head boats in florida

[Happy Dude]

hi,

i'm off to orlando on the 17th of june and although we have digs in orlando for 2 weeks i want to head to the coast for 2-3 days and do a bit on the head boats with my 2 sons.

i tried to convince my wife that we should do 1 week mickey mouse and 1 week islamorada.

her reply, "you had 2 weeks in kenya fishing with your mates, this is my holiday"

what a selfish bitch....lol

which side is best for this??

gulf or atlantic??

thanks in advance

les

[PanamaJack]

Hi Big_Haddie
Brinkmanship on my part I'm afraid! I was hoping that someone who'd fished that 'part of the world' was going to respond. But no joy ......... yet?

Anyway Port Canaveral on the Atlantic coast's probably just under an hour away from Orlando is, I suspect the closest. And, from what I can gather, there're at least 3 head boats that operate out of its marinas - Miss Cape Canaveral, an 85' Lydia - nice boat, Ocean Obsession and Orlando Princess.

They seem to run 20 to 35 miles offshore and target mainly Snapper and Grouper, although just about any and everything can and does turn up. All, I'm sure, would have tackle for hire.

None unfortunately seem to have particularly well developed web sites! Here's that for Miss Cape Canaveral, but it's little more than a holding page with 'phone and e-mail contacts - http://www.fishingspacecoast.org/Miss_Cape.html. that does, in turn, link to another page but again not too much info. Then I've found this reference to the Ocean Obsession in a newspaper report - http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/SPORTS05/606110338/1022/sports05.

That unfortunately is all I've been able to find. It might be worth playing around with some of the search engines.

Hope that's a starting point. Please post back after your holidays with a report on your experiences though and a note of what you and your sons catch.

Best of Luck
Dave

[PanamaJack]

Les
Have you perhaps thought about posting to one of the many 'Stateside forums? There're a number identified in the 'Links to other Forums' section on our Club's web site - http://www.scbi.org.uk. One probably worth trying, that also has current fishing reports, is http://www.floridasportsman.com/.

It's always worth mentionning that you're a Brit - that seems to 'trigger' them into being particularly helpful.
Dave

[Happy Dude]

hi dave,

thank for the replies.

times running in for me just now as we leave on saturday and i'm getting dirty looks from my wife at the moment as i am typing instead of packing....lol

i'll get the "florida sportsman" magazine when i'm over, there is bound to be loads advertising in it.

i did see someones website fishing on a pontoon boat in mosquito lagoon which i think is close by

$500 + tip for a 8 hour day mostly fishing for small tarpon, permit, jack crevalles etc, probably the ideal type of fishing for my boys who are 15 and 10, especially the youngest as he get bored quickly if there is a lack of bites.

i'll let you know how we get on

les

[PanamaJack]

Hi Les
Mosquito Lagoon is a tremendous venue. A lot of the fishing there can be quite visual, with sight casting for the fish including the big Red Drum. Certainly your sons would be impressed with the small Tarpon. They're great fun on lightish spin gear and spent lots of time jumping.

I guess it's all a bit of a balancing act.

A head boat, like Miss Cape Canaveral's capable of carry 100 anglers - so there lines everywhere, and things can get fraught - but it's going to be somewhat cheaper.

But a skiff, and I'm sure I noted some others on a reply to another posting about fishing in the Orlando area, will be much more intimate with your sons. The skipper will be communicating with them and working hard to catch fish. And they're going to spot the fish, and get fast runs (and jumps from some of them). If you've got the money I'd suggest that's the best option, even if you only do it for a day.

In fact linked to that, go out with a guide one day, then perhaps get a self-drive boat. There'd be several hire companies in that location.
Dave

[WRC]

hi,

i'm off to orlando on the 17th of june and although we have digs in orlando for 2 weeks i want to head to the coast for 2-3 days and do a bit on the head boats with my 2 sons.

i tried to convince my wife that we should do 1 week mickey mouse and 1 week islamorada.

her reply, "you had 2 weeks in kenya fishing with your mates, this is my holiday"

what a selfish bitch....lol

which side is best for this??

gulf or atlantic??

thanks in advance

lesyour wife would be tearing her hair out if you went to islamorada, there,s nothing to do there other than drink and fish.... gulf coast is great fishing especially from the piers and quay,s... great beaches too... get all the kit from walmart it,s cheaper than bass pro shops... use it and chuck it later.... thats what i used to do... take all my gear every time know to fort myers beach and naples.. have a good one ... chris.. WRC

[Happy Dude]

your wife would be tearing her hair out if you went to islamorada, there,s nothing to do there other than drink and fish.... gulf coast is great fishing especially from the piers and quay,s... great beaches too... get all the kit from walmart it,s cheaper than bass pro shops... use it and chuck it later.... thats what i used to do... take all my gear every time know to fort myers beach and naples.. have a good one ... chris.. WRC

hi chris,

know what you mean about islamorada, we were there 6 years ago and she hated it....lol

me and the boys fishing off the dock and from a boat, her stuck in the room with the creepy crawlies, snakes and lizards, sounds like a deal to me....lol

thinking about getting a condo with hire boat for a week in marathon next year, my boys love fishing and hate shopping, so a week there and one in orlando is on the cards, though it might cost us a day in disneyworld.....yuk!!!

