Catch Report: 26th July, 2010
After attending the recent ICAST tackle trade show in Las Vegas, where Fox Sport Fishing and Fox Rage products made the USA debut, it was time to head back to Islamorada for 4 days of fishing.
Cliff and Cathy Fox along with Andy Little and Shaun McSpadden (all the top brass at Fox) fished with me in Islamorada this past week.
We field tested new prototype reels and were thrilled at how they performed. We took DNA samples from most of the Tarpon we released for scientific reseach, Mote Marine Lab here in Florida is creating a dna database to track movements, stocks etc.. on Tarpon, not nearly enough is known about these fantastic prehistoric fish.
The group released 19 Tarpon up to 140lbs in the 4 days. Also released were Snook, Red Drum, Seatrout, Goliath Grouper and LOTS of BIG SHARKS. The new reels held up flawlessly with only a couple minor adjustments. I can' wait for them to hit the market.
Cathy Fox caught the most Tarpon as usual and we love her for that.
Andy will be getting a certificate for his capture of a double backcountry Florida west coast Grand Slam. He released 2 Tarpon, 3 Snook and 2 Red Drum in the same day. congrads... Shaun and Cliff shared honors with each catching Tarpon over 130lbs. A great 4 days.
The last day we cancelled out because a tropical storm was supposed to blow through but it went north of us too bad. next time...
Thats all for now. tight lines.
skip
Catch Report: 5th July, 2010
This past week the tarpon fishing has been outstanding. Dr. Glenn Scott and his friend Walter Robinson fished 3 days and flyfished for Tarpon. They released a total of 23 tarpon all caught on fly and using the new Fox Trek Tarpon flyrods.
The next 3 days, July 11, 12 and 13th I fished with David Kubert and his friend Steve Kost. The hot tarpon fishing was still on and using live pinfish we released 19 Tarpon.
After getting in today we are on our way to the ICAST Tackle show in LasVegas to showcase all of the Fox Sportfishing tackle. I can't wait to brag about how we use this tackle every day catching huge fish with tight drags and it holds up superbly. thats all for now.
Captain skip Nielsen
Catch Report: 28th June, 2010
It's June 28th, fellow Captain Rick Stancyk and myself are guiding Paul Reeves, his wife Amanda, friends Ether and John fished aboard Foxy Lady in Islamorada.
Paul is a Managing Director at Fox International, which includes Fox Sportfishing, and this is his first time fishing in the Florida Keys. We fished the backcountry in the Everglades National Park. Paul caught and released his first tarpon of 100lbs. His wife and friends caught Snapper, trout, Crevalle Jacks and Big Lemon Sharks to 200lbs. Paul also released a nice sized Goliath Grouper.
Everyone had a great time and can't wait to come back and visit Islamorada again. All the fish were caught using Fox TreK rods and Horizon braided line.
Catch Report: 26th June, 2010
This past week I have been fishing with Bernard and Paul Pielow visiting from Liverpool. In 7 days of fishing the boys released 14 Tarpon, 44 Snook, too many big Sharks to count including Hammerhead, Bull, Lemon and Blacktip, heaps of Mangrove Snapper, Crevalle Jacks, Spanish Mackerel, Ladyfish, Seatrout, some Red Drum and 6 Goliath Grouper and to top it all off big stingrays.
Using Fox Trek Boatrods and Spinning rods with out a problem and of course all fish were caught using Horizon Super Braid. We are using 65lb braid on the boat rods with a top shot of 100lb leader and have not broken a rod yet! and yet these rods are only rated 30-50lb. They take incredible punishment all day long, nice going Bernard and Paul.
Catch Report: 15th June, 2010
Lora Trinchero and Scott Cort had a fabulous 2 days of fishing the Islamorada backcountry with me, Capt.Skip Nielsen on June 15th and 16th.
13 Tarpon released, 9 Snook, numerous Trout, Sharks, Jacks and Lora completed an impressive backcountry slam by finishing the day with a big Redfish.
All fish were caught on Fox Trek rods and Horizon braid line.
Catch Report: 3rd June, 2010
Another incredible run of crabs last night and i'm out with the Stone family aboard Foxy Lady. 5 great Tarpon have been released and below are pictures of M.E. Stone fighting a good sized fish and Michel's birtday Tarpon leaps up to say Happy Birtday.
All Tarpon were caught using the 8' spinning rods filled with horizon braided line.
Catch Report: 1st June, 2010
Out today with Tom Sims and John Weed, great weather as always in late may and early june, calm and hot. We are seeing alot of Tarpon around now. Due to the cold in January we are now experiencing an incredible run of crabs on the outgoing tides. The crabs have sent the tarpon into a frenzy. The full moon and new moon tides have just been incredible fishing. The last 2 afternoons we have released 10 tarpon and missed many more bites.
