Friends and Family week!
Capt. Jim Hobales
August 12, 2015
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
This past week I fished with families and had kids on most trips, I hope I wore them out enough to give the parents some time to rest.
080215
I am with Jeremy, Stacy and their kids Ben 10, Maria 10 and Gaga 8 at Flamingo. They wanted action but mostly Sharks so that's what we tried. We had several cut offs early on but there was a lack of Sharks this morning. We changed it up a bit and bent the rods for a while with Trout, Jacks, Ladyfish and Snappers. It was a short day so we tried for Sharks again. The bonus of Shark fishing with live bait is a Tarpon might eat it. Jeremy hooked a 70 lb. Tarpon on the lightest Biscayne rod I own and it was a great fish. It ran ,Jumped and fought for 25 minutes he also let all the kids get in on the action. e got a few photos and as I went to release it wore thru the 40 lb. leader. He looked at me and said they had enough lets go!
080715
Today I am in Key Largo fishing the BBI kids fishing classic, my team consist of Ray Glen and Jacques. I ran to Flamingo from Key Largo looking for quality. I had them throwing top water baits first off and they had some Jacks, Ladyfish and Sharks. The day was tough and it don't help when big fish come off, Glen lost a big Redfish and Jacque had a big Snook jump off. It was getting late in the day so I started hitting all my key spots. I had a live bait out for Snook and it was eaten by a 9 foot Sawfish which was a great fight and winner of the biggest fish of the tournament. We caught a Redfish right after that and got cut off by a few Sharks. It was hot and time to run back to Key Largo, the Guys didn't mind the cool breeze from the 40 mph ride.
080915
I am at Flamingo today with Lou and his son Lou. He was with his brother Joe and his son Jackson. The day started out by waiting out a big rain storm that actually missed us, we did get to see a awesome double rainbow. We started out with a couple Sharks on live bait but decided to go bend some rods and wait for the tide to get right. We caught Trout, Ladyfish, Jacks and some big Snappers that were in our chum slick. I was trying to keep the kids busy but catch some quality fish for the dads. We found a pallet that had 3 Triple Tails on it, we caught the biggest one. We found several good Triple tails today but they were spooky and not eating. We set up on a good shoreline looking for Redfish and they showed up, I looked down the shoreline and told the guys look at the big wake coming at us. We got some baits out in front of them as they came thru but they were chasing finger mullet. They swam around the boat for a minute and we kept casting at them but they didn't eat, this was very disappointing. The kids wanted some big Sharks so that's where we went. I rigged a couple Shark rods and it didn't take long and Jackson had a Shark dragging us around. He put the heat on it and eventually got it boat side it was a 150 lb. Lemon Shark. We did this a couple more times and then called it a day. The kids didn't want to leave!
081015
I am down at Flamingo today with my nephews Mark and Andrew and their friend Emerald. It is Mark and Emeralds birthday and this is how they wanted to spend it. We started out with Tarpon and rain once the rain stopped the Tarpon turned on. Andrew had a few hits and then Mark landed the first one after a few pics we released the little Tarpon. Andrew was next and Emerald followed we left with 4 caught fish and several missed Snook.
The next few spots didn't produce much and Snappers and Ladyfish, we came across a giant Sawfish cruising the shallows and it had a 30 lb. Cobia cruising on its back. I told Mark to get a bait and he pitched it out in front of the Sawfish, The rod was rigged with a cork and all we could see was the bright green cork ripping thru the tanic colored water. Once he got tight on the fish the bait pulled. This was really cool to see so we weren't to disappointed.
We fished some shore lines waiting for the tide to start falling out but only managed Jacks and Sharks. I netted some fingerling mullets and ran to a spot I really like but we had no bites there. It was getting late and I wanted to try one more spot where there were a bunch of Tarpon rolling, it got crazy here. I put out a couple pinfish and it didn't take long we were hooked up to something pushing a 2 foot wake. The fish was actually hooked up and pissed off slashing its giant tail. It pulled in short burst and Andrew all 77 lbs. of him was pulling this fish to get him in the boat. Andrew finally got him boat side and it came up to the surface and slashed it giant 4 foot saw. This was a giant Sawfish right at 12 feet long after some pictures we cut it off and with one move soaked everyone in the boat with it's tail. We got back to fishing and had a decent Snook eat a pinfish on Marks rod. The rods were going off 2 at a time some times even 3. Emerald had a big fish on it ran then turned and ran again, the hook got turned sideways in the bait but it was scaled like a Snook or Tarpon would do. The Tarpon were rolling down the shoreline from us so we got some baits in front of them. We had 2 rods go off at the same time both giants Mark had a Lemon Shark and Emerald had her hands full with a 10 foot Sawfish she did a great job landing that sea monster! It was late and I was worn out and they were happy, all they said on the ride down was they wanted something that pulls.
If you would like to have a fun filled day on the water give me a call. Caught Lookin Charters is a kid friendly charter business. I also cater to the serious angler who wants to be poled around in the Maverick tunnel skiff and sight fish.
Capt. Jimbo
305 333 8149
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