Breezy in the back country
Capt. Jim Hobales
March 6, 2008
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
030108
I am fishing with Patricia and John from Maryland in the Flamingo Back country, today is the opening of Snook season. We started out a little later and the parking lots are packed. The super low tides and winds were a factor today so I decide to go to Tarpon Bay, I like to fish there under these circumstances. The bite was slow but Patricia finally caught a Snook on a "Twitch n Rap", the cloud cover was keeping the water cool so I looked for an low exposed shorelines with plenty of sun. This seemed to work because it didn't take long for John to catch his first Snook and then a second. The shore line looked great,baits where flipping and Ladyfish were slashing our baits. Patrica caught a nice Mangrove Snapper and then we got into the masses of Jack and Trout at the end of the day.
030208 Diane, Saul and there son Jeff, who was a very good angler. I decided to fish Florida Bay today, I explained the way the area sets up as we approached it. I explained how the fish would be on the edge of the flat and look for mud's. The fish responded and were mudding pretty good, cast after cast and Jeff finally was hooked up to a nice Redfish. The proud mom took his photo and released the fish. It wasn't long after he was hooked up with a jumping Snook about 75 feet away. The Snook fought hard but Jeff landed the 27" fish, Diane took a photo of his first Snook and we released it. Jeff wasn't done, now he was hooked up to something even bigger! The line was screaming off the light reel and we finally got a look at it, it was a nice Redfish. I netted the fish, it was a 27" fat 7 lb. Redfish. The winds started howling and finding a place to hide was getting tough so we went to some channel edges and caught Trout, Jacks, Ladyfish until they could not cast anymore.
030308
Rick was in from Michigan, he used to live her and we were in the same Fishing club, so I wanted to show him a good day. Rick said he always like the back country so we gave it a shot. The places I had caught fish in the last few days seemed deserted, there was no bait and no sign of fish. I told him lets make our way out to the Gulf and fish the shoreline out of the wind, because it was blowing again today. We saw some really nice fish laid up in he trees but they weren't interested. We finally had a nice Trout bust his plug and then he caught a Snook but one of the toughest days I have had in a while.
030508
Steve is a fly angler from England, and when we fished together in October he caught a lot of fish, so I know he was excited. On Monday I saw the Tarpon in the back country and that's what Steve wanted. The morning seemed like the winds were down, that was until Steve broke out the fly rod.
The first couple of spots had me wondering but we finally got into an area holding some quality fish. Steve hooked a nice Snook which was inside a tree with the current running thru it, it was work getting him out but he did it. The water was low and clear and I spotted a Goliath Grouper lying under a branch. Steve cast at that guy 25 times and couldn't get him to eat, meanwhile I look over and there was a 25 lb Snook just lying there. The fish swam off as the fly came her way, as I looked up a saw a monster Tarpon laid up on the bank. Steve was set to cast and the Tarpon saw us and spooked out. Again today the wind has played a roll in the fishing 20-25 mph. We moved out to the mouth of Ponce De Leon Bay looking for Tarpon they were there but not interested. I asked Steve lets go catch some Groupers, he agreed. We caught one Goliath, but the tide was finally coming in after a week of no tide and it made it tough to keep the Gulp jig on the bottom. we tried numerous spots catching Jacks, Trout, and Ladyfish. The day ended with a couple of missed bites but the conditions were deteriorating even more. Steve had 4 or 5 more days to go fishing so we made our way back. I told him the Tarpon fishing would be a lot better in May when he returns.
Target Species:
snook / tarpon
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