New Beginnings!

John was freshly retired and looking for a new Adventure. He picked up a nice used kayak that he modified to fit his needs. I could not believe some of the ingenuity that he came up with... The one thing that stood out to me the most was the up raised seat he designed out of a luggage rack! Great Job!  He was new to kayak fishing and wanted to learn the basics. After teaching him a few tricks and techniques about rigging fishing gear/kayaks, we headed out on to the water. When showing new people to artificial fishing, I always start them out with soft plastics. Showing them different colors, size jig heads, hooks, and speed variations for certain situations. And Why?  I began showing him what to look for and where to look for that prized fish. Before  you know it, he put it all together and hooked into a Nice red fish. After a nice red fish sleigh ride from a beautiful lit up up fish. John had fell in love with kayak fishing! We ended up catching a only a couple of red fish and a few trout but, he was ready to rock n' roll in the future on his next kayak fishing adventure! Great Job John!

On The fly!

    The Fishing and weather has been Great!  Fly fishing this time of year is great because the water is starting to clear up, making easier to sight fish. Although you can see them better, they can see you better!Lol! So taking a stealth approach is a must. Match the hatch with your fly, and make sure its the right fly for the water column you are fishing. I have been Catching tons of trout in the 3-6ft depth.  Snook and reds  have been in super skinny water, which I have been catching most of them on top water flies. Keep an eye out for huge Jacks coming through.  They can be a lot of fun on the fly rod! Till next time... Fish On! Fish On!

The Red Fish RUUUUUNNNN!!!!

  The last couple of days, there have been insane numbers of red fish!!! This is the time of year where they group up in large numbers to get ready to spawn, eating just about anything that is in their path! I cant even explain how sick it is watching these red fish exploding your top water! The explosions are so big that it literally looks like killer whales chasing the lure across the water. I had to swap out my top water baits to the Yo-Zuri Shashimi 3DB with thick circle hooks because, we had two separate Heddon spooks have all six hooks completely broke off! Every single fish was over slot but, It still sure was fun!  Yo-Zuri coming through as usual!:) We both lost red fish in the 40+ inch class due to hook failure! I have some great video footage that I will be posting soon... Don't worry clients my new kayaks are almost here:) Should have you guys on the water by next week:)

Snook still on the beaches!

Headed out a little later than usual, due to the tides. We had a nice east wind so, I decided to paddle straight to the beach before the wind decided to switch. As soon as I came over the hump of the beach I saw my first line sider (snook) of the day. I threw a fly right in front of its face and it immediately turned on but, missed!  Spooking him, I headed down the beach where there were tons of snook... Mostly small ones but , a few pigs in the mix. After catching a few fish I new the tide was coming in fast and would hopefully have a good shot at Mr. Red Fish! I shot back over to the bay side to look for the schooling reds. Finally I get anchored up on this point where they normally come through. Just as I get all set up, here they come! Unfortunately they were just out of reach for the fly but, I manage to throw a jerk bait at them. Boom Fish On! There were red fish all around me when I realized I had a huge Jack instead of one of the many red fish around me! lol! By the time I was able to land this Jack the school of red fish had moved on. Oh well... It was't the fish I was looking for but, still an amazing fight!:) Wind was really starting to pick up so I decided to take off. Till next time FISH ON! FISH ON!

Over slot Red fish in 6 inches of water, in the Predator 13

 Decided to head out on he water with good friend Capt. Pat Horrigan. We took out Old Town's Predator 13 and Ocean Kayak's Prowler Big Game 2. Both amazing boats!  Launching right from his back yard was a huge plus. All we had to do was paddle out this little creek and we were on this beautiful flat. The reason why we were heading out was to do some filming for sponsors. We were trying out Yo-Zuri's new 3DB top-water and the Yakgear Luminal LED spot light. As soon as we came around the corner, the water looked very alive. I saw what looked like a school of mullet, but when I stood up it was hundreds of red fish! Heart pounding I immediately cast out the 3DB, but no love. They were a little bit spooky because we were in six inches of water, so we had to let them calm down a bit. We didn't have much time because the sun was going down and we had thunder storms all around us. lol!  After throwing the 3DB for a while and having fish follow it up but not committing my confidence was dwindling. Soon as I almost gave up, BOOM!!! Fish ON! I knew it was a nice fish. It blows me away how hard a red fish can pull in only six inches of water! Finally the wore the fish down but, the sun had set and it was completely dark. The red fish was well over slot. Thank goodness for the Yakgear Luminal LED light because with it, I was able see everything I was doing and safely release the fish. As we made our way back, we couldn't believe the amount of light the Luminal LED light put off... We could see red fish everywhere scurrying around by the grass line. What a beautiful night of product testing.

Summertime Fun!!!

