Great vid man, nothing wrong with busting out a spinning rod. I leave the dock with a mix of rods for different fish and different techniques. I love all kinds of fishing
My grandfather caught the world record tarpon on a fly rod. He moved to Islamorada in the late 90’s to retire as a big game fisherman. He became good pals with Stu Apte who taught him his down and dirty technique. I remember visiting Stu’s house as a kid and he was showing off some rods he had, one I remember was the first double handed fly rod ever made designed by him for Fenwick. He explained that he regrets the design and said it pulls your hands away from the butt of the rod losing leverage on the fish. I think it was around 1998 in The Golden Fly Tarpon tournament he and his guide Steve Thomas landed what he later discovered to be a world record fish. In the photo you can see that the zip tie was not positioned in the thickest girth of the fish throwing the weight measurement formula off. Sometime after the tournament my grandfather went along with a friend to have a replica made of a permit and when they were in the office discussing the options my grandfather’s friend asked him to pull out his photo of his tarpon. The owner of the replica shop gasped immediately and said “that’s a 235 lb tarpon”, to which my grandfather and his friend modestly played it down. The owner insisted, that he was an expert in telling the weight of any fish within 5 lbs and he said “I’m telling you that’s a 235 lb fish”, plus he also had the measurements to reference because the length had been correctly measured. He told my grandfather that he did not have a mold for such a fish to be made and that an extra charge would be added to make one but the owner was so aghast at the size of the fish that he waved the mold fee just to make it in his shop. That fish now sits in the lobby at the IGFA, a 235 lb world record tarpon caught on a fly by Stephen A. Bell in under 1 hour 10 minutes. My grandfather would never kill such a fish nor did his guide have a kill tag, it was just one of those things.
The west side of the Everglades ... 10,000 islands is one area in Florida where I throw a 9 wgt instead of an 8 wgt ... you never know what you are going to catch and you need to be able to apply some heavy pressure on the fish to keep them out of mangroves/structure and away from the bull sharks ... nice grouper on the fly
Be careful, that area of the Glades is like crack cocaine, it is very addictive. I fish further inshore (2-3 miles) in my canoe and catch tons of baby tarpon and snook. I dropped some videos from last Feb. Goliath on the fly???!!!! So cool. Enjoyed the video!
Nice , the placed you stayed at looked very nice . What fun people to fish with you can tell Hot Rod is bi and has been around fishing she made some great casts with both a fly rod and spinning rod and stuck some pigs . I can tell you are moving towards the dark side , your starting to turn into the salty dog 🐕 not a bad thing salt is very addicting . Stay Hugh
Cypress Cottage bit.ly/3r8YoY7
Great vid man, nothing wrong with busting out a spinning rod. I leave the dock with a mix of rods for different fish and different techniques. I love all kinds of fishing
My grandfather caught the world record tarpon on a fly rod. He moved to Islamorada in the late 90’s to retire as a big game fisherman. He became good pals with Stu Apte who taught him his down and dirty technique. I remember visiting Stu’s house as a kid and he was showing off some rods he had, one I remember was the first double handed fly rod ever made designed by him for Fenwick. He explained that he regrets the design and said it pulls your hands away from the butt of the rod losing leverage on the fish. I think it was around 1998 in The Golden Fly Tarpon tournament he and his guide Steve Thomas landed what he later discovered to be a world record fish. In the photo you can see that the zip tie was not positioned in the thickest girth of the fish throwing the weight measurement formula off. Sometime after the tournament my grandfather went along with a friend to have a replica made of a permit and when they were in the office discussing the options my grandfather’s friend asked him to pull out his photo of his tarpon. The owner of the replica shop gasped immediately and said “that’s a 235 lb tarpon”, to which my grandfather and his friend modestly played it down. The owner insisted, that he was an expert in telling the weight of any fish within 5 lbs and he said “I’m telling you that’s a 235 lb fish”, plus he also had the measurements to reference because the length had been correctly measured. He told my grandfather that he did not have a mold for such a fish to be made and that an extra charge would be added to make one but the owner was so aghast at the size of the fish that he waved the mold fee just to make it in his shop. That fish now sits in the lobby at the IGFA, a 235 lb world record tarpon caught on a fly by Stephen A. Bell in under 1 hour 10 minutes. My grandfather would never kill such a fish nor did his guide have a kill tag, it was just one of those things.
Home waters for me. Those Grouper are all over the place down in Flamingo. awesome video.
Exciting video. It looked like y’all had a blast.
Outstanding video, Rob and Hotrod are legends...
Thanks for sharing.
Great stuff Dude! Thanks for bringing us along!
Very nice production Mr. Ben, you crack me up boss.
9:01 sounds like Dr. Grant in Jurassic Park pretending to get shocked by the electric fence
I forget that you’re a right hand caster & reeler like me. Nice to see that
The grouper were badass Ben! What a bonus!
The west side of the Everglades ... 10,000 islands is one area in Florida where I throw a 9 wgt instead of an 8 wgt ... you never know what you are going to catch and you need to be able to apply some heavy pressure on the fish to keep them out of mangroves/structure and away from the bull sharks ... nice grouper on the fly
Nice buddy. Thanks for the vid.
Glad to know the architect of the Airbnb you stayed in. Keeps me tuning in!
Beautiful place nice trip👍
Happy Huge day everyone!
Be careful, that area of the Glades is like crack cocaine, it is very addictive. I fish further inshore (2-3 miles) in my canoe and catch tons of baby tarpon and snook. I dropped some videos from last Feb. Goliath on the fly???!!!! So cool. Enjoyed the video!
Grouper on the fly!? I'm gonna have to try that one for myself.
I recommend that method for all black drum releases. (Speaking about the first one)
Tell us more about those spinning rods, Ben. They look mint...
The reel goes on the bottom, I think.
@@HugeFlyFisherman You're joking!? I'm gonna get me one of those...
Cool fishing (and catching) 🤘
I want your discount on that Lodge
What rod model/weight were you running Dude
Great video as always. For a matter of perspective, how far were you casting to the groupers next to the mabgroves?
15-20 ft
Which Scott rod are you using?
9wt Sector
Kinda look like you panicked a bit when you realized it was a grouper lol
That was a David Grouper
PB Grouper on fly!!
Can you catch fish in the canal behind house?
We didn’t try, but I’m sure there are fish in there.
Did anyone else count the seconds? I think that gruper was out for 29.6 seconds
13:28 I'm getting Seth Rogan laugh
I see a new sticker-
Fly fishing is stupid
I don't say "You dummy," I say "You big dummy."
Nice , the placed you stayed at looked very nice . What fun people to fish with you can tell Hot Rod is bi and has been around fishing she made some great casts with both a fly rod and spinning rod and stuck some pigs . I can tell you are moving towards the dark side , your starting to turn into the salty dog 🐕 not a bad thing salt is very addicting . Stay Hugh
First