Updated July 2008

2008 Review

MAY WAS IT'S USUAL WINDY DAYS, BUT NOT AS BAD AS LAST YEAR. FISH WERE REALLY THICK AND BITE WELL. COURTNEY FISHED WITH CENTURY TEAM AND THEY DID WELL LANDING A 118 EARLY IN THE TOURNAMENT AND WERE 1ST PLACE FOR QUITE A WHILE BUT LATER THE BIGGER TARPON MOVED IN. MY TOURNAMENT STARTED THE NEXT DAY
AND I HAD 2 TARPON TO THE BOAT AND THE 2ND ONE, A 130 LB, WAS DURING THE LAST 20 MINITES. WE WEIGHTED IT AND GOT 3RD. THE FOLLOWING WEEK WE CAUGHT AND RELEASE 6 WHICH PUT US IN FIRST PLACE FOR THE YEAR. THEN ALTHOUGH WE CAUGHT FISH NONE VERY BIG AND FINISHED 3RD OVERALL, AGAIN JUST MISSING OUT ON THE ALL EXPENSE PAID TRIP TO COSTA RICA FOR THE WHOLE TEAM, BUT WE WERE ONLY INCHED OUT BY 22 POINTS AND THAT WAS AFTER THEY RECALUCATED THE 3RD PLACE TEAMS POINTS. THEY HAD INITIALLY TOLD US WE HAD WON IT.....LIFE'S TUFF....HA HA. OUTSIDE OF TOURNAMENTS IT WAS GOOD. ONE MORNING DURING THE FULL MOON WE BROUGHT TO THE BOAT TARPON OF 180, 190 AND 210 LBS {EST WEIGHTS}. SO ENDS ANOTHER GREAT YEAR!!!!! CHECK OUT SUN CHANNEL JULY 3RD AND LATER, THURSDAY THRU SUNDAY FOR ALL THE ACTION AND ALSO ON OUTDOOR CHANNEL FOR THE FIRST TOURNAMENT "TARPON AT BOCA". RUMORS ARE FLOATING AROUND ABOUT MORE EXPOSURE FOR TOURNAMENTS NEXT YEAR ?????? THAT'S ALL WE NEED MORE PEOPLE COMING TO BOCA TO FISH....NOT

 

 

 

 

 

2007 Review

Great tournament season fishing for the Century/Yahama team, Reel Adventures.....we had a good year and you can see our wins on Sun Channel or fishing network on your T.V. Already looking forward to next year. May was terrible as far as weather went. End of June got rough. The 3 weeks in between was fun. Going back in July last year the fish came back in and they had fun with very few fishing.

2006 Review

The tarpon came in early about mid April, but I was not able to get over till May 2....Fished Alaskan Hunting guide Dick Gunlogson the 3rd and got on some nice tarpon but the next day the winds blew the fish out to sea. (Dick is the outfitter who I hunted with and where I got my Big Brown bear). Had to cancel some dates but the tarpon came back 3 or 4 days later. We got into them again and my fisherman told me that if we hooked anymore I'd have to bring them in...so I did.... it was fun being the reeler rather than the driver.
We again signed up to fish the Professional Tarpon Tournaments with a small change. I was going to turn the wheel over to my oldest son Jack and I'd get to drop a line. So for the 10th thru the 14th, I showed him the holes, how to find them, about the tides and how the tarpon reacted, etc, etc.....Then My good friends Ronny Bledsoe and Jim McNab and their wives came over and we fished some very rough seas but the fish were really biting. As soon as your jig hit the bottom you had a bite!! So it was a race to the bottom. Richard and Wayne Hansard, brothers, came over and played with the tarpon.
The following week Dave and Kathy Irwin came down from New York and caught tarpon. Memorial weekend brought friends and family plus 2 tournaments on Sunday. At Midpoint we were in the middle of the pack. Clay Vincent and Robbie Robertson fished with good results. The weather continued to be perfect. Blue water fairly calm winds and biting fish. Alberto came and washed out tournament #5 and about a weeks worth of fishing. We had moved into 15th place in the tournaments and the chances were good we'd be in the Championship June 18th.
Kim and Pat Rocky came at the tail end of the bad weather and we were able to get in alittle fishing before they had to leave. My season is not quite over yet but I'm taking a day off after a grueling 2 days of tournaments. So I thought I'd go ahead and write my season summary. I'm not sure how we finally finished as far as our position goes in the tournaments but I know we didn't win.... probably 8th or 9th in the championship, we would have been 4th if we would have weighted our 2nd fish but we felt we could do better. We couldn't the fish just shut down and woudn't bite......what ever we had fun and had some exciting times...Overall it was one of the best years as far as weather, pretty water, lack of sharks, and peace among the 2 different fishing camps. I have my good friend and frat bro. Cliff Newton coming next week and I'm sure we'll have fun we might even fish....

