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OGWLF members, John Veil, Raptor (Terry Hill) and I are spending three days in Tampa, FL fishing with guide Neil Taylor.
Here Neil and Terry are exiting from a mangrove opening to start our day:
A.jpg B.jpg
It was quite breezy today. You can see the water's choppiness in these photos:
D.jpg E.jpg F.JPG
The wind built as the morning progressed and chased us off the water by noon. However the OGWLF members boated over fifty fish before then. I believe John had over thirty of those, mostly speckled trout. He also caught a lizard fish and a flounder. Terry and I each added ten. Terry caught exclusively specks. Among my catches were a lizard fish, a new species for me and this gag grouper which I caught on the fly -- a yellow Clouser Minnow-like fly:
H.jpg
The grouper and lizard fish pulled much harder than the specks I caught.
Our fishing method today was to anchor up in open water and cast to areas where directed by Neil. John and Terry used jigs with soft plastics as lures. I caught all my fish on a fly rod which was increasingly difficult to throw as the wind built.
Despite being in Florida with water much warmer than we have at home in Maryland, the trick today was to use moderate speeds on our retrieves.
Here is Terry heading back into the mangrove tunnel to end our day:
G.jpg
For lunch Neil fried filets for us from two of the larger trout caught today and they were absolutely excellent. Tomorrow we'll be heading to another area here in Tampa. The wind is supposed to lay down overnight. We're hopeful that it does.
Here Neil and Terry are exiting from a mangrove opening to start our day:
A.jpg B.jpg
It was quite breezy today. You can see the water's choppiness in these photos:
D.jpg E.jpg F.JPG
The wind built as the morning progressed and chased us off the water by noon. However the OGWLF members boated over fifty fish before then. I believe John had over thirty of those, mostly speckled trout. He also caught a lizard fish and a flounder. Terry and I each added ten. Terry caught exclusively specks. Among my catches were a lizard fish, a new species for me and this gag grouper which I caught on the fly -- a yellow Clouser Minnow-like fly:
H.jpg
The grouper and lizard fish pulled much harder than the specks I caught.
Our fishing method today was to anchor up in open water and cast to areas where directed by Neil. John and Terry used jigs with soft plastics as lures. I caught all my fish on a fly rod which was increasingly difficult to throw as the wind built.
Despite being in Florida with water much warmer than we have at home in Maryland, the trick today was to use moderate speeds on our retrieves.
Here is Terry heading back into the mangrove tunnel to end our day:
G.jpg
For lunch Neil fried filets for us from two of the larger trout caught today and they were absolutely excellent. Tomorrow we'll be heading to another area here in Tampa. The wind is supposed to lay down overnight. We're hopeful that it does.
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