Greetings from the Florida Keys!!!
This past week I spent a day on the bay boat in the backcountry with some guys from PA and we WRECKED the fish on artificial lures, the new soft plastic I have been making has been incredibly productive. We caught 8 different species including Speckled Trout, Pompano, Mangrove Snapper, Mutton Snapper, Lane Snapper, Goliath Grouper and others. We brought back enough fish for them to have a variety at dinner for the next couple nights and we released the rest. This is such a fin time of the year, its exciting not knowing what you going to catch each cast and its also a great time to practice because its constant casting and action. I encourage anyone to spend a day out back with me and I assure you that it will be and exciting time.
The next day I fished on the skiff in search of Permit. We knew it was going to be tough due to the water temps being in the upper 60’s but we were up for a challenge. We started in the back country and to say it was tough could be an understatement although our hopes rose at the second spot we fished. Fishing down this long bar we hadn’t seen a fish so I decided to sit on the end of this bar next to deep water and see if we had anything swim by. We sat there for 10 minutes or so and I spotted a huge permit swimming through a light sand hole and just as we got eyes on her she disappeared. We remained patient for about another 30 minutes just hanging around the tip hopping the fish would slide back through or others would pop up but to no avail we were out of luck. I made the decision to run to a different area and we did see two Permit moving fast the boat and by the time we got the live crab in front of them they spooked. We continued our search the rest of the day with nothing to show for it but we stayed focused on the goal and never gave up. It was nearing then end of our day and I made one last stop around 3:30 in the afternoon and we were literally seconds from calling it a day when I spotted a school sitting in a deep hole off the edge of the flat, we made a quick cast and ended up short and the fish never saw the crab, we reeled back in quick and made a longer cast and saw one fish peel off and follow but didn’t bite. On the third cast we were rewarded with a nice Permit on a day that seemed that we were doomed on catching one.
This just goes to show that hard work and staying focused does pay off not only for the angler but for the team! I take pride in working hard and harder than the next guy and on days like this it really shines on the angler for trusting me to go the distance to make it happen! 
