Ron Brooks wrote about "Trolling for Tarpon" while waiting for a tidal change he dropped a white bucktail behind the boat as they explored Turner Creek in the Everglades. They began catching tarpon, not any huge tarpon but as he writes [for about an] "hour or so trolling up and down the creek, catching a total of ten small tarpon and two snook, and loosing probably twice that many. We tried stopping and casting a variety of lures, but for some reason the fish preferred the trolled bucktail bait to one being retrieved from a cast. It was an amazing day!

While reading this article I was reminded of the night the Bonefish were biting. About an hour after sunset I was in Blackwater Sound just west of Key Largo, Florida. Anchored over a favorite grass bed about 6 - 8 feet deep with a light current, I put out the chum bag and deployed several cut baits and sat back to wait for the Mangrove Snapper to start biting.

It had been out about 20 minutes when the first bite occurred. The first run seemed a little longer then normal for mangroves but I just thought this was a larger snapper. After several more strong runs, mangroves continue to fight but don't usually keep making long runs, the fish was finally boat side and in the net was a bonefish, about 3 pounds. I was a bit surprised but I knew this area could produce a wide variety of fish and just figured this was an odd, young bonefish that happened upon the bait and took advantage of what it thought was a free meal.

During the next several hours I did manage to several good size mangroves as well as many smaller specimens, a dozen or so catfish, one small nurse shark and maybe as many as 10 bonefish! Most were in the 2 - 3 pound range but one was at least 8 pounds. When I got home I wrote down the times and conditions of this unusual catch but I have not had a similar experience since.

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