This past week, fly fishing for tarpon has been phenomenal. It was the week of the famous Atlantic Palolo worm hatch. This phenomenon occurs when these worms hatch from sponges that grow on the hard bottom of shallow water flats from Key Largo to Key West.

Let me begin by saying that I first met John and his wife Connie 2 years ago as first time clients. I received an email from him stating that he wanted to try some fly fishing for some bonefish and tarpon in September of 2004. The email was nothing out of the ordinary. It was basically the same e-mail I get from new clients looking for charters.

Sept, 2004 – The Arrival.  John steps on my boat at the dock at Papa Joe’s Marina in Islamorada. We head out to the backcountry looking for some tailing bonefish. While poling, we got to talking and our conversations included hunting and fishing. John is an avid hunter is the state of Missouri.  Let me tell you something about John, he is one of those guys that loves being out on the water, no matter if he catches anything or not. He loves the chase. He is always relaxed and in awe of what he sees out the flats. The fishing that day was nothing less than spectacular. We had multiple shots at tailing Bonefish, Baby Tarpon and Permit.  Although we never hooked up, John was just amazed at what we had seen.  John’s fly casting skills were average. He knew he had to work on his casting because the conditions that day were extremely calm and long casts were necessary. This was the beginning of the John Schlueter era of flats fishing.  

I get another e-mail from John this year. He says he wants to come down and mess around with some big tarpon on fly. I responded to his email saying I was ready when he was. John arrived on Tuesday, May 24th. Our first fishing day was for the following day May 25th. That morning we launch the boat at 6:30 AM and take a short ride to the tarpon fishing grounds. From the minute we arrived to the minute we left, we threw at tarpon. String after string of tarpon kept coming by. John threw and threw. He gets a fish to eat. I scream “He ate it, He ate it” John was a little late on setting the hook. No problem, right. We are getting tons of shots, not a big deal.  John gets another fish to eat. He is just a bit slow on the hook set. John is as calm as can be. He is laughing, just enjoying the heck out it. My knees are still shaking on the platform from the excitement and John is laughing his butt off. We go home.

Day Two

Another beautiful morning. Another 6:30 AM departure. Another day of strings of fish.
Meatballs are coming down the flat. For those who don’t know what a meatball is, Definition: a meatball is a large amount of tarpon, 50 or more, balled up, tails sticking out of the water, moving slow and daisy chaining.  Let me tell you something, John may not be able to cast 100 feet but he can surely feed a tarpon and he listens very well. He had gotten 5 fish to eat the fly on this insane day but John was still a little slow on the hook set. But is John angry, depressed, suicidal - nope. Is he loving life - Yes.

I always look forward to fishing with John. Thanks for those roast beef sandwiches. Oh and Wilson says Hello.