2/24/12 Great backcountry fishing for big fish!

Today we had the wind out of the south again though not blowing too hard about 10 mph.  Capt. Jim Willcox and Capt. Rick Stanczyk were both fishing out on the edge of the gulf in everglades national park for this trip fishing islamorada in february.  Both reported good catches of big trout in the bays with a mix of ladyfish, snappers, jacks, and occasionally other fish as well!  After that both fished some of the channels in the area.  Capt. Willcox caught this monster tarpon!  Many of the fish back there now are very large mostly 100+ lbs!  Capt. Stanczyk caught this 'mud marlin' that was close to 200 lbs!  They also caught a 15 lb cobia that was following him, unfortunately they didn't have a gaff and he jumped out of the net.  After that fight with the sea monster, the anglers had enough big stuff.  So they hit some shallow spots for some redfish since they were about at the bottom of the falling tide.  They had some luck catching about 10 redfish up to 8 lbs, and a mix of trout in there as well as a few on fly!  They ran back up to the east along the mainland since they wanted to see some more of the everglades, and ended up catching a nice snook on artifcial GULP bait, and a couple more reds around some islands.  Great way to end a fantastic day of florida keys fishing charters!  Capt. Ken Cohan also reported an encounter with a seamonster and a cobia.  Florida keys tarpon fishing is starting now, come down and get in on the action!