Tarpon fishing in the Florida Keys 

The only thing worth getting up early in the morning is to go fishing. I love to fish; mostly saltwater. I enjoy saltwater fishing because of the variety. You never know what is going to be on the end of the line when you bring that fish up to the surface. I go on an annual Tarpon fishing trip with 11 other guys each year. All of the fishermen on this trip are serious cigar smokers. This particular trip is the highlight of my year. I look forward to it from the time it finishes in late April all the way until the next year. Most of the group feels the same way and we talk about it nonstop. I am sure it annoys others around us. I personally enjoy the trip for a variety of reasons other than the fishing. The most important to me is that it is guilt free. Everyone knows I am going to be away, no one gives me a hard time at home or work for being gone. The only schedule I have to keep is getting on the boat at a certain time which I said before I am happy to do. I can smoke as many cigars as I like, eat what I want, take a nap if I choose, really do anything I wish. Strip clubs are the only thing that is off limits� yes, hookers fall under that umbrella as well. Our fishing tournament is held in Islamorada Florida in the Keys and is made up of two teams of 6 fishermen. We fish out of the world famous Bud & Mary's Marina. Each team has 3 boats with two fishermen on each. It is a 3 day tournament with 5 fishing sessions of 4 hours each. We use the same fishing guides and have been doing this for nearly a decade. We target Tarpon but catch other species while we are hunting for them. If you have never fished for tarpon you should do it. It is one of the best fights you can have sometimes lasting an hour or more to get the fish subdued so that you can remove the hook and send him on his way. They are very hard to keep on the line, they fly out of the water shaking their heads trying to get rid of the hook. The hardest part is trying to find them and getting them to take your bait. If your boat caught a single tarpon per outing, that would be a good trip. If you caught more than one per outing, that would be an amazing trip. The fishing trip has evolved into a serious tournament. Well, it is serious for us, maybe just for me. I take it so seriously that we had an app built for it. The app is a ton of fun. You can enter your own catch and when you do, all participants in the tournament get dinged with a notification. It is fantastic to know that all the other boats, especially your competitors were just notified of your catch. On the other hand, when your boat is quiet and nothing is happening, it is really deflating to get notified of the other team�s success. It makes for a great competition. We stay at the same hotel, go to the same restaurants, smoke cigars morning, noon and night. It is absolutely fantastic. I get pumped up just typing this out! There is so much more to tell about the trip and so many stories from the years we have been doing it, I could never include them all. Next time you want one of the greatest fishing experiences of your life, give me a call and I can get you connected to all the right people.