4 club members made this adventure. Our small group travelled from Houston and arrived early enough to get on the water for an hour or so on the very first day. Eduardo D., Jerry B., “Puck” and Raymond L. joined Bob and Tim on the charter planes out to the lodge where a much larger group was wrapping up their very successful trip.

Here is the report. Pictures and videos below the write-up.

Once we landed and were ferried upriver to the lodge, we had some time, so we went out for about an hour or so on the first day here, Thursday. The water was very choppy because of the storm they’ve had. After about an hour of rolling and tumbling and nausea from seasickness we came in.

Second day out we went out right after breakfast, and the water was easier but not calm. We were able to fish till about 11 o’clock when the waves started picking up again and seasickness hit again. We came in 30 minutes before lunch or so to allow us to calm down and get our bearings back.

That afternoon we got three hits had one tarpon jump and lost a fly. Somehow the tarpon had cut through 100 pound test mono. From the rest of the group there was very slow fishing for everybody that went out Friday morning. Tim, who had not been fishing since he was 14 years old landed his first tarpon. I know he told me the size, but I’ve lost that part of my notes. The jump is captured on the featured photo. Tim also landed a barracuda that he invited to dinner.

Friday afternoon, nobody went out into the ocean. The waves were just too rough so everybody was fishing the canals off the river. The canals were off colored and high. Nobody caught anything on the fly. Some of the hardware folks pulled in some small snook. A lot of very good casting practice, and the rain wasn’t that bad, at first. The heavy rains in the late afternoon pulled us in 30 to 45 minutes earlier than expected.

The plan for Saturday morning is to load up the heavy gear and go look to see if we can’t get out into the ocean for Tarpon, if we cannot, we come back to the dock trade our gear and go fish a different section of the canals.

We made three drifts, about an hour and a half, before Marvin called it. I was getting sick, and the weather had turned. We would try the canals after lunch.

One boat with two anglers roughed it out through the rain, wearing black garbage bags under the life jackets as rain gear, into the rough waters with the improvised rain gear braving the driving wind and rain. They came back with one tarpon to the boat on bait.

We didn’t go to the canals but out to the big water for tarpon. 7 drifts and nothing hooked. Bob found some motion sickness pills for me, and I was able to dose up. We saw tarpon rolling all around us, along with the porpoises off in the distance. We kept watching the clouds, as we were surrounded. I lost the first of two flies, black a purple tarpon toads (8/0) when the tarpon cut through 100 pound bite tippet.

The fishing reports at dinner were very few tarpon, and one of the canals produced fish for Jerry and Raymond. I was able to get descriptions of the flies from Jerry, see below.

Eduardo landed a 160 pound tarpon on a jig. We were trying anything to get a fish to the boat by day 3. The release of this fish was picture perfect. See video below.

This is the day that Jerry and Raymond landed a 180+ tarpon on a purple/black fly. See photo below of what is left of that fly. The fight took hours.

I lost the second of two flies. Another black a purple tarpon toads (8/0) when another tarpon cut through 100 pound bite tippet. “Take it easy!” Seems to be Marvin’s favorite phrase for me.

“Puck” landed 130 pound tarpon on bait, on the last day. This was the roughest the water was on the entire trip, and when this fish was finally released, we called it a day, and went in for relaxing, packing, dinner, and rest.

5 hits on flies on Marvin’s boat. 

I am still collecting the stories and pictures in an improved effort to generate interest for next year’s adventures. Right now we have some dates between 1-10 October of 2024 and can take up to 22 anglers. Details to follow soon.

2023-10 Tarpon release at SKL

2023-10 Marvin helps Eduardo land a 140 tarpon

The variety of fish willing to hit the fly is incredible.

Never did we go hungry. There was always something different served.

And here are some more interesting pictures: