. This year there has been more large adults than ever. They are not quite as fat as the Giant Snakeheads Paul has been posting but some are approaching 3 feet in length. Ours are a much slimmer fish.
Later this month I’m off to the Smokey Mountains in the SE US for some trout fishing. It has been quite a while since I’ve trout fished. I thoroughly expect to be humiliated by tiny fish but will probably have a great time anyway. Hopefully before that I will have more interesting things to talk about.
I’m not sure why, but last weeks photos did not seem to show up at the end of the fp. They seem to be happily residing on the server so since I don’t have a Snakehead photo I’ll try them again. I guess there is some way to reread last week’s submission? If not, they won’t make much sense.
