Capt. Bob LeMay
April 28, 2014
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Long time since my last report (almost two months....) since this is the peak of my guiding season. Things have finally slowed down enough for a bit so this will cover the past seven days down at Flamingo. So far this year we've had a 'feast or famine' situation with wild weather swings, and I'm sure the fish have been getting very mixed signals since they move as the weather (either water temps or winds) changes their world.
Last week the fishing at Flamingo was very good (after a slow start) and we found snook, reds, tarpon, and lots of trout most days along with a few surprises. On Tuesday I fished Keith Peeples and his fishing partner using a mix of lures and bait on spinning gear. We started off the day catching and releasing a bunch of speckled trout in the interior on small lures (the lure that outfished everything else this past week was a simple 1/8oz fl. pink leadhead with a white Gulp tail) before moving out near the west coast in the Shark river area. Keith's partner promptly hooked up on a medium sized tarpon with the lightest rod on the skiff (more about light rods later...) with one of the same jigs we'd been using for trout. That sixty pound plus tarpon just took us to school with a few jumps before breaking off. A few minutes later Keith hooked up with another jig and brought a great snook in for a release.. Here's a pic of that 11lb fish...
[img][img][URL=http://s235.photobucket.com/user/lemaymiami/media/fishpics/PeeplesKeithsnookonlightspin_zpsafab2e2d.jpg.html][IMG]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee111/lemaymiami/fishpics/PeeplesKeithsnookonlightspin_zpsafab2e2d.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Once again it was on a very light rod with 10lb line- an outstanding catch, carefully releaased to fight another day...
We ended that day with sight-fishing shots at a very big tarpon laid up in two feet of water back in the interior... That fish ate another of those little jigs -then broke us off as it screamed for deeper waters (and probably never slowed down until it got in deeper water at least 1/4 mile away...).
About "light spinning rods"... I keep one or two on my skiff and they turn any fish into a big fish. These two rods were initially designed as bonefish rods - perfect for tossing an un-weighted live shrimp on 6 to 10lb line ( seven foot blanks rated for 6-12 lb line). The 4000 series reels are setup with only 10lb braid and a short 30lb leader so a long cast is easy to master. If you don't keep a light rod on your boat you might be missing out - particularly if you have kids or absolute beginners aboard. The downside is that occasionally you're badly over-matched if a big fish takes your hook home with him....
The fishing in the backcountry will continue to get better and better as we move into May. There's just nothing like Flamingo....
