Plenty of SLAMS
Capt. Jim Hobales
April 13, 2008
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
040908
Kathy and Rick are here from San Diego, Rick turned 50 today and this was his gift, pretty nice. They love to fishing and every time they come in I try to show them a different part of our fishery, but Tarpon has to be on the list. We started out casting at a point looking for Tarpon and then working some pot holes and sight casting at muds. The muds were full of Redfish and Snook, between them they caught 20 Snook and 12 Redfish using Gulp Shrimp and the Twitch n Raps. It was time to search for Tarpon so I ran to the Gulf, the winds had picked up to 20 mph. It took a little searching, but we found them and hooked a monster. The fight didn't last more than a couple of minutes the Tarpon landed on the line when she jumped, breaking it. Rick caught a 23" Trout while we were waiting for a Tarpon bite. There was a big storm withy some funnel clouds coming our way so we made a run back towards the marina. I stopped at a spot so Kathy could catch a Trout and get her SLAM since Rick had already caught his. 2 SLAMS for the day and a lot of fish caught. Happy birthday, Rick!
041008
I am with Rick and Kathy again today but Kathy is not giving Rick a chance like yesterday, it's not his birthday any more. This morning is slick and the Tarpon are everywhere, we cast and cast at them but didn't get a lot of interest in return. It took a while but we hooked a 50 lb. Tarpon for a few jumps, that got the blood pumping.
We started out with a jumped Tarpon and moved on to Snook and a bunch of Redfish and then killed the Trout while trying to catch a few Ladyfish for bait. A big Tarpon is still high on the priority list so we ran out to the Gulf. The winds picked up just as we arrived there but we some free jumpers and had a couple shots at some laid up Tarpon. The Sharks wouldn't leave our baits alone we had them circling us like a bad movie. It did get interesting when a nice Hammerhead came up behind us. We cast at it but no luck as it spooked off, Hammerheads are a blast! The Tripletail's made a brief appearance but we moving quickly and not interested either. Rick's lure got hit and all he could say was I saw the flash. Thats how fast the Tarpon can be! Rick and Kathy caught 6 or 7 Sharks and they were done Kathy quit fishing and she normally don't. Rick said that's it, lets head in. 2 more SLAMS today between them they had a total of 10 SLAMS on both days.
041108
My partner Paul and I drove all night to get to Jacksonville for a tournament on Saturday only to get there and have dense fog. We sat at the dock for 20 minutes and I finally couldn't take it anymore and said lets go. We idled down the inter coastal with out being able to see in front of the boat, eventually getting to where we were going. I told Paul this spot is good and the Redfish didn't wait long to show us they were there. There were a lot of fish there and I felt confident fort he next day. We didn't have time to pre fish more than one day, but from talking to other anglers at the captains meeting the weather had been terrible anyway. I was confident in my new partner this year and felt like we were going to set the world on fire.
041208
The boat ramp was busy with 122 boats launching at the same time, but that's when the competitive juices start flowing. We checked out and we were on our way to a spot my friend Don from leaders and sinkers in Fernandina Beach told me about. The first stop was close and the fish we there but uncooperative. I told Paul lets go, I don't want to get to our spot and have someone else there. as we drifted up to the area we saw a school of Reds pushing up onto the oysters that gave us hope as the tide kept falling out. We worked very hard for the next 7 hours not to get a bite. We saw the fish, cast to the fish and watched them swim away constantly. The winds were howling and muddied up the water make it hard to sight fish. We hit all the spots I new in the area and it was just as tough as it could get. It wasn't only tough for us 62 teams out of 122 didn't weigh in fish. This is the hard part of fishing outside of your local waters. We left Jacksonville disappointed but on a positive note for our next few tournaments.
Flamingo Fishing Forecast:
hopefull for less wind
Target Species:
Tarpon-Snook -Bonefish-Permit-Sharks
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