A few daze ago my fishing buddies Jim & Tepper called to see if i had any bookings this week, i didn't so they said great get on a plane & get your butt over to the Bahamas.
So i got out of town & we are filming some footage of Bonefishing in the Abacos for Teppers Fly Fishing Film Tour....
Just a few Good Fishing Buddies, KALIK Beer, & Bonefish
What more could a guide want for Christmas???
A big thanks to Oliver at the Abaco Lodge check it out www.abacolodge.com
Friday, December 16, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Hey Guys
It was really rough yesterday, i would say the seas were 3-5ft all day with some occasional big rollers. The wind was 15-20mph, bait well was full & we were flying the kite all day.
Tom's brother landed a nice bull dolphin which came up & ate the kite bait right behind the boat so it was really visual. Sailfishing was slow along the reef unfortunately & talking to the other captains who were out there braving the high seas no sailfish had been caught from Ocean Reef to Islamorada. The day before they were biting like mad? I would say we put the 24 Sea Hunter through a true test of fishing in rough seas!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, October 17, 2011
WET WEATHER
It has been raining down here in Sunny South Florida for the last 3 straight days, i had the cancel yesterdays trip because there was just no way to get on the h20, & today we decided over breakfast to just bag the whole week from what the radar looked like.
Looking Forward to a beautiful sunrise like this one ASAP. Catch Ya Later Capt. Greg
Looking Forward to a beautiful sunrise like this one ASAP. Catch Ya Later Capt. Greg
Friday, September 9, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
New Kite...wOw!!!!
I took out this new fishing kite a friend sent me & all i can say is WOW!!!!
I didn't believe it would fly in such light wind, but look at the kingfish we caught!
The wind was hardly blowing we were anchored in about 60ft off the edge in Islamorada & flying a pilchard on one of my new OHERO Spinning outfits. The rod is a graphite Gold Series 7'6 med/heavy rod with a 4000 reel loaded with 30lb barde. I added a trace of 50lb wire & a VMC circle hook.
The second rod was exactly the same set up but in the heavy size rod again with an OHERO 4000 spinner, i have it loaded with a different color barde just so i can tell the difference in rods. As you can see i like an electric kite reel so i can change baits quickly after a bite, on the second rod i used a live shrimp as the bait, the reason i like the kite fishing is the amazing bite!
We had the kings skyrocketing as they ate the baits that were dangling on the surface!
Go fly a kite, its alot of fun, just ask Mr. & Mrs Victor Beck from Tennessee, pictured with her first kingfish caught on a kite bait, it ate the pilchard, & she said it came out of the water 6ft with the bait in its teeth!
Catch Ya Later... Capt. Greg
I didn't believe it would fly in such light wind, but look at the kingfish we caught!
The wind was hardly blowing we were anchored in about 60ft off the edge in Islamorada & flying a pilchard on one of my new OHERO Spinning outfits. The rod is a graphite Gold Series 7'6 med/heavy rod with a 4000 reel loaded with 30lb barde. I added a trace of 50lb wire & a VMC circle hook.
We had the kings skyrocketing as they ate the baits that were dangling on the surface!
Go fly a kite, its alot of fun, just ask Mr. & Mrs Victor Beck from Tennessee, pictured with her first kingfish caught on a kite bait, it ate the pilchard, & she said it came out of the water 6ft with the bait in its teeth!
Catch Ya Later... Capt. Greg
Friday, February 4, 2011
Busmans Holiday
I took my buddy James out the other day, & look what he caught. James is a free lance mate on on a few charter boats here in Islamorada
The Gold Cup Sailfish Tny
http://www.theonlinefisherman.com/feature-articles/1096-the-gold-cup-sailfish-tournament
Check Out whats going on in the Florida Keys
Check Out whats going on in the Florida Keys
Friday, January 21, 2011
My neighbor's in 3rd but getting ready to make his move.
I live next door to one of the best Offshore Captains in the World. Capt. Alex Adler, his 48ft sptorfisherman the KALEX is no stranger to the winners circle, & tonight i went down to Bud N Marys to see how he did today, as i got there the crew was swabbing the decks & the sailfish release flags were a flyn!