The 8 foot Fox spinning rods can't be beat for presenting a nice crab bait to the tarpon.
Catch Report: End of April, 2010
The big Tarpon migration has been going on for a full week now, Tarpon fishing is at it's peak. I have been out with Steve and Tim Hanshe, shown below playing a tarpon each, we have had lots of takes, caught and released 7 Tarpon, all with the Tarpon Trek Fly rod.
Catch Report: April 23-27, 2010
After a 3 day lull the Tarpon bite is back on. It is April 23rd and i am out with Jim Magison and his Jim, we have caught and released 5 Tarpon weighing upto 150lb. Using the 8ft Tarpon Trek Spin rod's and as you can see from the images below Jim junior is enjoying an estimated 150lb beast of a Tarpon.
April 24 Tom and Wendy Sims of Miami fished with me and released 4 Tarpon along with numerous Sharks and a limit of Mangrove Snapper for dinner. Below Wendy is with 2 different Tarpon both caught on 30lb horizon braid and 8ft Tarpon TreK spinning rods. my favorite.
April 27 a late season cold front has passed through and the tarpon bite slowed today. Even with that we managed to catch and release 14 Blacktip Sharks and load of Ladyfish, Spanish Mackerel ect that we use for bait.
Catch Report: April 18, 2010
I am currently guiding Cliff and Kathy Fox, Andy and Jeanie Little with friend Freddie DuPreez through the beautiful backcountry of Islamorada, Florida, aboard the new Fox Sportfishing bay boat, Foxy Lady. What better way to spend your time than fishing for Tarpon?
After 4 days fishing we have managed an impressive haul of 13 fish, all anglers have caught, the largest being caught by Andy, see the images below. We are using the Tarpon Trek Travel rods with Horizon Sports Braid.
Foxy Lady is available for charter by contacting me, Capt. Skip Nielsen, by email:
skipcyd@bellsouth.net. She is 21 feet and easily accommodates 4 anglers, so why not join me over here and spend some time fishing for Tarpon, Sharks, Goliath Grouper and many other Florida Keys species.
Catch Report:April 07, 2010
Tarpon season broke wide open yesterday.
Debbie Riola of Grand Rapids,Michigan fought an estimated 150lb + tarpon for 1 hour 40 minutes. We were able to obtain a dna sample off the fishes back for research purposes.
Debbie caught the huge tarpon on a Tarpon Special rod and 50 horizon braid line.
Later that evening I took John and Evan Svoboda from Omaha,Nebraska out for a sunset trip and they had incredible action with big tarpon. 4 releases and 7 bites. In the picture shown young Evan is using a Fox Sportfishing boat rod loaded with horizon braid. This is one of the Fox Trek rods.
Catch Report:March 12, 2010
Had Dr.Evans Holland out today. water temp finally up to 70 degrees. what a cold winter. even here in the Florida Keys.
Evan fished for and caught and released his first tarpon. A beauty of estimated weight 130lbs. Using the tarpon special Fox fishing rod. This is the beginning of tarpon season as we get more and more stretches of warm weather.
Catch Report: 01/02/10 to 31/02/10 - Panama.
I travelled to Panama for the month of February to teach my fishing skills to a couple of local captains. What a great experience and fun teaching eager learners.
My wife, Cyd, and I stayed at a fishing/development/resort on the Azuero Peninsula on the Pacific side called
www.losbuzos.net. A really beautiful place along the famed Tuna Coast.
The first thing I did was unpack my gear. We are allowed 2 bags each not exceeding 50 pounds per bag. In one bag I brought 11 Fox trek travel rods and some of the reels to go with them. In my other bag I packed clothes and the rest of the gear and tackle. Between the 2 of us we were maxed out. Being there for a month I needed plenty of tackle. It was amazing to the locals when I started putting rods together.
I also took an existing 24' panga boat and installed a garmin depth sounder and transducer which I brought also. And a radio,antenna, epirb, all safety gear, bought 600 feet of anchor line and a big anchor locally ect.
We fished 17 days and caught loads of school size yellowfin tuna. Trolling small octopus skirts was the easiest way to catch them. But we had a blast throwing popping plugs and getting surface strikes from the tuna. Also I took the hooks off poppers and using an 8 foot light trek fixed spool(we call that a spinning rod here in the states) teased tuna,roosterfish,colbalt trevally, crevalle trevally and skipjack tuna close to the boat so my friend Jim Whitley could throw popper flies at the fish. This was a very sucessful technique.
