# 10,000 Islands



## Padre (Jul 29, 2016)

So I left the Mosquito at home in Destin and traveled down to visit my friend Jim Hicks, who lives on Marco Island. We fished out of his BT Elite for the week. I don't know all the names of where we fished, and even then, I am not sure you are supposed to say the real names anyway, so it kind of works out. But this was possibly the best fishing I have had in the area.

*Tuesday* 
On Tuesday, we started out on one of the outside islands, the first fish I picked up was a little snook on my Gloomis Shorestalker 5wt. Caught a few more on that one and my 8wt, but mostly all dinky trout, snooks and assorted snappers. But my buddy Jim, who fishes with Gulp baits managed to land 2 nice sized redfish. As the tide reached its peak, we moved to a backcountry bay where I soon figured out I was underpowered. I had many break offs under the mangroves and I realized that to pull some of these snook out of these groves, I was going to have to increase my leader and tippet sizes. I was not used to this as we don't have mangroves in Destin and you can hook into a big red and let him run.
As the tide was starting to move back out at the end of the day, we started pounding the groves with the tide in the creek and Jim hooked into 2 nice tarpon, both on a while Gulp jerk bait. The 1st one, we got hand to leader looked to be around 40 pounds. The 2nd one we got to the boat was at least 80 pounds.

*Wednesday *
We started back on the same outside island that we fished yesterday and right off the bat, Jim landed a 31" snook. On a flat on the other side of the island, I landed a 21" trout on fly. As the tide peaked, we again went back to the back bay but we didn't land anything of anything of significance except a nice Goliath Grouper.

*Thursday*
It was blowing pretty hard when we got up. Made it tough but we managed to find some places to get out of the wind. We decided to try some new spots. Found a flat in one of the bays that had pretty good visibility. Managed to land a medium slot redfish. We decided to go back to our go to spot in the back bay and the action was hot. There was one other boat back there. I picked an upper slot redfish out of the mangroves on my 8wt and they hooked up into a large snook at the same time. Their snook broke off but we landed our red. We must have caught a dozen or so snook on that shore, including one nice one that wrapped himself around a log, 3 seconds after Jim hooked him up. We went over there and could see the fish down there, so we jumped in and landed him by hand. All in all, it was good day.

*Friday*
It was time for me to head back to Destin but I made a little side trip down Tamiami trail to catch some pond poons on the 5wt. It was fun.

Thanks for reading. Keep 'em wet.


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## ceejkay (May 7, 2016)

Awesome report. Thanks for sharing


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## BWest (Jul 19, 2017)

That trout looks a little shorter than 21ft. Looks like a great trip though.


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## Padre (Jul 29, 2016)

BWest said:


> That trout looks a little shorter than 21ft. Looks like a great trip though.


Ha ha. I think you're right.


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## DBStoots (Jul 9, 2011)

Thanks for the report--great pic's and glad you had a good time. Fishing has been very good lately and the presence of so many small snook portends well for the future of the fishery, so long as we get this water thing right.


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## Scrob (Aug 26, 2015)

Great report, always wanted to try those Tamiami pond poons!


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## Padre (Jul 29, 2016)

Scrob said:


> Great report, always wanted to try those Tamiami pond poons!


They are so fun.


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## Viking1 (May 23, 2010)

Nice report, thanks for sharing!


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## MRichardson (May 27, 2010)

From Destin? Alright man. I'm from N'ville, live in Wekiva Springs (Central FL, near god-forsaken Orlando) now since 2004. When I lived there I loved going east to PSJ area, the flats look like something from much further south.

That looks like it was a good trip - caught all the likely species. Love that part of the state as well.


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## Padre (Jul 29, 2016)

MRichardson said:


> From Destin? Alright man. I'm from N'ville, live in Wekiva Springs (Central FL, near god-forsaken Orlando) now since 2004. When I lived there I loved going east to PSJ area, the flats look like something from much further south.
> 
> That looks like it was a good trip - caught all the likely species. Love that part of the state as well.


I actually moved from Destin to Merritt Island in 1987 and then we moved backed to destin in 2004. So we might have passed each other on the way.


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## mro (Jan 24, 2018)

10 K
whats not to like?

Even back in my day there were stories...


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## Zika (Aug 6, 2015)

mro said:


> 10 K
> whats not to like?
> 
> Even back in my day there were stories...


Finally read the classic Killing Mr. Watson by Peter Mathiessen during the quarantine. Excellent book and great tales of Old Florida.


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## Padre (Jul 29, 2016)

Zika said:


> Finally read the classic Killing Mr. Watson by Peter Mathiessen during the quarantine. Excellent book and great tales of Old Florida.


Yeah great story. I read that a few years ago right before an Everglades trip.


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