Team Kalex is in 3rd with 5 Atlantic Sailfish release flags, the other two boats have 5 & 6 fish but tomorrow is the last day of the Cheeca Presidential Sailfish Tournament, fish are caught & released on 12# line,
Go KALEX, the neighbors are rootin for you buddy!!
Team Kalex is in 3rd with 5 Atlantic Sailfish release flags, the other two boats have 5 & 6 fish but tomorrow is the last day of the Cheeca Presidential Sailfish Tournament, fish are caught & released on 12# line,
Go KALEX, the neighbors are rootin for you buddy!!
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
New Flats Skiff By Chittum Skiffs Islamorada 18
ST. AUGUSTINE - Hal Chittum sits beside an old desk in a stark office at the corner of a plain white building on the San Sebastian River. He talks about his life and his boats. They're pretty much the same thing.
Through a window behind him, you can see workers rigging a new boat, grinding and drilling. He wipes the dust of several weird composites from the desk as he speaks, patting off the residue of what he calls the most technical flats boat in the world onto his pants leg.
Chittum's known as the mad scientist of flats boat design. He probably likes it.
He is a partner in a new boat-building business, Chittum Skiffs. It was a long time coming.
Chittum went to college, got a degree and headed to the Florida Keys to become a flats guide. It's a career path of abject envy for mortal men. He became one of the best around, under the tutelage of the famous Keys guide Jimmy Albright. That historic gathering of flats guides included some of the best there ever were, with names like Stu Apte, Woody Sexton, Cal Cochran and Harry Snow Jr.
Chittum guided for about 15 years. Along the way, he founded the famous South Florida saltwater fishing tackle chain, H T Chittum & Co.
Because he spent so much time on flats boats, their shortcomings bugged him. That led him to gather some partners and found Hells Bay Boatworks in 1997.
"Up until then," he said, "Nobody really sat down and built one [a flats boat] from scratch. Most were ski boats with poling platforms."
He decided "Let's design a hull that's quiet and light" - the two holy grails of flats fishing. The 16-foot Whipray was the product of that endeavor. It may not have been a whole new ballgame, but it did cause lots of flats boats builders to rethink their game plans and retool.
He sold his interest in Hell's Bay in 2002. He had an idea for a new kind of boat. He figured that it would make obsolete everything Hell's Bay was building - if he could make it work.
The new boat started in Titusville. A half-million dollars and three years later, the Islamorada 18 is in production, 16 have been delivered so far. During that time, Chittum said more than 90 hull designs were made and tossed out.
"We'd fix one thing, and that would screw up three others," Chittum said.
One of the problems had already been solved with the Hell's Bay boats - hull slap. That occurs when waves hit the boat hull. The sound is multiplied in water and spooks fish. The majority of flats guides fly fish. That means they need to get close to pods of tarpon or bonefish schools for real success.
There was something Chittum and other guides sensed but couldn't nail down. Even on dead-calm days with no slap, something else was bothering the fish. It wouldn't necessarily spook them outright but, Chittum said, "They'd just go down - get wary. They knew you were there."
What he suspected from years of poling the flats and talking with the best fishing minds both on the water and in the design rooms was that boats tipped off the fish in a more subtle way. His guess was a sort of pressure wave pushed ahead of the boat simply by its displacement of water.
With only hypothesis in his pocket, Chittum send a hull model to a special testing tank facility in Europe. The facility could duplicate any water conditions, bottom contour, depth, wave height and more. What he wanted to find out there was "What is it? How do you measure it? And how do you get rid of it?" The pressure wave theory was proven there and measured. Eliminating it was another hurdle.
With trial and error, the design team worked on diverting and eliminating the pressure wave. They finally tried carving the hull slightly concave just behind the point of the bow, and the pressure wave problem was diminished.
It was a big breakthrough for the company, but it caused problems of its own.
"Then the thing rode wet," Chittum said.
The team went back to the drawing board, and after more prototypes and failures, a radical spray rail was developed. They couldn't eliminate the hydraulics of the spray without first reshaping it. And it was basically this one-two punch that solved the problem, although chines, strakes and deadrise angles were shuffled like cards along the way.
In addition to design breakthroughs, Chittum Skiffs is also using some innovative construction techniques with brand new materials employed in military stealth construction and international sailboat racing.
He and Dana Greenwood - described by Chittum as "the brains around here" - were careful that certain areas of the facility not show up in the background of the photos taken for this story.
From conception to construction, none of the work on the Islamorada 18 was cheap. The base price for the boat, well-rigged and fitted with a 60-horsepower 4-stroke engine, is $63,000. They have run the boat with a 115-horsepower E-Tec outboard at 54 knots and will put a 150-horse on another boat that will be delivered soon.
But a big imagination and checkbook are really the only limits to what the boat can be. One is just finished and shipping out to Australia this week. It has nearly every high-end toy you could fit in or on it, including a hand-held military spotlight that could burn a hole in the ozone layer, throwing out 3,000 lumens and costing over $8,000. That boat's price tag, Chittum says, is "heading north of $120,000."
The company has both a 21-foot and a 25-foot bay boat on the drawing board.
Someone once said that when you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target. Chittum would have to agree after fighting with physics for so long. "From the beginning we said, 'let's fix every problem.' That's why it took three years."
Chittum said the boat's everything he ever wanted it to be. We'll see how long that lasts
Friday, January 14, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Bitter Cold
It was in the mid 40's this morning when i met my new client Nick Misitano. If you recognize his name its because he is one of South Florida's most popular Tattoo Artists, & he told me some great stories of what happens after dark in a South Beach Tattoo Shop!
Nick hails from Chicago but moved south a few years ago, it was his first day away from his tattoo gun & we started off catching a few saltwater muskies. As he called them, i prefer the Barracuda! The wind was blowing about 25mph & the seas were 4-5ft but it was his only day to get away so we went for it!
After a few Cudas we headed out to 100ft & started slow trolling live ballyhoo, i wish i could report his first sailfish release, but the best we did was to raise one & watch the ballyhoo jump around a bit. The report on the reef was slow on sails but apparently up in boynton beach the fishing is outa control with boats reporting over 50 sailfish release days!
All we wanted was one! Nick had an afternoon appointment to put a chinese symbol on the backside of a tourist girl so we only fished a 1/2 day but he said it was so good to get away & he was going to get back down to fish with me asap!
Nick hails from Chicago but moved south a few years ago, it was his first day away from his tattoo gun & we started off catching a few saltwater muskies. As he called them, i prefer the Barracuda! The wind was blowing about 25mph & the seas were 4-5ft but it was his only day to get away so we went for it!
After a few Cudas we headed out to 100ft & started slow trolling live ballyhoo, i wish i could report his first sailfish release, but the best we did was to raise one & watch the ballyhoo jump around a bit. The report on the reef was slow on sails but apparently up in boynton beach the fishing is outa control with boats reporting over 50 sailfish release days!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Sailfishing in the A.M.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
old photo
I found this old photo from a few years ago, its my good friend Phil from Sacramento CA pulling on a Big Shark he caught on Fly Rod. Notice the shallow H20!
This is a good time of year to do this type of fishing here in the Florida Key's.
Tight Lines Capt. Greg Poland
This is a good time of year to do this type of fishing here in the Florida Key's.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Window Shopper
We started the day out throwing the 10ft castnet on the Ballyhoos, & they were tough! Lots of bait, but they were deep & that always makes for a tough job. After a few throws & a few caught on hair hooks we were off to the drop off to catch a sailfish.
Just as i was rigging the first bait we saw 3 different free jumpers so i got us set up current & deployed 2 live ballyhoo in 6/0 VMC Circle Hooks rigged on 50lb Ohero Fluorocarbon leaders. We were fishing lg spinners loaded with 20lb mono on 7ft rods, i find this is the best outfit for live bait sailfishing, & i like to use conventional 2 speed reels when kite fishing, but always spinners when i am slow trolling or drifting baits.
We did not raise a fish which was really strange i thought, so i got on the radio & found there were a few sightings of sails but all & all the bite was slow.
About an hour later i ran up to a wreck i like to fish around & as we were getting the baits out i looked up & found a sailfish tailing down sea, i quickly reeled in the hoo & cast about 10ft in front of him & again to my surprise the sailfish swam right by my bait, turned right into the line of fire for the long bait & swam by it too? As the day went on we checked in with the guys in the sailfish tournament & found out there were 20 boats competing in the event & there were only 3 fish caught & all of them at about 7am.
