Great Backcountry Bite
Capt. Jim Hobales
September 29, 2008
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
092608
I am pre fishing Everglades City for the Romp in the Swamp Tournament tomorrow with friend Capt. Bruce Carlton. The tournament is for the biggest Redfish/Snook in the slot. We started out with a couple quick doubles hook ups on small Snook, this spot is a favorite of mine when the bait is thick. The Reds and Snook both get up around the Oyster Bar in good numbers. Today was no different, the Oyster Bar was out of the water and the tide was starting to flood. The fish were on the sides and behind it all we had to do was throw our Twitch n Raps. We ended up with 20 or so Snook off that bar and I had 3 decent Reds come up on the lure but miss it. This was ok because it possible they will be here tomorrow.
We decide to move on, at the next spot we were pleasently suprised with a couple hundred pound Tarpon busting up finger Mullet and throw in some keeper snook that were in on the action. We caught several good Snook and then netted a bunch of those finger mullet for future use. We moved around a little bit then we found the right island that was holding some real good Reds. I pitched a Mullet into a tree that I noticed some big Sheepheads in, Redfish hold with them. I got thumped but missed the fish, I pitched out again and got thumped again. This time it was a 24 inch Redfish, then Bruce had one come up and eat his bait. This was a good fish a 30 inch Redfish around 10 1/2 lbs. We continued to pitch the mullet and catch plenty of fish Snapper,Groupers and more Snook. We felt pretty good about abut our chances tomorrow. We spent the next hour casting at Tarpon that were busting up the Mullet schools before calling it a day.
The captains meeting was held at Stan's a Goodland landmark.
092708
It's dark and there are 51 teams ready to get going, I'm with Capt. Bruce and Mitch from Biscayne rods today. We checked out at first light and headed west to the Marco River stopping at some darks that were still lit up. We worked a run off just past the docks and I got blasted but the fish missed it somehow. On the ride there we had a big no wake zone thru the bridge, I had Mitch put out a plug and it didn't take long and he was hooked up. It was great hit which got us excited but it ended up being a 10 lb Jack.
We arrived to our spot, as we power poled down there were 2 explosions under the docks and on the seawall. They were here all we had to do is catch one good one! My goal was to get a 10 lb fish from these docks, I have been fishing this spot for 20 years and have caught plenty of big Snook that would work for our tournament needs. We started out with Chartreuse Jerk baits and a Twitch n Rap, Mitch was on fire, he kept getting the hits but we couldn't stay hooked up. We only had a dozen live mullet left, all our bait died in a bait cage over night. We pitched a live one out and it got crushed, but it was another Jack. We fished there for 3 hours and couldn't manage a Snook although we had a few Jacks that made us think we did, Mitch had a 20 lb Jack that did a head shake which kind of fooled us for a while. We decided they weren't going to bite we had a front move in and even the Jacks shut down, so we made a 30 mile run to the area we fished the day before. It paid off on the first cast, I hooked a Snook on the first cast but it jumped off, I got another mullet and got the big thump. I said it a big Red get the net, it was the perfect tournament Red! We landed the fish and it measured a perfect 27 inches and weighed 7-05 now all we needed is a 9 lb Snook. We ran out of Mullet which I think cost us because the bite was slow for about 2 hours, then I decided we need to go where we caught all the Snook the day before. We made the 20 minute run only to find the water was really way to high. We made our way to the Oyster bar and set up in front of it, the fish were popping behind it. We worked really hard and we caught everything but a Snook. We caught Redfish, Jacks, Snappers, Ladyfish, Catfish and a Flounder. We could here a few Snook pop way back in the Mangroves but we couldn't reach them. We fished the last 30 minutes in a rain storm that had us standing ankle deep in water, it was really coming down. We didn't stop to put a rain coat on, we didn't have enough time to spare. Cast, cast, cast until it was time to go, I appreciated the effort of Mitch and Bruce!
We made our way back to Goodland and it seems like we weren't the only ones to struggle, only six teams out of 51 caught both fish which shows something was up. The winners had a great catch of 16-24 lbs, great tournament ill be back next year.
Fishing is good in the Everglades backcountry, let me put you on them,
Capt Jimbo
305 333 8149
Flamingo Fishing Forecast:
backcountry or the mullet run we can go wrong!
Target Species:
Tarpon ,Snook, Big Jacks
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