eileen's family

eileen, our friend from germany who is staying with us for a bit,  and her family have been close friends of my family most of my life and her parents just arrived from germany to spend christmas with us. winnie, pictured above, had never caught a fish in his life and on the first day out he caught 3 reds, 1 trout, 1 jack and a few lady fish. did pretty well, even with jetlag.

tarpon takin a nap

since chapin swallowed a quarter last night, I decided to fish close to home with rowe instead of running a good way out. of coarse, while hammering lady fish we rolled up on this big fella. i figured the zebco wouldn't be the wisest stick to tangle with this poon.

crabs

fortunately for us, if fishing isn't good the canal behind the house can supply dinner.  rowe is a hell of a crabber.  he's not patient with much else, but he sure does have a feel for dragging that chicken neck.

fishing partner

as you can see by our rod selection, i had a another fishing partner today.  sarah and i even managed to pick up a couple reds while rowe was preoccupied with snacks.  

tarpon

sarah was able to to fish with me today and while trying to get her on some redfish we found a cove with laid-up tarpon, a few were 50+ pounds.  We worked them for over an hour, but couldn't get them to eat. I called one of my best friends who just happens to be a tarpon guide to get the skinny on catching laid-up picky fish. hopefully i can post a pic of a big poon after i try j's trick. and yes that is a hole in the crouch of my pants.  we're living on the cheap.

finally

after two days of not seeing anything, it sure was nice to get into a bunch of reds today.  these fish were some of the most eager reds i have ever seen munch a fly.  i'm embarrassed to say one fish ate my fly 4 times, but i finally got him on the 5th.

good motto

love this town already