From: Capt. Jim Hammond
Date: September 22, 2002
Time: 15:35:34
Ladyfish
Family Elopidae, TARPONS Elops saurus
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Description: terminal mouth, slender body, small scales; last dorsal ray not elongated; head small and pointed.
Similar Fish: juvenile tarpon, Megalops atlanticus.
Where found: INSHORE fish, in bays and estuaries; occasionally enters freshwater, occurring in tidal pools and canals; often forms large schools and harasses bait at the surface.
Size: 2 to 3 pounds.
*Florida Record: 4 lbs., 10 ozs.
Remarks: known to spawn OFFSHORE, ribbon-like larvae very similar to Albula and Megalops, peaking in fall; adult feeds predominantly on fish and crustaceans; leaps when hooked.
For those of you that have never caught ladyfish, you cannot imagine the fun involved when you happen on a giant school of them. These fish are so voracious, that they will chase most anything that moves. They can be caught on live bait or artificial, crankbaits or spoons and no matter what they bite, you are only going to get half of the ones that strike to the boat. For the past month, I have had a giant school of these aerial delights rounded up and have many opportunities to catch them on just about everything that I have in my tackle box. These fish are without a doubt the most fun to catch on light tackle of just about any species out there. The strike is pounding and with great intent, the runs are strong and long and best of all, they jump out of the water and tail walk several times before you either get them to the boat or they throw that hook. I know that most of you out there are saying, why would anyone want to catch an old crummy ladyfish. Well the days of me going fishing with the only intent of loading the cooler are long gone. And when I have an opportunity to have fun with a fish that not only strikes your lure like a train running full blast, pulls hard and long and comes out of the water several times before it is landed, you bet I will have some fun with them. Over the past month, I have caught them on live shrimp, mud minnows, soft plastics, hard baits, flies and the other day, I used the new Clark Spoon with Flash. You ask what is Flash. It is something that the Clark Spoon people have added to their spoons that looks like a holographic pattern that gives the spoon an unbelievable flash while it is twitching under water as you retrieve it. The new spoons come with red, green, chartreuse and silver flash. When I first saw these, I thought this material would come off after a few fish but Steve and Pat Tully caught over 30 lady fish this past weekend and the Flash is still on the spoon and barely looks used. I was surprised to see that after over 30 lady fish, the material was still attached to the Clark Spoon. If you do not have any of these new Clark Spoons, give Thrifty Bait a call at 786-9080 and asked them to get you a few. Keep checking out these reports and you will see one shortly on using these spoons to catch reds and trout. I have figured a way to rig them weedless and I am pretty sure the I will be able to use them in the grass of grass edges to catch trout and reds. My conventional tackle rig consisted of a Shakespeare Tidewater SS 4835 spinning reel, spooled with Power Pro 15 pound test (4 lb diameter), a Shakespeare Graphite 7 foot medium action rod. Tied to the Power Pro was a 150 pound test (BLACK) swivel (this big swivel gives you a little extra weight for your cast), tied to the swivel was one foot of 50 pound test monofilament and to that was a size 1 Clark Spoon. This rig allows you to make extremely long cast and the rod and reel are just the right size to have the maximum amount of fun with these aerobatic fish. With the 50 pound test mono leader, we did not have to retie or did we loose the first spoon and as most of you know, when you are in a school of ladyfish, it is common to loose a few rigs, due to their very abrasive lower jaw bone. So far I like the Clark Spoon the best for cast to these fish. It resembles the bait that they are feeding on (big Glass Minnows), the Clark Spoon throws a long distance and the hook is both sharp enough and tough enough to take the punishment these fish dish out. My fly outfit consisted of a Pflueger Supreme 6 wt rod, a Pflueger Supreme reel, 7 wt weight forward line with a 40 pound test mono leader about 6 feet long. The flies were:
Bearded Charlie Purple Demon Deep Water Gotcha Glass Minnow After you have made your cast to the school, you need to strip the fly as fast as you can. These fish swim very fast and are used to chasing bait that is running from them as fast as it can swim. When you hook a nice one you can let it run and fight it on the spool. These fish will make runs upwards to 100 yards and after that it is like a tug of war, you get a little and they get a little. Don't be surprised if you hook something a little larger while fishing in the ladyfish school. I had two tarpon and a few 10 pound jacks on this past week. the jacks were fun and long fighting, the tarpon scared me as I thought one was coming in the boat. Look for the diving birds or commotion on the surface of the water. When you find them, be ready for some hot action, as long as you can stay with the school and keep a bait in the school. Get out there and have some fun with these pretty neat fish, fishing is supposed to be fun and these ladyfish will sure make for a fun trip. Local action: The trout have turned on real well, I fished with Steve and Pat Tully this past weekend and they managed to boat about 20 trout, using live shrimp on a float rig. The big reds are still at the jetties and in the river, try crab on the bottom. There a still a few flounder to be caught, try an Exude Shrimp on a Jaw Jacker jig fished around docks and rock piles. There are still a few tarpon and sharks at the jetties. The offshore bottom action is still happening in close for snapper, grouper and a few nice seabass. For information on booking a charter with me, you can call me at (904) 757-7550 in Jacksonville or email me at jim@hammondfishing.com.
Check out my website, www.hammondfishing.com/, for links to some of the tackle that I have written about or to find out when and where my fishing show plays in your area.
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Good Fishing
Capt. Jim Hammond