There were lots of bonita about every day which we caught and used as live bait. My favorite rod for trolling live bonitos was the KRD010 7' boat rod trek. I spooled my multiplier reels with horizon 50lb super braid. Roosterfish of 60 and 70 lbs were our biggest.
I taught Effrain, the local up and coming guide and captain, how to cut strip baits from the plentiful bonitos. Instead of using ballyhoo which have to be imported we utilized the bonito strip baits for all kinds of fish.I will include a picture of the strip bait positioned behind a chrome head lure.
We rigged a trace of 100lb mono with a swivel then 3' of 150lb stainless wire. Some days the current would bring super blue water right close to shore. On those days we caught yellowfin tuna, wahoo, sailfish, amberjack all with in a mile of the beach and the resort. Other days the water would be green in close and we would catch bonitos, trevallys, spanish mackerel to 20lbs. and roosterfish and pargo(snappers). Within 6 miles of Los Buzos there were a number of high spots where the water was always clean enough(blue) for the yellowfin tuna.
Large schools of marauding crevalle jacks kept us busy many hours as well. We did see black marlin feeding on tuna several times but did not have the luck to catch one this trip.We did troll live bonitos and tuna around at least an hour or so a day. That is how we caught and released a couple large amberjack and roosterfish. Next year a downrigger is on my list to bring.
I am very much looking forward to spending next February and March at Los Buzos teaching and taking clients fishing.
Big thanks to Fox Sportfishing for developing such incredible travel rods. It makes packing so much easier.
captain skip nielsen
Catch Report: 31/01/10 - Sailfishing in January continues to be excellent.
I had Bernard Pielow and his nephew Paul Pielow fishing with me 4 days. They hail from Liverpool and fish with me during the summer months for big shark and goliath groupers. I had told them about sailfishing in December and January here in Islamorada so here they were. During the 4 days they release 11 sails and many other varieties including blackfin tuna, false albacore, jack crevalle, african pompano,mutton snapper ect. They are coming back to fish with me in June for tarpon,sharks,permit and goliath grouper.
During the months of december and january I use my 28 foot custom outfitted twin yamaha 150hp outboard with cabin and head and huge cockpit for fishing. when fishing the flats and backcountry and gulf I use an 18' actioncraft and will soon be using a 21' bayboat actioncraft .
I am leaving for the pacific coast of Panama tomorrow and will send some fishing reports soon.
www.losbuzos.net is where I will be. Of course I am taking 11 Fox Trek Rods of all sizes bundled up with rubber bands and some bubble wrap and plenty of horizon super braid line. This all goes in 1 duffle bag. Pretty amazing to be able to carry so many rods with no rod tubes and no worries. I have been field testing these travel rods for 3 years now and have not had any breakage whatsoever and I I am fishing 200 days + a year.
well that's it for now. will send some reports from Los Buzos soon.
To book sailfish trips with me for next December and January email me at
skipcyd@bellsouth.net I would be glad to discuss any questions about the Fox Trek Rods and Horizon Braid so just send me an email.
captain skip nielsen
Catch Report: 27/12/09 - Backcountry Fishing Islamorada, Florida near Flamingo.
Cliff and Cathy Fox had a great day in the backcountry off Islamorada, Florida fishing with Captain Skip Nielsen.
It was windy and cold( in the 60's) but we bundled up and had a dry ride to the mainland near Flamingo. We caught seatrout,blackdrum,snook, redfish,mangrove snapper,crevalle jacks and a nice tarpon.
Cliff managed a backcountry slam by catching and releasing snook,redfish and a tarpon, nice going.
The next day we fished the Atlantic side and limited out with king mackerel. Despite an unseasonal cold snap on the Florida Keys Cliff and Cathy Fox still enjoyed some fantastic sport with some hard fighting sailfish targeted with lightweight gear.
Catch Report: 18/12/09 - Backcountry Fishing Islamorada, Florida.
Not the brightest of days out on the skiff, the weather closing in, but we are still pulling the Bonefish out on a regular basis. These 9lb and 12lb Bonefish were caught with the Bonefish Trek rod using Horizon Braid.
Catch Report: 03/12/09 - Flats Fishing Islamorada, Florida.
On recent fishing trip with Dr.Hugh Dennis, we were catching snook and reds at high tide near a tree on the flats and a Goliath swam up to the boat looking for a meal, we fed him a jack. We caught him on the Trek Boat rod rated 20 to 30lb, It should be rated 20 to 65lb. we also picked up a Cobia, off a nav marker along with some smaller ones.
