Happy New Year
Capt. Jim Hobales
January 4, 2009
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
010109
It is the first day of the new year and I always try to get out with my kids if possible. This year I took my son James and his best friend Jesus and promised them a lot of catching. It started out quickly with a couple Snook but we moved on looking to hook up on some Tarpon before the wind kicked up. We cast for an hour but they just didn't cooperate so we moved on again for some fun fish Trout, Jacks, Ladyfish and Snappers. Once they had their fill we went back for Snook and ended up fishing for Gag and Goliath Groupers. James caught an impressive 25 inch Gag Grouper and Jesus and I caught several Goliaths up to 25 lbs.
010209
I fished with Adam and Gaby from NY today down at Flamingo, they didn't want to get there early so we started out at 10 am. this is really different from the usual 7 am start I like to get and the place was as busy as I have ever seen it. They were novices and just wanted to catch fish and enjoy the day. I power poled down on the edge of a flat, I had a little bit of Gulp Chum leaking out of my well creating a little slick which in turn brought in the Bonnethead Sharks and some big Trout up to 3 lbs. we moved on so we could catch some other species and Adam hooked up and landed his first Tarpon. They were happy and had enough so we headed in.
010309
I am with Mike and Paula from Washington DC. I have been fishing Whitewater Bay all week with pretty good results Mike is an Golf pro and Bass tournament angler so I really tried to Impress him. We started out on a spot which had been giving up Snook all week but they weren't home today. I moved on into upper Whitewater Bay where the Tarpon have been. I told Mike we would fish a couple points until we saw some fish free jump, we got into a serious Trout bite with some Jacks and Ladyfish thrown in but no Snook. We finally saw the Tarpon and got on them we had one hook up and by the second Jump she was gone. The action was slow so I suggested lets try some other stuff while it warmed up and we would come back. This was a really frustrating day they had plenty of bites but the bites were short and we couldn't get a fish into the boat. We sight fish Goliaths on the shallow sand shorelines which Mike thought was cool. I tried a lot of proven spots but sometimes the back country don't cooperate. I pulled up to a spot that I know nobody else fishes, on the approach We saw a couple of muds blow out and then a monster Snook ran right under the boat. We sat there and made 40 yard cast with a "Twitch n Rap" and they just refused to play. We spent the end of the day blind casting for Tarpon and they did cooperate we had 2 big females in the air. Mike couldn't believe how hard the Tarpon hit or how high it jumped.
More Fishing Reports:
