Fish are biting depite the winds!
Capt. Jim Hobales
May 19, 2010
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
051510
I am at Flamingo with Wayne and his son Jeff, we started out catching bait and made a run for the coast. Our goal today was Tarpon but the wind made it tough to see them. We anchored in a couple different spot and had a bunch of missed fish and strange cut offs. When the fishing is tough you cant afford to miss any fish. It was getting late and we just had a couple big sharks eat our Tarpon baits so I made a run to new spot. I anchored again and started to live chum with pilchards,it didn't take long. Wayne had a Redfish chase his bait and miss it, then there was a big boil around his bait . The drag started screaming as the line was disappearing. We had to chase it because the fish was about to spool us. Right then a monster Tarpon jumped and let us know what it was. Wayne hooked this fish on a 12 lb. rod, we spent the next 2 hours fighting the estimated 150-160 lb Tarpon. We finally got the fish boat side and got the release. Wayne sat down and was spent he did not move for 40 minutes on the ride back! They also caught Jacks, Sharks, Trout and a giant Sting Ray.
051710
I am with Kathy and Rick Widener and John and we are fishing Flamingo today. Tarpon Snook are always what they want but more importantly we have to bend the rods. I made one toss with the cast net and had 40 mullet so we were good to go. We ran up the Gulf of Mexico looking for Tarpon , when we got there we put out a bait and in five minutes the drag was screaming. This was a big Black tip Shark and after a while Kathy passed off the rod to her brother John, we got the fish next to the boat and released it. We set up again and did the same thing again another Shark. We set up a third time and this time a big Tarpon crushed the mullet but missed it and never came back.
We moved around looking for Tarpon but the S.W winds were blowing 20 and it just shut them down. We worked some creeks and Kathy had a 24 inch Trout and then John had one just as big. I ran back inside Whitewater Bay and went looking to bending the rods. I made one stop at a Goliath Grouper spot and Rick caught a 38 inch Snook no Goliaths. Rick was excited because Kathy usually get all the big fish. We spent the last hour just catching Trout, Jacks, Snappers and Ladyfish on every cast.I looked around and all 3 were sitting down and out of gas so I took them home.
051810
I am with Rick Kathy and John again tonight and we are fishing Government Cut. I stopped on the way out and netted about 25 mullet and ran to the Cut. I rigged up a mullet and trolled it around the tip of the jetty and it got slammed by a Tarpon which jumped off. This happened a bunch of time before we got a solid hook up into a "big old girl"! The Tarpon didn't really fight so hard, we got her boat side in 8 minutes and got the leader release. I leadered the fish and that's when she woke up and put up a fight. If we were in a tournament I would of popped the fish off but I wanted them to experience the fight and they did, 45 minutes later we popped the fish off on the channel edge. We went back and put out 2 more mullet and they were getting hit 2 at a time. The next bite was awesome, this fish slammed it and ran the way a Tarpon supposed to. The only problem was it wasn't a Tarpon, it was a big Jack Creavalle. John fought it for 15 minutes and fianlly got it up for some photos. I put out 2 more baits and they got hit. To make a along story short I went thru 25 mullet and had to run back into the bay to net more which got ate as well. Kathy caught a 15 lb Tarpon and a big Barracuda, which made her day. The total fish caught were not as impressive as the total hits and fish in the air which had us amazed. Again tonight I looked and everyone was sitting down and beat this time they asked to go home! It great feeling when you wear people out!
Target Species:
Tarpon, and anythingelse that swims
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