 

2005 Review

The fish came into the pass in good numbers May 5th. They came in biting and they were big. One of my first days fishing we had 2 both over 200 pounds, one I'd estimate at 215....WOW. The water was a beautiful blue and fairly calm...We'd average 8 to 10 Tarpon on a 6 hour fishing period. Many of them 180 plus...The fish are getting bigger and they come to Boca Grande Pass to eat and get fat (as well as my Family, the food on the island is 2nd to no where else ).
The water was so clear we had to keep a short leader just enough to get past the mouth because that 100 pound test leader would slow down the number of bites. This year I entered the Tarpon tournaments again with the Professional Tarpon Tournaments on Sunshine Channel. They were wonderful. The hosts Joe Mericuro does a great job. I included my whole family in the events. We had a lot of fish on as well as a lot of sharks wanting our tarpon which made gaffing a lot harder, a couple of fish I wanted to take to the scale were taken by the sharks. Even with our terrible luck we made the Jim Beam Tarpon Cup finals and finished 10th overall out of 50 boats. Not bad for our first year. I have about 30 excuses why we didn't win but so did 49 other boats.....The big school of tarpon left the pass June 21st. There remained a couple of hundred or so. I wish we could arrange it so that when the tarpon leave so do the anglers...It got crowded from then on, too many fisherman for the few fish, not a pretty sight.....But for the earlier 6 weeks there was NO PROBLEM and everyone had room and plenty of fish. The red tide returned some time around then and that was probably the reason the fish left early???? Looking for to 2006.

 

2004 Review

Great season. It started a little later than normal, to be exact May 17th, but better later than never! When the water warmed and winds laid down they came in, and they came in biting! I had to reschedule a lot of my anglers and some had to wait till 2005. The water was crystal clear, which made it a little harder to fool them, but for beautiful it was worth it. Some morning we were getting 12 to 14 tarpon hooked. A slow day would be 6 or 8. An exciting experience. This year was complicated with my oldest son, Jack, wedding to the beautiful and gracious Kelly. It was in Boca and 4 or 5 days on each side of the wedding I took out wedding party members. Then in mid-June I was honored to have tied for the Boone and Crocket #1 Brown Bear award at their 25th award banquet in Kansas City. What an experience that was seeing the greatest trophies taken in the 21st century, including 7 new world records!! But back to fishing. Made it back to Boca for the new moon and the crab run...That's about the best way to describe it...thousands of dollar size crabs make a mad dash for the deep waters of the Gulf and if your at the right place thousands of tarpon are there awaiting that afternoon out going tide and it gets frantic!!! It was as good as I've ever seen it....all you had to do was pick up a drifting crab put it on a hook and put it back in the water and shazam you had a tarpon on....I don't know what else to say everyday was good, a very consistent bite thru out. On the last day we were there I took my daughter out at 7:00am and we had 3 tarpon, 130 pounds to 55 pounds released and we were back to the condo before 9:00am for breakfast....looking forward to next year. The FWC will have some new rules for fishing next year so I am already thinking up the best way to incorporate that into my plans. I will be fishing the tournaments next year. We are organizing our team now. No, just because Hooters is one of the sponsors is not the reason!

 

2003 Review

Bad Red Tide. Bad Shark problem. Not enought Tarpon...keep posted for next
years report....

 

 

2002 Reviews

May 2 thru May 8

Don Hawkins was my first fisherman of the season, he sometimes comes alone as he did this time. He's a great fisherman and did very well again. As the locals reported to us our first day out, the fish bite hard the day before we came and slowed down for two of our first days. But we managed to land tarpon each day, but not the number of hooks ups we had done in the past.Our final two days produced a normal fishing day of 4 to 5 on in a 6 hour period.
Things changed when John and Trish Wilson arrived May 6 thru 8. The fish really turned on as well as the big ones. They were joined by their friends R.G. and Hildurt Harris. As usually Hilburts first fish was about a 175 180 pound giant. Everyone had large numbers of fish on, the best day we had 16 on and in the air...This was their first trip to Boca Grande, but John wants to come next year and fish a tournament with me....I'd like to find Hilburt's fish if we do fish next year....the weather is beautiful, the water is calm and blue with the water temp in the low 80s....really Boca Grande days...

