My Final Fishing Day of 2024

2024 has been an epic fishing year and it could not have ended any better.  I had the bow of the skiff here in Florida on the Indian River Lagoon for the entire day as Frank Catino guided me.  The icing on the cake however was that long time Jackson Hole pal Paul Bruun, 80 years young, sports writer of the Jackson Hole News since the 70’s, the man who wrote the foreword to my Saltwater Fly Fishing Book, and plenty more fantastic achievements, Paul joined us too.

The weather was amazing.  To have a windless warm day on the Atlantic side of Florida in December is pure luck.  But we had one.  In fact, it was too nice and calm to even get close to landing a cast without spooking every snook within 100 yds.  But that’s ok.  Sometimes its not just about the fishing.

The fish indeed were tough.  Frank showed me more snook than I’ve seen in ten years.  They were big also.  I’d guess I presented my fly to more than a dozen but each time they were already leaving the area.  They didn’t retreat fast meaning they see anglers often and they know as long as they don’t open their mouths, we aren’t much of a threat.

Two hours in we hadn’t touched a fish.  I blind casted in the channels hoping to connect with a Florida pompano.  That didn’t work.  We searched current seams behind channel markers for tripletail.  They weren’t around.  Then we fished Clouser’s over rocks.  The rocks weren’t productive but I got the skunk out of the boat with the unusual catch of a pigfish.  I once thought I caught a pigfish at Turneffe Flats in Belize but I stood corrected and that fish was the French grunt.  So wow, a new species today for the list.

When you break the ice and catch one fish chances are good you’ll at least scrape up another or two.  I took down a ladyfish in the afternoon but then also added a fishing highlight.  Frank called it too, “Cast against the mangroves.  I see baby tarpon here often”.

Frank wasn’t kidding.  I made some casts and soon came tight.  A second later a rainbow trout sized tarpon started jumping, twisting and shaking.  Normally these tiny leapers spit a fly on the first exit but after a week in the Amazon strip setting on toothy payara, this little guy had no chance to escape.  One of my last fish of 2024 happens to be a tarpon.  Cool!

What a phenomenal day.  While the fishing was slow we got a few and one was even a new species for me.  Hands down however, visiting with Frank and Paul was a treat I won’t forget.  Paul and I have fished a ton together the last 35 years but since I moved to Wisconsin this is our first.  And let’s be honest, Paul is 80 so who knows how many more fishing days we have.  No matter what I’ll always cherish today.

I’m on a plane in the morning and looking forward to ending the year home with my lady watching the snow fall out my office window, evenings at my local pub with best friends and sleeping in my own bed. Its going to be great.  Unless I get a wild hair and drill some holes through the ice in the next three weeks, today was officially my final fishing day for the year.

For more pics from trips check out my Instagram page @jeffcurrier65

In the meantime, please visit my webstore for “Christmas Gifts for the Angler that has Everything” and stuff those stockings with my fish decals from “Pescador on the Fly”.

And be sure to keep track of my upcoming travels at the 2025 fly fishing shows and fishing around the world!

I’ll be posting cool fish on Instagram – jeffcurrier65

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Jeff Currier Global Fly Fishing