      The morning started out threatening to rain, as it always does about every summer day! We decided to paddle on while it began to sprinkle lightly. I always say the fish are already wet... if my clients don't mind it, I sure don't! Unless there is bad lightening or wind... By the time we reached the first spoil island the rain had blown by and I was already seeing tons of bait  moving. I really wanted to stop but, headed further north so we could ride the wind back. We reached the first spot where tons of mullet were coming through in between two spoil islands but, no bites.  Deciding to paddle over to the other island was a good idea because Austin had his soft-plastic get smashed! After a few seconds of drag ripping out, the huge snook came up and gave a big head shake. When the fish spit the lure out, our hearts sank. Not soon after though, Alexzandria hooks into a nice red fish. Ended up being a half inch of being on a dinner plate;)  As we paddled around the island, we could hear fish busting bait in the mangroves. Picking up another red fish that was an inch short, we continued on the hunt. As we came around the corner, Austin hooks into  nice snook. It was jumping all around his yak, so I paddled over as fast as I could with the net! Unfortunately it came unglued before I reached him:( We started making our way back towards the launch but, it seemed like every spot I wanted to hit had lots of boat traffic. The weekend warriors! Making a quick little pit stop to a spot that I didn't plan on going to because of the way the wind was blowing, ended up being a great idea! Austin ends up hooking into a Monster Red fish! After a long red fish sleigh ride I decided to attach my yak to his, to slow the fish down. Finally wearing him down he landed the beautiful red fish. Wow! Nice fish but, to big for the dinner plate!lol!  Right after that Alexzandria caught a trout that was and inch shy!Lol!  Unfortunately we weren't able to get them a fish for dinner plate because the fish were either to small or to big. None the less a great day on the water with great people. Thanks again Exude soft plastic and MirroLure for making this day a SUCCESS!

Matlacha Tournament Fishing

   Matlacha is one of the coolest places in the world to fish this time of year. Snook Red fish, and Tarpon are on fire! As we launched out the first day we immediately started seeing tarpon rolling everywhere. I new it was going to be a great day. We wanted to start fishing right away, but the spot we were heading to was pretty far away so we kept paddling. Finally we arrived to the place where we we were heading. Mullet and other fish pushes as far as you could see moving around the first spoil island. Slowly pushing towards them as quietly as possible, we made our first cast at one of the huge pushes. Jimmy's top-water spook gets crushes! Line peeling out , we thought huge red! Nope huge jack! After he got the fish to the boat it took a few minutes for things to calm down again. Next my line with the Exude soft plastic starts peeling out, then goes air borne! Snook! Right after that line start ripping out again which it happen to be the man in the red suit. Nice Red Fish! We push slowly along the edge working the mullet when all of a sudden, Jimmy's line with the Exude sot plastic starts screaming! The fish started to whoop him, getting behind him and pulling him into the mangroves. Once I realized how big the fish was, I paddled over with the Go Pro for some video. Finally Jimmy got turned around and was able to turn the fish around. Now it was a fare fight as he got the fish into some open water. As Jimmy gets the snook boat side, he starts to pull the fish out of the water. I cant believe how big the fishes head was! The pic we took, gives the fish size no justice. That hog was a beautiful fish! That a boy Jimbo!  Not minutes later minutes later I had another nice red fish peeling off drag. The rest of the was back and forth snook ,red,red, snook. What an amazing day! Almost forgot that I did catch a small jack ,and a huge red fish nailed him twice right next to the boat!  Any way to see video footage on this, check out my Eric Henson Youtube page. The next day (tournament day) we went to the same spot. Unfortunately not the same fish!lol! We did catch some decent fish landing us in 5th-6th Place but nothing like the pre fish! Till next time Fish On Fish On!!!

Early Bird gets the Worm!

       We headed out on the water about an hour before the sun came up. Paddling to our first spot was pretty interesting! lol! Due to the new moon it was pitch dark and the tide was extremely high. Basically paddled till we hit the spoil island. Then we sat quietly to listen to the water. Once we heard mullet moving and loud slurps of bait getting romped on, I new we were in a good spot!:) Not soon after I hear hooting and hollering... then I see Jimmy's head lamp come on. Huge red fish!!! My heart was pounding form all the excitement but, now I was ready for a bite!  The sun was just starting to reach the horizon, when all of the sudden my new Paul Brown lure gets crushed! Line was screaming off the reel as I watched the sunrise. Doesn't get much better than that! Finally as the fish got close to the yak, I saw that beautiful bronze body light up from the sun. Smiling from ear to ear I pick him up for a quick picture. As I go to release him, I realized that he hit the lure so hard it bent it in half! lol! Man! Well after that we posted up side by side, on the corner of this spoil island and caught so many red fish that we lost count! Boats were pulling up trying to get as close as they could to catch one but, we were the only ones catching fish!!!lol! Crazy! Some days are just like that!:) Another great day on the water!!!