Been entirely too long since my last report - but this has been a summer of re-fitting my old skiff.  So far we've added a trolling motor (been doing without one for more than 20 years until now)  a 24 volt model with all the bells and whistles ( including a PowerMania on board charger).  Once all of that was done I was able to re-power as well (can't remember how many motors have been on the back of my old Maverick.  This one's another Evinrude E-Tec 90 (my fourth one since 2005) and I can't say enough good things about them. Add to that a few other items and I'm just about ready for the opening of snook season a few weeks from now.  We've already added one of Carbon Marine's line tamers (essential for fly anglers when a skiff has a trolling motor...).

In the past month or so I was able to get out a few times down to Flamingo and, as usual the fish are there.  Here's a couple of pics from that time that show some of the variety...

While my angler was fighting this small goliath grouper - his nephew was hooked up on a tarpon... and that's how our days have gone... The goliath was carefully released after the photo...

We were actually tarpon fishing when this nice triple tail swam by and this is typical of summer along the coast of the 'glades...

Yesterday I was finally able to take the skiff out with all the new gear aboard.  It was a slow day - but we still managed to jump four small tarpon (from 15 to about 30 lbs) on lures - they would only follow our flies... and four or five small snook on both flies and lures.. Here's our best one...

and a very nice end to the day on a 9wt rod.. very carefully released to fight another day.

The fly pattern we had the most success with yesterday was one of my signature patterns - a Silhouette... Here's a pic of one of our staples - year in and year out, on a stout 1/0 hook... in all white.

In the years when I tied commercially this pattern was always a best seller with shops and anglers - since the early eighties.....

Be a hero - take a kid fishing !