Lance and Julia Tebay joined me for three days and one night of fishing along the Indian River and Banana River Lagoons this week. Lance is an exceptional fisherman from the Detroit area and has fished with me on several occasion. The first morning we got a late start due to airport delays and didn't hit the water till 10am, which I thought would hurt us. I couldn't have been more wrong. Julia was first up with a nice 45lb. tarpon which engulfed a live finger mullet. As the tarpon slowed down due to the heat we moved off and fished a 2ft grass flat where we caught schoolie trout and ladyfish. The storms began to move in and we headed back to the dock.
The following morning we got an early start and got into some nice snook and trout. The first snook of the day was 12lber which rapped us around numerous dock piling. We opened the bail and hoped for the best as I jumped in for a 7am swim. Fortunately, I got the line unwrapped from three different pilings and managed to beach the fish. We only had 8lb test so we were very lucky to get him in, but it made for a nice picture and a good story. We caught six more snook and a trout then headed for the tarpon. Unfortunately, the tarpon wouldn't take anything, not a fly, a plug, or live bait. We headed back for the snook only this time broke out the fly rod. Lance casted exception with a fly rod, putting the fly with in 3 inches of the mangroves. He was rewarded with three more nice snook.
The following morning we were rained out but decided to head out that night.
We fished the mangroves again and caught more trout than I could keep count of, 4 ladyfish, and one snook. We did see two very large snook that just wouldn't take a bait. One of the shrimp even landed on his head and he just sat there, unbelievable. A couple of the trout were at the 4 lb mark, not to many small ones which was nice. All the fish Lance caught were release after a quick picture.
Today, I fished Jim Chamberlin and his wife Mary from Georgia. Another great morning too. They teamed up for 37 trout to 3lbs, 7 ladyfish, and 1 redfish. This was actually there first time fishing in saltwater.
Anyway, the fish are shallow and live bait is definately the key to catching fish into the later hours of the day. The rain today should help getting those tarpon to bite.

Capt. Mike Badarack
www.controversycharters.com