 |
Fishing report, Flamingo and Everglades City
Capt. Bob LeMay
June 29, 2008
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
This past week has been a bit unusual with trips out of both ends of the Park. We sightfished redfish out of Everglades City and fished the coastal areas north and south of the Shark River out of Flamingo. As usual, lots of fish, a few missed opportunities, and some great memories. Now for the unusual part....
In the 35 years that I've been driving into and out of the Park I've seen a bit of everything from bobcats to pythons while towing one boat or another. I've had some close calls with alligators in the roadway and small herds of deer. I once may have seen a panther, but it was so far away just before sunup that I couldn't swear to it... With all of that nothing prepared me for yesterday morning. Just a few minutes before 6Am, and a few miles into the Park I saw what I took to be a whitetail fawn right next to the road. A second or two later I passed within just a few feet of a perfectly healthy coyote.... My anglers in the car following me saw it as well. That coyote was a definite surprise. A later check with the ranger who works the boat ramp on Saturdays confirmed that I wasn't the first to see (or hear) one of the wide ranging animals. Seems they've been moving into Florida for a few years now but only within the last year or two have made an appearance in the Park. Living in south Florida, I wouldn't have been surprised to see an exotic escaped pet one day (anything from a lion to an elephant....) - but a coyote? The next obvious question, what are they eating? If anyone has answers please send them my way....
Back to fishing. The redfish are solid now in the areas we've been working out of Everglades City. Willi Gudat, a local angler, got his first one earlier last week - a nice 23" fish on a jig bumped around a mangrove corner. At the lower tide stages the sightfishing is just right for light tackle or fly presentations. We even saw a group of sheepshead and redfish swimming together along a shoreline at the very first of the incoming tide just inside a river. Add in a few snook and other hungry fish to the mix and those Gulf side shorelines are the place to pole a small skiff and just look for opportunities...
Out of Flamingo the best action has been snook along the western coast from Cape Sable all the way north to Lostman's River. My anglers caught and released them on pinfish, lures, and flies. The bite divided into two categories. The fish we found along the beaches north of Cape Sable wanted live bait. The fish north of the Shark River keyed in on lures at the higher stages of the tide.... In between, we found time to fish gag grouper and jewfish (goliath grouper for all you politically correct types...) in deep holes inside river mouths. We were able to catch and release the smaller specimens. Their big brothers didn't need our help they just took us to the cleaners. The grouper spots are great fun until the first shark makes an appearance. After that, if you stay, the sharks will be all that bite...
My last day on the water we took the time to prospect a bit for tarpon up one of the many rivers that will hold them later in the summer and found good numbers of fish that ranged from 20 up to about 70lbs. That spot would have been great in the early morning. In the early afternoon the fish were just loafing and ignored our flies and lures. Those fish should be there every day now, so they'll be worth a really early morning trip later this week.
For anyone that ties their own flies I have a new article in the latest edition of Flyfishing in Saltwaters, the July-August edition. It's a step by step on tying the Swamp Rabbit tarpon fly with good photos. Let me know what you think... There aren't many tarpon patterns that come with a wire weedguard. I hope to have additional articles published in other magazines soon.
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
