The month of May has seen some outstanding fishing both offshore and inshore.


If offshore fishing is your thing, there is a wide variety of fish that include blackfin tuna, which is the prime species of fish during the month of May, kingfish, sailfish, dolphin, and mutton snapper. Throw in bonito, barracuda, and sharks and when we get a strike, you'll just never know what it might be till we get it close to the boat.


Inshore, tarpon action has been nothing short of outstanding. The fish are big and mean. The obstacles in Government Cut in the form of the ongoing dredging operations have made fighting a large tarpon a very difficult challenge. The fish are 80 pounds and up and double headers are a very good possibility.


Lenny and Carol caught 10 dolphins during their offshore trip. The fish were spread out and came mostly as singles in scattered weed lines.


Doug and Chad had never caught tarpon before their evening trip. As soon as the sun set, Chad hooked up first. We took the tour of the area chasing his 80 pound tarpon. After several pictures, we released the tarpon and went to work on getting Doug his first tarpon. We made a major move after see no further action where Chad hooked up. The move proved successful as Doug was hooked up solid to a 100 pound tarpon within minutes of putting out the baits. That's how the evening ended going 2 for 2 on tarpon and each angler caught their first one.


Carlos, Anthony, and Garrett saw both good conditions and not so good conditions during their offshore trip. By that I mean that we started the day off in green water with no current. After making a move, we found some blue water with north current. The interesting thing is that both areas produced fish. By the end of the trip we had caught and released 6 bonito and 2 almaco jacks. All the action except for one bonito came on the bottom rod or the downrigger.


During Jeff, Heather, Tom, and Jenny's offshore trip, we started off looking for dolphin. The ocean was clean as could be with no debris, floaters, and basically no weed to speak of. We ran back in and Jenny caught fish for dinner in the form of a 19 pound 6 ounce blackfin tuna. Tom fought a very large shark on the bottom rod.


Shaun loves to catch tarpon on spinning tackle. Every time he visits from England, we spend an evening or two together chasing tarpon. This year was no exception. We started out going 3 for 4. He made the comment that the next fish that we catch would be the most tarpon he has successfully caught with me. That was the kiss of dead. We proceeded to miss the next 7 bites we had. Final tally for the evening was 3 for 11.
Scott was on both a business and vacation trip from Australia. He wanted to catch a tarpon as he had heard about what a great fighter they are. He found out first had during his evening tarpon trip. We started off going 1 for 2 before we made a move. The next area had us hooked up almost immediately. The 120 pound tarpon would just not let us get it close enough to the boat for a good picture. The battle went on for over 45 minutes as we kept tightening the drag. The tarpon finally released itself. Scott sat down and said "Don't put out anymore lines. I've had enough. I can't believe how strong these fish are." He now knows what tarpon fishing is all about.


Rodrigo and his two friends experienced the frustration that sometimes happens with tarpon fishing. The first tarpon came off on its first jump. 10 seconds later, the second rod hooked up solid. We chased the fish into the main ship channel. Try as we might, the tarpon found the anchor cables of the dredge that is currently working in the area. Of course, the line broke. We then missed the next 4 fish with pulled or thrown hooks. Trying to change our luck, I made a move. The first drift produced nothing. They wanted to go back to the original area. I said if we made one more drift we go back. On the second drift, I marked several fish on the side scan. Bingo!! We hooked up a double header of tarpon that ran in opposite direction. We caught up to the first fish and got pictures and a release. We moved toward the second fish and had recovered about ¾'s of the line when, yes you guessed it, the hook pulled. It was a very frustrating evening going 1 for 8. Really ruined my average, however, that's tarpon fishing and they always even the score.