Hard fishing this week!
Capt. Jim Hobales
July 11, 2010
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
070710
I am fishing Government Cut today with Gary Quon from Tady Lures out of San Diego. They make metal and aluminum jigging spoons and he wanted to see if they would work in shallow water. I really wanted to see if they would catch Snook, Snappers and Groupers. We jigged all my little spots and had several good hits and misses and a caught a couple small fish. Gary wanted to se if we could catch Trout on them so we ran inside the bay. We had a couple follow ups but no takers. I wanted to see if the fish would hit another lure so I tied on a jig with a Gulp Shrimp. We caught a handful of Trout and then went looking for a Tarpon. We found some small ones and actually had one come up on the lure twice. I made some suggestions about lure size for inshore fishing and we called it a day.
070910
I am with Ross and Mindy today fishing at Flamingo. I told Ross we would fish hard and cover alott of water today because I was fishing a tournament the following day and I wanted to see what was going on. I fished with Ross a couple weeks ago and slammed the Snook and got a 90 lb Tarpon but today is a little different. We had a week outgoing tide and a s.w. wind! I netted some baits and went looking for Tarpon out on the coast. We saw a few free jumpers and put out a few baits, while we were drifting Ross cast a top water at a 30 lb Black Tip Shark. The bite was awesome and the fight was fun for him, we got the shark next to the boat for some photos. The Jacks/Mackerels schools were really thick and we caught plenty of them. We moved on looking for Tarpon again and found some rolling out of Big Sable Creek. Ross was still casting top water and we caught a few Ladyfish and Jacks when a couple big Tarpon rolled in front of us. The line got tangled and broke but the lure landed in front of the Tarpon which swirled on it. We cast at some others but the bite was tough today. I found some small pilchards and netted thousands with the intent of using them as chum. I picked a spot and started tossing them out by the net fulls, it turned on the Trout, Sharks and Rays but no Snook or Reds. Ross kept tossing at the mudding rays and had a couple hits and then caught a 5 lb Jack of the back of one. The sharks came in on us and we pitched a mullet to a small bull which came up on top to eat it which was cool to watch. Ross landed the 50 lb Shark and got some photos. Mindy caught a hand full of trout which were popping the live chum I had been throwing out. It was late and we caught a lot of fish today although we didn't get Ross a Tarpon.
071010
I am fishing the FFT today with my Partner Paul out of Flamingo, its a fun tournament with 36 teams. The wind is straight west which makes for tough fishing. The idea is to catch Tarpon,Snook,Redfish,Trout which measure longer than everyone else's. We caught an 18 inch Trout on our first stop and we felt we could be in business, man it was a long day! We had a flooding tide all day so I figured we needed to catch our fish first thing. We had some small baits which didn't do much for us but they did get us a 20 inch Redfish. We got on some Tarpon and cast and cast eventually hooking one and getting it right next to the boat where it shook its head and threw the hook. We were disappointed ! We hooked another which threw the hook on it first jump. It was 11 am and Paul was overheating we got him iced down were heading home. As we were running the beach I noticed the bait schools from the day before and netted thousands for live chumming. The key to this was the tide had to be outgoing which wouldn't happen until after 2 PM. A little after 2 PM I noticed the tide was starting to go out. We started tossing out net fulls of pilchards hoping to turn the fish on, it did. We caught a 23 inch Redfish and had other behind the boat and then Paul hooked a 30 lb Tarpon. I was reaching for the net again when it came unhooked! We new our chances were done after that we had to go. I new the fishing was tough for everyone by the way the bite was for us. Congratulations to the winners and we'll try again next year
More Fishing Reports:
