One of the most prized inshore species is the snook. Well known for their spectacular fights, sneaky tactics and finicky appetites, the snook is the hardest member of our inshore slam to catch. This past week our central Florida exploded when the wiley snook went on a tear. And five fortunate charter party were treated to the angling thrill of a life-time. Their snooky accounts are as follows.
Ken Handle and crew thought they were in for a relaxing, pedestrian-paced day on the water as a break from the hyper-grind of a Disney World vacation. Little did they realize their last minute decision to go fishing would thrust them into the snook ‘twilight zone’. Out of all their recent Orlando memories, I’ll wager the one most deeply imbedded will be of the charter with Captain Roland. Pictured below are two of Ken’s giant snook caught on light tackle near Sebastian Inlet:
Dr. Greene along with his son Brian of Melbourne Beach had been hoping to hop aboard Capt. Roland’s boat for quite some time. These old friends of the Grizz had been subjected to so many stories of amazing angling success on his charters over the years; they could not stand it any longer. Their guide trip started slow but when the ‘bite’ finally came, they were up to the challenge. Pictured below is Dr. Greene proudly examining a snook and Brian holding a monster trout.
It may not be in good form to extol one’s own exploits in a public forum but the following triumph has to be broadcasted. Pictured below is Capt. ‘Grizz’ with a Goliath-sized snook caught yesterday. The monster was 44 inches long and weighed in excess of 30 pounds (the state certified Boca grip scale used the weight the fish ends at 30 pounds). It was bested on mere 10 pound mono line in about two feet of water. This is a personal record for Capt. Roland … both Capt. Peter and I am green with envy. Great going Grizz!
Speaking of Capt. Peter, he also found the giant snook this past week and his clients had a blast catching, photographing and releasing. One set of clients, Kurt and Lorie, not only caught snook with Peter but tarpon, bull shark, redfish, trout, gar, and jack cavelle as well. Their fishing trip was so special we decided to submit an exclusive, in-depth follow-up report to it. Pictured below is Kurt with one of the giant snook caught of his charter with Capt. Peter.
Now snook feed during both daylight and night-time hours. And evening snook hunts are often preferred among the local old-times. Pictured below is young-timer Capt. Peter with an 18 pounder caught during a recent night-time adventure. By the way, we offer late afternoon snook charters from May to November. The river and inshore waters morph into a different realm after sunset.
The snook action will continue to sizzle throughout the summer. Call us to reserve a date to stalk these savage beasts … you just may be treated to a thrill of a lifetime.
Capt. Roland ‘Grizz’ Jones caught a personal best snook yesterday by landing a 44 inch, 30 plus pound monster. The fish bottomed-out a certified Boca grip which maxs at 30 lbs meaning the fish exceeded the weight. Grizz caught the fish in two feet of water using one of his smaller rods spooled with 10 lb mono line. The fish was carefully released alive. Great going Grizz!
The last week ahs been a busy one for the fishing guides of Native Sons. We continue to have family charters along with our normal charters of intense, high-performance anglers. The first three fishing summaries in the report this week were guided and written by Capt. Peter Deeks, Jr. while the last week belong to Capt. Roland “the Grizz’ Jones.
Matt and his son Caleb were down visiting their good friend Jake, and decided to take advantage of our great fishing. This trip was a “Fun” trip in that our objective was to just go pull on a bunch of fish! We started the morning off tarpon fishing the creeks, and were unable to get a hook to stay in their bony mouths. But we were able to keep the hook in 20 jack crevalle up to 15lbs, 5 foot gar, and a nice gator trout. We fished the Melbourne area with live finger mullet.
On this trip, I had a great family that loved to fish. The special occasion that brought this family over from Orlando was for Mason’s Birthday. I have to say that Mason is one of the best anglers (especially for his age) I have ever had the opportunity to have on my boat! We fished in the Indian River near Titusville on this trip. The key to getting bites was to fish the large schools of mullet that were in sand spots near floating grass. We had some exciting bites on the live mullet – which was key to capturing the redfish’s interest. Pictured is Mason helping his sister out with her 1st redfish.
The thought of fishing for sharks and tarpon within the calm waters of the Indian River brought Chuck and his son Mason back on my boat a couple of days later. We fished in the Melbourne/Sebastian area with live mullet and 8 inch pogies. This was a typical day of creek fishing in that we had a blast catching many different species of hard pulling fish…and primarily sight fishing! By the end of the morning, Mason’s arms were just about worn out from the 20lb jacks, 6 foot gar, and 5 foot bull sharks. Giant schools of 10 – 20lb jacks were daisy chaining on the surface of the water, dozens of sharks were finning up in down the creeks, countless tarpon were rolling, and groups of “big-boy” gar were sunning on the surface…and all were hungry and slamming our baits off of the surface. There’s not much more exciting than 20lb jacks fighting over your bait 10 feet from the boat and throwing water all over the place…except for maybe a 5 foot bull shark jumping out of the water equally as close to the boat trying to throw your hook!
Capt. Roland guided Bryant Johnson of Melbourne and Ted Lang and T.J. Broom of Sarasota on a half-day charter in the Melbourne Beach segment of the Indian River last week. The trio did very well with a total of 13 fish consisting of trout and bluefish. The fish ranged in size from 18 to 30 inches with the two biggest trout tipping the scales at 7.5 lbs and 8.5 lbs. Pictured below are Ted with his monster and Bryant holding another trout.
Our final installment in this fishing report features Bob Sharp from Mobile, Alabama and his two friends, John and Leif, from Orlando, Florida. Fishing under bright blue skies and strong SW winds, this crew caught redfish and trout. The crystal clear water amazed the three as they were able see and catch fish casually cruising by Capt. Roland’s boat. Pictured .are Leif with an 8 lb. trout and John with a hefty speckled trout.
While doing his very best impersonation of the maniac pitch-man from the Family Auto Mart commercials, Capt. Rocky and the Native Sons Crew are blitzing the television airwaves during the month of May. Scattered around the ESPN2 and Sun Sports fishing shows on Thursday evenings and Saturday and Sunday mornings, viewers in the Orlando and Brevard communities will witness our first foray into the wonderful world commercials. By the way, on our next commercial we plan to hawk the Pocket Fisherman and the Banjo Lure. (Follow this link for a sneak preview of our own Ron Popeil – Native Sons TV Commercial
We wish to express our special thanks to our good friend Gary Martin and Martin Media of Satellite Beach for his scripting, filming, editing, producing and encouraging.
We are approaching the heart of tournament season as guides of Native Sons Fishing. Thus far we’ve participated in three tournaments and are finding the awards platform familiar territory. Yesterday Jessica Jones, along with her dad, Capt. Roland ‘Grizzly’ Jones, and I fished the fourth leg of the Florida Flatsfishing Association circuit. Jessica caught an 8.93 pound trout for second place in the trout category and won first place lady angler. At the mid-way mark of thius circuit, Jessica has a commanding lead in the overal trout standings, out of 150 anglers, as well as the lead in the lady angler division. By the way, Jess and I have both secured spots in the season-ending championships to be held October 16-18, 2009.
The Grizz and Capt. Peter will begin their assault on the FLFA during the second half of the season beginning with the Ft. Pierce event on May 30-31. Our very close friend and alley in crime, Capt. Don ‘the Walrus’ Patterson, begin our participation in the Extreme Redfish tour next weekend while Peter and I start our competition in the national IFA Redfish Tour held in St. Augustine on the following weekend.
Someone once said, “A family that fishes together stays together.” There can be so many special memories made on a family fishing trip and it was our pleasure to be involved in the memory making process for five sets of families over the past week.
Our first family fishing report features the Bulingtons from Gary, Indiana. Jerry and Brenda brought their daughter and grandchildren to Melbourne Beach for a week of Florida vacationing. Part of their time was spent in the attractions of Orlando but I suspect that it is the two days of fishing that are the most deeply etched in their memories. On the first trip, Jerry took Graddin (11 years old) and MaKennah (7 years old) fishing on the Banana River near Cocoa Beach. We landed six redfish and trout for the day and saw all kinds of marine wildlife. Highlights included the melee of MaKennah’s first fish and Graddin’s largest fish to date as well as a pirate-like exploration of one of our spoil islands. The pictures below are from day one.
The second Bulington adventure took place several days later on the Indian River near Vero Beach. This stretch of our lagoon system is very different than central Brevard County. There are snook, flounder, grouper, snapper, bluefish, monster jacks as well as redfish and trout in these clear, pristine tidal waters. And we caught most of these species during day as we alternated between the flats and natural islands and wading and the large bay boat. By the way, there is one 40 plus inch snook (25 pounds or so) which Graddin will not soon forget. Pictured below are MaKennah and Graddin’s first snook along with a doormat flounder we could not bring ourselves to release.
The weather played a major factor in the fishing on our charter with the Evans family last Monday (Steve and Lauren along with their sons Sam and Ben). This outstanding family from Baltimore had a blast despite facing winds approaching 30 mph from a super high pressure system. By the way, in order to mitigate the effects of the elements, I used one of our larger bay boats and fished the narrower sections of the Banana River near Merritt Island. We had a ball, caught fish and made great family memories
The trip ended on one of the more bizarre catches in recent memory as the two boys collaborated on landing a single 30 inch trout, five minutes apart, on two different rods, connected by a common catfish. Here’s how it happened – the older brother hooked and fought the huge trout for several minutes before being suddenly broken off. Five minutes later, the younger brother began fighting a fish also – a catfish entangled half-way down his line. It turned out that said catfish had earlier entangled himself in the first line and cut the portion of the braided line leading back to the rod of the older brother. The whiskered creature then proceeded to eventually entangle himself a second time, this time in the younger brother’s line. Connected to the catfish was a thirty foot section of the first line with the angry trout still firmly attached. Sam started the battle with the trout while Ben concluded it boat-side. Pictured below are the two brothers holding the befuddled trout.
The Mulla family from Palm Bay, Florida is featured in our next report. Chartering with Capt. Roland, parents John and Marjorie along with daughters Sarah and Rebecca, fished the Melbourne Beach and Grant stretch of the Indian River. The crew caught a number of good fish and had a grand time on a picture-perfect day. It was tiny Rebecca with the biggest fish, a 32 inch, 8.5 lb gator trout.
(We have several other family charters over the past week and are awaiting summaries in order to post results. When received, these summaries will be added to the website).
Known for their aerial displays, sneaky tactics and powerful runs, snook are a favorite target among the elite four game fish in our shallow water flats (redfish, snook, tarpon and trout). A warm water resident, much like our tarpon, snook have begun to move into their familiar late spring haunts over the past several weeks such as the edges of islands, mangrove shorelines, docks and mouths of inlets. Even though most are caught during daylight hours, they are also nocturnal feeders and make a thrilling adversary to hunt after sunset. (See the picture below of the 18 pounders caught by Capt. Peter last night near Sebastian Inlet). By the way, we offer evening snook charters during the summer to those who have the stamina and adrenalin sufficient for the challenge of the snook.
The fishing over the past week has been warming along with the weather. We still had to contend with the lingering blustery winds of early spring and a freak cold front on Easter weekend but conditions have improved overall … and so has the fishing.
Our lead report stars young Scott Martin and his dad Gary, both of Satellite Beach. Scott is quite a fishing fanatic and was anxious to catch his first snook during a Ft. Pierce adventure with Capt. Rocky. Despite the early start time and strong winds Scott succeeded on his mission with a 31 inch beast. He also caught a 31 inch trout during the charter to join the elite 30/30 fraternity.
A day later, Capt. Roland took Greg Mihalak from Michigan to the same area and had a pair of great guide trips on half day charters. He caught a bunch of fish including snook and large trout.
The Mulla family from Palm Bay, Florida are featured in our next report. Chartering with Capt. Roland, parents John and Marjorie along with daughters Sarah and Rebecca, fished the Melbourne Beach and Grant stretch of the Indian River. The crew caught a number of good fish and had a grand time on a picture-perfect day. It was tiny Rebecca with the biggest fish, a 32 inch, 8.5 lb gator trout.
Another recent Capt. Roland chartered starred the Georgiades family from New Jersey. Fishing on a freak cold spring day (temps in the low 40s), this hale and hardy crew found protected waters in the Melbourne Beach area. They caught 15 to 20 fish including redfish, trout, ladyfish and jacks. George’s two sons, Mikey and Andreas are pictured below holding a redfish and jack.
Finally, Charles and Anna from the UK chartered Capt. Rocky on a half-day guide trip to stalk redfish in the Titusville section of the Indian River Lagoon system. Among the trophies caught on the day was this 32 inch brute which took Charles on quite a wild ride before being subdued.
Capt. Grizz (Roland Jones) and his friend Perry of Melbourne went hog wild on Tuesday evening by bagging six large wild boars in one afternoon. The largest hog weighed near 200 pounds while the smallest tipped the scales near 80 pounds. By the way, according to the latest Poor Farmer’s Almanac, there is more wild pork roaming Brevard County, Florida than any other area of the country except, of course, Washington D.C. And the exact location of where these hogs were shot, only the ‘shadow’ knows (see photo below).
On our fishing trips we are used to being entertained by a wide variety of wildlife such as manatees, alligators, dolphins and, occasionally, otters, raccoons, armadillos or wild hogs roaming along the shorelines. On Tuesday, however, Capt. Roland spotted and photographed the rare spectacle of a deer swimming across the Indian River towards one of the small spoil islands near Grant, Florida. This was quite an oddity in this area.
