8' plus Lemon shark the boat is 8'6" wide and this was longer then the the boat was wide when it came around the back of the boat.

Eating size blacktip came out of the water 4 times completely. It was several feet from the surface at full speed! Blacktips are amazing jumpers. It also came out several times half way or half hearted jumps. I have 50lb durabraid on this spinner. The drag is set to 20lbs with a full spool using a digital scale. He ran off half my 400 yard spool more then once.


Callies biggest lemon shark, was foul hooked as you can see and a real bugger to get in. After 90 minutes we chased it with the boat. That reel she has is 65lb PP with 550 yards! Being foul hooked we could not turn it to get it in. It just bolted and peeled off 100-150 yards at a time. As fast as you could make up the line with the boat chasing it, it would peel off another 100 yards over and over again. This drag was set identical to the other reel 20 pounds with a digital scale.

For the record, she dislocated her shoulder 6 weeks ago and separated the collar bone with me while we were archery bear hunting. I was not sure then if she was going to make this trip effectively. Not only did she manage it. She killed it! Her shoulders were fine enough to catch more fish then I did several of the days we were out.Two keeper snook in one day! 32" and 33" not bad for a chick with a screwed up shoulder!

Outstanding! Looks lke a hell of a fun trip!

Gotta love the Inshore fishing!

Way to go, JR and wife!

I'm working things out to see what's involved in retiring to the keys or at least Naples

So far it's not as bad as I thought. I may be able to manage it. Still details to figure out.

It is the sport fishing Capitol of the world! I could stay there and inshore fish the rest of my life!

Well id reccomend you try it before you totaly buy it. As for
actually living there isnt as great as it would appear.
My dream was to retire in the keys and become a fishing guide.
I did that for 10 years and really enjoyed doing that and living
there. But plan on the wind blowing for weeks at a time, especially during the winter months. But it happens during the rest of the year also. When that happens the water gets churned up all over including the bay side. Also there is really not
much else to do there except drink and fish. Biggest problem for older people especially, is the lack of (quality) medical
care. If your a die hard fisherman, there would be better places to live.

Yo: For a die hard salt water flats fisherman where "would be better places to live" during the winter months? Thanks.

Well alot would depend on what you as an individual consider (flats fishing)to be. If your opinion of it is bonefish and permit, then the keys would be your best bet.
But there are lots of other species that inhabit shallow water
also that could require poling a boat around. Especially if you enjoy catching fish and eating some of the ones you catch.
Most of the good flats in the keys are on the ocean side. When
it blows as it does often during the winter, you wont be fishing those spots. First off bonefish and permit are site
casting fish requiring clean water in order to see them.
Id personaly prefer the Chocoloskee/Marko area for all around
good fishing during the winter months especially. Also the northern end of the Indian river in the Canaveral area offers
excellant shallow water fishing.

those black tips are fine eating,

Great Pics! Looks like you two had a terrific time.

Two thumbs up my man!

Yo: Thanks for the info. I spent a winter fishing the Banana River and Mosquito Lagoon. Not impressed.

Envious. All the water in this region is dry matter at the moment. That's fine though as it will give me time to build spey rod over the holidays.

Merry Christmas.

We will at least have a white one here.

The same thing could be said of most places one might go.
I have a friend who lives and is a flats guide on Duck Key.
His name is John Skidmore who uses the name The Key Limey.
When he retires, his plan is to move to N E florida because he
enjoys the fishing in that area and the cost of most things is
less than in the keys. He also takes trips to places like Belize
quite frequently because he can get more bonefish experience in
one day there than he would in the keys in a year. I have another friend who had a house next to me on Duck Key. He lived
in Fort Pierce and just used the keys place for fishing. He sold
the keys place and still resides in Fort Pierce. Even though he
is a very experienced fisherman and has a very nice flats skiff
of his own, he rarly uses it. Instead he takes 4 trips a year for
a week each to Chockoloski and stays with and fishes with a very
good guide by name of Steve Huff. Huff had also lived on Duck Key but moved to Chockoloski before i moved to the keys. He has a son in the Marathon area who is also a guide. So you see
even very good fishermen use guides quite often. And the guides
use other guides in different places they fish rather than waste valuable time. Trust me, the success had by the o p here
would not have happened had it not been for Buddy Lapointe who
is also a top shelf keys guide. Although not specificly a flats
guide.