but she loves the place as much as we hate it.....lol

but naples and ft.myres sound good too.

cheers

les

[Happy Dude]

hi,

well didn't get any boatfishing done, drove to daytona for a day and fished the pier with hire tackle for a couple of hours

loads of bites but very few fish, i saw 1 guy with a small redfish and a couple of spadefish, i got 2 things similar to tompot blennies, all using stinking frozen shrimp for bait, could have done with a bit elastic to bind it on with.

the main reason we didn't go for a boat is the weather for 5 days was the worst thunder storms i have seen, one morning there was fire engines running everywhere, 600+ lightning groundstrikes in the orlando area alone, pretty impressive

always next year :)

[PanamaJack]

Now you know why Orlando's got that reputation as the Thunderstorm Capital of the World! And why, I guess, none of the 'conventional' buildings bother with guttering.

I’ve never tried pier fishing overseas before. I suppose I’d always assumed that results were going to be broadly similar to yours. However I'm off to the ‘States in October and, for some of the time, I’ll be fly fishing in North Carolina for Red Drum. Now there they do catch some BIG fish from their piers – have a look at some of their records for Sharks and Tarpon - http://www.ncfisheries.net/recreational/record.htm.

But the LARGEST fish taken from a ‘Stateside pier, that I’m aware of, was the previous All-Tackle World Record Tiger Shark – a fish of 1780lbs. There’s a picture of it on this url - http://www.cherrygrovepier.com/tour.htm - on the 2nd page of their photo gallery link.
Dave

[Happy Dude]

hi dave,

i didn't expect much as we had no gear of our own, the end tackle was a 2/0 beak hook attached to the clip of what looked like a wire pike trace and the bait was minging.

the other people fishing didn't have much of a clue either

about 14 years ago at fort lauderdale i had a walk on the pier there and there was all manner of fish getting caught, snappers, drum, etc

people were catching pilchards and such on sabikis and using them for livebait, the shop on the peir was much better stocked than the daytona one

6 years ago we stayed at a place in the keys called tavernier, the digs had their own jetty on the gulf side and me and my 2 sons caught loads of fish, mangrove snapper, grunts, my youngest aged 4 at the time caught a triggerfish, i even had a nurse shark of around 20lb on the floppiest of spinning rods you have seen with 6lb line through to the hook.

in daylight the big snappers were as bad as mullet in that they would mop up all the free offerings and leave the one with the hook in it :(

so we went back in the dark and murdered them.....lol (all returned alive i must add)

now that the family vacation is over i'm on to planning next years fishing trip for the boys.

possibly tanzania this year, maybe kenya again, waiting for prices for boats and digs

cheers

[PanamaJack]

Hi Big_Haddie
I've only ever fished out from Tavernier once for Bonefish. The guide from (is it?) the Holiday Isle complex, opposite Whale Harbor in Islamorada, took us for an 'interesting' ride through, at times, really dense mangroves to the fueling dock there. Lots of really big Snook in that mangrove cover, but I guess you'd really struggle to 'extract' one. But yes, when we got to the fueling dock cum livebait station, the water was full of decent sized Snapper!

I don’t know where you fish in Tanzania but Peter Ruysennars at The Pemba Channel Fishing Club runs some interesting multi day trips down along that coast as far as (and back from) Kilwa - almost down to the Mozambique border. It covers as well Mafia Island and Latham. There’re details of his first exploratory trip on his web site - http://www.pembachannel.com/index.asp.

Just booked up my next trip - virtually all fly fishing in the 'States in October. We're going to, hopefully, fish the 'blitzes' off Montauk (Long Island) for Striped Bass and Bluefish, then down to the Outer Banks (North Carolina) for the Red Drum. And finally back to Upper New York state where we're going to fish the runs of King and Chum Salmon - Pacific fish - out of all places a feeder stream of Lake Ontario. (The authorities also stock the Lake with Atlantic Salmon and Steelheads!)
Dave

[Happy Dude]

hi dave,

yes, we went to the fueling station through all the channels, redfish scattering in front of us in 2 feet of water.

there was a huge barracuda lurking under the moored boats there.

not fished tanzania before, waiting for a reply from an outfit on boat prices, researching digs and flights just now trying to put together a total costing for a 2 week trip with 7 or 8 days fishing.

we fancy a change from the trolling we do in kenya, and those dogtooth tuna look interesting, plus jigging for GT's looks fun

your trip sounds good, but i don't flyfish.

i had bluefish in the keys last spring, we fished at night freelining strip baits in the chum trail and had fish to 8lb, good fighting fish, sort of a cross between a bass and a pirahana...lol

also had kingfish to 15lb all on spinning rods and 10lb line, great fun