Fishing report (and some info) 21 November
Capt. Bob LeMay
November 21, 2018
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
First a bit of info on how things are going in the Park down at Flamingo... A bit of good news - the gas pumps are now open again (call first to make sure they're talking about both for vehicles and on the water side of things for boats...) and they now have two new houseboats in service... Unlike the last ones they had, these are quite a bit larger (actually about the same size as the old houseboats we all remember so well years ago..). Hopefully if they get enough rentals - they'll enlarge their small stake with additional houseboats. I can remember when they not only had enough houseboats - but also had a pretty good sized motor skiff (the houseboat "chaser" ) that would come out and get them out of trouble or tow them in if needed... Years ago that chase boat would also come out and tow in any skiff that requested it... All you had to do was contact the marina store - that hasn't been the case for a lot of years now - but it sure would be nice....
Still no fish cutting tables down there - and no signs of any relief (or even a single garbage can for the inside ramp..). I get the distinct impression that the Park just doesn't care about basic stuff for boaters there... Maybe that's just me, but I do hear a lot of complaints...
Now for yesterday's explorations. With no bookings coming up and tired of working in the shop I hit the water early yesterday morning and found only two trailer rigs in the entire parking lot... I'm spoiled and I'll admit it... A short run later I was out in Whitewater Bay and decided to see if any of my winter spots were holding fish.. The first one, in sight of the old marker 14 held good numbers of both speckled trout and ladyfish - and every one of them just mad for topwater plugs... Since I was tossing a bigger plug (a super Spook) most of the small trout would strike it repeatedly without getting hooked which was just fine by me since I was just looking to see what was holding there. I still caught and released a few - then scooted to check out a few other interior spots. With water temps down into the mid seventies the fish should have been inside - but not yet, so it was off to the west and the Gulf coast. As water temps continue to fall the inside should get going soon... All day long, and with about 65 miles logged on my gps - I hardly saw even one or two other boats -all day long...
Out along the gulf coast north of the Little Shark river I found plenty of action using small leadheads with Gulp tales.... I'd have probably found just as many fish using bucktails tipped with a tiny bit of shrimp... In short order I had my first slam of the day (snook, trout, and redfish) - but all were on the small side. Here's a pic of one of the snook showing what I was using...
[img]https://i.imgur.com/6kRgDja.jpg[/img]
Lots of these guys in almost every spot I checked -and every one carefully released to grow up a bit... Adding to the excitement - at one shoreline spot I was catching and releasing a few different species (trout, snook, baby goliath grouper, mangrove snapper) when a nice triple tail ghosted by - riding the incoming tide... A quick toss with a small jig and we were off to the races with a good fish. After a few runs on my lightest rod that fish got invited home for dinner (and right at six pounds, a pretty good meal for two...). Here's a pic...
[img]https://i.imgur.com/m04r6jA.jpg[/img]
Note the lure - the fish was right at 20" - remember, now tripletail must be at least 18" to be a "keeper"...
Along the way I saw an occasional tarpon still around - mostly at river mouths. None of them were eating anything I was using, though... As I made the run back towards Flamingo in the early afternoon (just about 21 miles one way...) I thought that the season was setting up to be a good one once water temps dropped a bit more... This was the second trip where I found very young goliath grouper mixed in with feeding trout, redfish, and snook so I expect in a year or two we might begin to find them again up really shallow ghosting along with feeding redfish (only just a bit bigger and a lot darker than any red you'll see...). The last time that goliaths became well established in the interior we were able to sight fish them with flies. They were so aggressive they'd chase a big fly halfway back to my skiff... Every one of them are just as tough as an old leather boot - and will give any light tackle angler a good fight (and with some of them above ten pounds, pretty hard to stop when they go charging back under a downed tree...).
Be a hero - take a kid fishing !
Tight lines,
Bob LeMay
(954) 435-5666
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