Good Gew Year so far!
Capt. Jim Hobales
January 8, 2012
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
010212
I am with Brandon and Ebony today, we are fishing the back country of Flamingo way back into Whitewater bay. We started out slow but ran north to catch the moving tide. We finally found the fish Brandon was throwing lures off the front catching big Trout, Jacks and Ladyfish on every cast., while Ebony was using a popping cork and Shrimp. Ebony was catching Redfish after Redfish on Shrimp, we had a blow up on the shoreline and Brandon made a good cast to it. The "Twitch n Rap" got hit as soon as it hit the water, shortly after a snook was jumping. This was in Whitewater Bay so its a good sign they might be making a comeback, this is the second one on that spot recently.
We wore out the fish there so moved on looking for some big Groupers, there was a big cold front pushing down on us so we needed to catch them soon. I set out my trolling plugs and went to work it took about 15 minutes and then the Gag's started to bite. We had a several nice hits which pull really hard but ended up only being 3-5 lb fish. We continued working and then we got smashed and it was Ebony's turn, this fish beat her up but she landed the 30 inch, 9 lb. Gag Grouper. Brandon caught the next one which was a hair smaller at 8 lb's. On the next one we got we dropped down in tackle size and got schooled, we had a hard time stopping it on light tackle. None the less Brandon was excited the front was getting closer and the bite turned off so we headed in.
010712
I am Government Cut with Kevin and his friends Patrick and Luke, we are part of a 2 boat trip. The Tarpon are thick and rolling everywhere. We set up a drift and Patrick caught a Hog Snapper right off the bat. The tide was slack so we had to wait it out, we were marking the Tarpon solid on the bottom. We kept drifting and dropping on them, Patrick hooked up with something big but it wasn't fighting like a Tarpon, it pulled 20 feet of drag stopped and then pulled again. I thought it was a Grouper or a Mutton Snapper but the fight continued for 10 minutes. The fish finally shows itself and it was @ a 50 pound Tarpon, it made another surge to the bottom. The fish put up a great fight, Patrick is from Wisconsin and has never hooked anything like this before. The rest of the day was slow but we were the only ones which were out there to hook and land a Tarpon today. It was an awesome experience for the guys!
The Tarpon are in this weeks full moon will get them going starting in the early evening off of Miami Beach. Flamingo has just been incredable, the amount of fish being caught is just tiring for anglers.
Flamingo Fishing Forecast:
Tarpon are in on Miami Beach area and should make a showing in the back country of Flamingo this week. Grouper/Redfishing has just been spectacular
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