We switched gears & headed over to the reef & caught a few big barracudas on light line. We were fishing top water Ohero plugs, ( Check out the photos) after that we tried sailfishing again in the late afternoon & didn't see a fish, we did have a few kingfish bites, but to be honest we were doing all we could to stay away from the kings! Catch Ya Later... Capt. Greg Poland
Just as i was rigging the first bait we saw 3 different free jumpers so i got us set up current & deployed 2 live ballyhoo in 6/0 VMC Circle Hooks rigged on 50lb Ohero Fluorocarbon leaders. We were fishing lg spinners loaded with 20lb mono on 7ft rods, i find this is the best outfit for live bait sailfishing, & i like to use conventional 2 speed reels when kite fishing, but always spinners when i am slow trolling or drifting baits.
We did not raise a fish which was really strange i thought, so i got on the radio & found there were a few sightings of sails but all & all the bite was slow.
About an hour later i ran up to a wreck i like to fish around & as we were getting the baits out i looked up & found a sailfish tailing down sea, i quickly reeled in the hoo & cast about 10ft in front of him & again to my surprise the sailfish swam right by my bait, turned right into the line of fire for the long bait & swam by it too? As the day went on we checked in with the guys in the sailfish tournament & found out there were 20 boats competing in the event & there were only 3 fish caught & all of them at about 7am.
We switched gears & headed over to the reef & caught a few big barracudas on light line. We were fishing top water Ohero plugs, ( Check out the photos) after that we tried sailfishing again in the late afternoon & didn't see a fish, we did have a few kingfish bites, but to be honest we were doing all we could to stay away from the kings! Catch Ya Later... Capt. Greg Poland
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Fished Key West
Just wanted to give a report from the end of the road.
Early this morning i trailered my new Islamorada 18 " Chittum Skiff " an hour & a half south to fish out of Key West, or was it yesterday sense its after Midnight... Cant sleep so i thought i might Blog a short fishing report...
The tarpon were rolling in a secret little spot & i had a client who really wanted to try & catch one even though we both know it was the wrong time of year. We were testing out some new reels from a manufacture i have been working with, & i wish i could report that we caught one but the best we could do with the tarpon was to get a bite... The 40 lb Silver King ate a circle hook with a live shrimp, but my buddy forgot it was a circle hook & struck the fish as it was running line & the hook fell out.
We did manage to catch a few nice cero mackerel in the channels west of downtown key west, I got some good testing on the new drag system. We were throwing floating Plugs " lures" looking to get a nice barracuda & found the channels were full of ballyhoo which were getting eaten by the mackerel. We had a great trip, & it was well worth the drive, ok guess its time to get some shut eye before i the alarm goes off... I am headed out Sailfishing in a few hours!
Early this morning i trailered my new Islamorada 18 " Chittum Skiff " an hour & a half south to fish out of Key West, or was it yesterday sense its after Midnight... Cant sleep so i thought i might Blog a short fishing report...
The tarpon were rolling in a secret little spot & i had a client who really wanted to try & catch one even though we both know it was the wrong time of year. We were testing out some new reels from a manufacture i have been working with, & i wish i could report that we caught one but the best we could do with the tarpon was to get a bite... The 40 lb Silver King ate a circle hook with a live shrimp, but my buddy forgot it was a circle hook & struck the fish as it was running line & the hook fell out.
We did manage to catch a few nice cero mackerel in the channels west of downtown key west, I got some good testing on the new drag system. We were throwing floating Plugs " lures" looking to get a nice barracuda & found the channels were full of ballyhoo which were getting eaten by the mackerel. We had a great trip, & it was well worth the drive, ok guess its time to get some shut eye before i the alarm goes off... I am headed out Sailfishing in a few hours!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Fishing Photography Now Blogging...
Fishing the Florida Keys from Miami to West of Key West, The Everglades National Park, & The Bahamas. Fly Fishing Instruction, Flats Fishing for bonefish, tarpon, & permit. Offshore from Sailfish to Mahi Mahi, Bottom Fishing for yellowtail snapper to grouper. www.gregpoland.com
Capt. Greg Poland
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