This was a great week of family fishing in the Everglades National Park ! Feb. brings snow to the north and snow birds to the sunny Florida Keys . This week was the start of winter breaks for school kids up north and so guide boats saw father - son , mom - daughter trips and in my case a full week of the whole family out on the boat . Mom , dad and the kids all out on my 22 foot Ranger Bay Boat .
Family fishing means rod bending , going out looking for a good trout bite and that is a sure bet in Florida Bay . While drifting the Rankin Basin area we were able to keep very busy slinging popping corks and shrimp for spotted sea trout up to 4 lbs . There was also a good by-catch of jacks and lady fish mixed in with the trout . The action was so busy at times that if you were to pull up to my boat it would have looked like a pirates ship with a sword fight in full swing . 4 seven foot spinning rods cutting the air and me pivoting in the midst of it all trying to keep order , keep hooks baited and releasing fish .
There were big smiles and alot of laughs going around . Mid- week we were able to get out on the Gulf of Mexico and fish a few wrecks in 10-20 feet of water . The fish played along with our plans and cobia to 15lbs gave the kids a big fight on 10lb spinning gear as well as pompano to 3 lbs and jacks to 10 lbs . The fish were all eating bucktails and shrimp worked along the bottom .
The end of the week we were able to introduce two young brothers 9 and 14 to some fly fishing for trout and we were able to get the basics down and have a blast with trout , ladyfish and jacks on the 8wt. fly rod while throwing clouser minnows in 2 ft of water .
The best day on the water was saturday with a couple from Wisconsin who just wanted to catch fish . Bob and Michelle are repeat guests and we wore out the trout and finished with a 100 lb bull shark . In the afternoon I took out a gentleman and his 3 year old son . The idea was to just catch a fish for the kid . We made a 5 minute run to a deep channel near by the marina and chummed up a mess of mangrove snapper and let little Conner keep his rod bent for 2 hours until he stated it was time to go home because he figured out that he had caught all the fish in the ocean . What makes this day so
great ? There wasn't any real rock star catches made but you could'nt tell Conner and his dad that and Bob and Michelle said it best "We didn't get snowed on and we were'nt in our offices".

Take a kid fishing and see how good it feels .
Capt. Matt Bellinger
Bamboo Charters
Everglades Adventures