New Season Begins

[FinzUp]

But not here (yet). Took the family on a "family vacation" to Luquillo Puerto Rico this week. "Family vacation" in quotes to distinguish it from a fishing vacation. We did all the famly vacation thnigs and it was great, and as I always do I packed my 9 weight and a bunch of flies along. There are a ton of tarpon inside the lagoon in San Juan, but this being a family vacation a guide was not in the plan or in the budget so it was strictly DIY. I love DIY fishing but to be honest over the years my hit rate isn't exactly spectacular. I fish where we go to the beach, which is usually not the best place to fish, so catches are usually pretty meager. My better half made note of this as we got to Luquillo beach (gorgeous place btw), asking if it was even worth hauling that stuff every trip.
A lot of this beach is segregated for swimming, so you have to walk east to the point to fish. It's funny because as soon as you reach the point the wind goes from nill to snot. This week it was howling around 20, not the best g conditions. In the Carribean they are fond of saying "it's not always this windy" and that's true - sometimes they have hurricanes and it's even windier. Well dang if I don't see a 3' cuda in ankle deep water laying there and as we all know he can probably see me too and will definitely not take a fly. Wrong! It was a short fight as I don't use wire, but man was that fish fast! A good start for a DIY. Another thing aout family vacation fishing is never expect the glamor species. I've lucked into tarpon and snook over the past 20 years, but not usually. Cuda are fun too.
Wind continues to blow like snot, and the cuda pretty much left the flat vacant so I put on a sink tip and waded out to the drop off, casting in the only place the wind would let me.
Here's my first observation; the "palming rim" was invented by a trout fisherman. Whatever hit my fishhead fly was freaking big fast and strong, and the rim burned the crap out of my hand! Once 200 yds was gone I got nervous and cranked the drag as far as it would go (inexpensive Cortland Magnum). Second observation is an inexpensive Cortland Magum is just fine as he finally ran out of gas. The next 20 minutes was brutal, as the tennis elbow that kept me off the water last year resurfaced. It was a grind that resulted in a 20+ lb jack crevalle. I've caught small jacks and 6-10 lb horse eyed jacks, but I've never felt anything this strong. I had an 11 weight in the case and wished I'd used it!
This was day 2, and it was the only day I fished, as the elbow was toast after that. I'm concerned about that, but what a great way to get injured!

[cold waters]

good stuff my friend... good stuff