 

May 13-17

Tom Lewis and Bill Lefler booked me the first 3 days of the week. Day 1: fished 3 periods hooking about 14 for the day. Day 2: we had serveral on until Bill hooked and brought to the boat a 175 pounder that took serveral hours to land. He had to leave early and Tom and I went out in the afternoon and jumped three. Day 3: Cold front came though with 18-22 mph winds and seas 6 to7 feet and we jumped two and came in.

Thursday under much improved conditions Ron and Paul Schauer fished and had about 7 or 8 tarpon on in the morning. The next shift was Marlys and Kelly Schauer but were not successful. Friday we started out with a bang and had 2 in the air in 20 minutes. Then I thought I could stop 2 boats from colliding and got my hand caught in the middle - I couldn't and now have a bone in my finger broken in several places but we are still fishing the tournament Saturday.

 

May 19-25th

David and Kathy Irwin fished the whole week. The fish were biting really good all week even thought the winds were 15 to 20 just about every day. The only day we didn't fish was Wesday, but other than that we caught fish every day, the last two days we got 6 out of 6 to the boat, usually we "land" one out of 4 on the hook....again the biggest was the 180 mark....had a lot of good jumpers and as always the Irwins are good fisherpersons and good fun!!!!
The current world record Jr. angler ( my son Drew) brought two friends from school and we made it 7 for 7 inc the Irwins....late Sat afternoon, Drews friend Jay got his first big fish which was followed by his friend Kelly with one the next morning, we went 1 for 4 Sunday.....Memorial day weekend I reserve for family....Drew has another month before he is too old to fish the Jr division so we're trying to beat his 162 record...with all the 180's we've been catching it's very possible.

May 28 -June 1

The first of the week I had surgery to put a pin in my finger for an accident I had 10 days earlier..things went well but i lost 2 days and the ability to tie binini knots without help. My good friend David Damore, his son and friend managed to hook at least 4 tarpon per day under slow fishing conditions for the balance of the week. The weather is perfect, can't understand why the fish have slowed down on the bite??? Looking for
more action next week, I plan to try the hand again as well???? Wish me luck!

 

June 3 - 9

The Mega Tournament was cancelled for Sunday and Monday. I fished a "wallyball" friend of mine, Stacy Gill and two friends. He brought a 135 lb. to the boat. Attourney Larry Strout fished the 5th and we had one fish on and I fourght it for about 10 minutes. The water was so clear that the fish were hard to fool. The 6th I fished with Rodney and David, two guide friends of mine from Tarpon Springs. I tired their 24 foot Avenger to see if I liked it. I did and I will order one for next year. Alot more room and very stable. We got 3 tarpon to the boat in 3 hours. That was fun. Another good friend Treasa and Horace Smith and children Hunter and Ruddy fished Friday. As usual Horace brings a big one to the boat, about 185 pounds. Saturday and Sunday Jack my oldest son and his girl friend Kelly & David Galloway fished. We had many on but only one to the boat (spit the hook 10 feet from the bow).

June 10 - 14

Had reserved the first three days, to take Drew my son, the jr angler world record tarpon holder at 162 pounds. He was going to graduate to the adult division mid-july so we were trying to beat the 162 pound
mark....Sunday we went out to warm up and a friend of mine yelled over that a 13 year old boy in St. Pete had caught a 223 pound tarpon a couple days earlier....that killed our trip, I think he felt it was out of reach at that point. Thursday and Friday friends Becky and Kevin brought two friends Charles and Shelia to fish with them. We had 3 or 4 on each day only Charles was able to get a nice one to the boat. Fri the weather turned bad about 10:30 so it cut our day short. Becky and Kelvin are coming back next week after I get my pin
out of my finger...finally I hope the doctor will let me drop a line after that, another line in the water will help with the number of hook ups, plus I like to feel the tarpon bite and head towards the surface then pass off the rod.

 

June 16 - 22

The storm that rolled in june 14th kept the tarpon in deep water till june 20th....then they drilbbled in...other than the folks from Col., John Ray, his father and friend Johnnie who never hooked anything during there three days where the tarpon took off , we're still 100% on hook ups for everyone for the season....going into my last week and Jay walker and friend went one for one today, with a nice 115 pound one.....

 

June 23-30th

Jay and his friend finished the other two days with several tarpon on per day and better weather each day and more tarpon coming back in the pass each day. Rev Bobby Welsh and his Son, Matt and Daughter in law, Jennifer finished my season with a bang! The fish really came back strong and they were the big ones...the first afternoon Bobby brought two to the boat before the storm, one 170 the other 185 (est sizes.). The next day two more but they weren't as big as well as the next day. I was able to help hooking the fish as my finger was improving. Then Matt and Jennifer took over. Matt got a small 65 pounder to the boat. Jennifer with the help of Matt (she's several months with child) brought my biggest one of the season to the boat, one about 190. I had a tarpon tag left and this was the last day it was valid so I used it to get a good photo of the big fish. It will appear in my photo section soon...we released the tarpon unharmed.

 

 

2001 Reviews

May 1-12

Unseasonable cold weather and colder water plus winds 15 - 20 mph have kept the fishing sub par - but forecast calls for better weather & so will the fishing follow. We've only been skunked one day so far. Larry Boucher from L.A. California got some nice 140 - 150 pounders but still not the number of hook ups I'd like. During the tournament on May 12th Larry hooked up with a small 60 pounder & had it to the boat in record time, plus a 110 pounder was our take for the 3 hour tournament - out of the money.

May 13 - 15

I fished the Olsens from Seattle Washington. Water temp was 72-73 degrees but the winds had died down. They all caught tarpon but only had 2-4 on per day. Still sub par.

May 16 - 19

Pete Entrooth, son and grandson, friend Donnie & others had 8 -10 fish on per day. Water temp now in mid 70s.

May 20-26

David & Kathy Irwin from N.Y. state fishing all week. Water temp in high 70's & fishing greatly improved. Kathy seemed to have the touch & hooked more tarpon that David did but many fish were hooked and brought to the boat.

May 27 - 29

The Michels from Oregon & his brother Dale & Barb his wife. Water temp 80 degrees and fishing productive. 6-8 hook ups per day.

May 30th

Fished the Fox Hollow group from Tampa. Tom, Howard & Kevin fished as good as it's ever been in Boca Grande & jigs are still the King. Brought a 180 plus to the boat and had 9 others in the air.

To conclude May, Dr. Jeff & Penny Parks fishing was great 8 -10 hooked a day. Half were 140 lbs or greater, 2 were in the 180 - 200lbs area. Fishing in May got better as the water warmed - Fish were bigger in 2001 than 2000 and much better bite.

June 1 - 17

June started with the fish biting like crazy! Jack my oldest son and I went to the pass sunday for a couple of hours and hooked and boated 2 out of 3 tarpon the first two hours before the weekenders came and started fishing. Bill and Carol Teppe fished and caught and landed tarpon up to 180 pounds for the next 4 days. Carol as in most cases caught more fish than Bill. Then Ted Zetner from Flagler came and we had a slow day had one fish on and we boated a 85 pounder. Then the biting really stared. Becky and Kevin Vrzina from Osteen came for two days and had 8 to 10 per day getting 4 to the boat each day. When I didn't think it could get any better, David Damore and his son Ryan came and we boated 8 out of 12 on the hook. Wow! Then the next day added a 200 pounder with another 3 to the boat. The big one took about 1 and a half hours to get on her side. They fished the tournament and we hooked a 180 plus one in the last two min. When it spit the hook we were all deflated!!!! a 153 pounder won! Oh well there's always next week. The water temp has a lot to do with the good fishing. mid 80's fishing so far for June is as good as it's ever been!!!

June 17 - 30

Don Hawkins came and fished tree days. We caught many fish and during that week's tournament Don jumped a 140 pounder in the boat the first 5 min. When we finally got the fish out we spent 30 min getting the slim and scales out. We did get two releases and lost another one. The fish that jumped in the boat would have caputured 2nd place but when they jump in a boat they are disqualified. The next week two fellows from Central Fla. Gary and Paul fished for 3 days and the tournament the fishing slowed down and 2 a day is all we could muster and during the tournament nothing...first time I've been skunked as far as fish on. They were good anglers but the fish just shut down. The next tournament is the last one and it's the Mega Tournament and I'll be getting ready for that one. It will be the 8 and 9th.