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South Florida Report - Flamingo, Biscayne Bay & Miami
Capt. Jim Hobales
May 14, 2007
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
051107
The conditions have been tough this week, west winds caused by the sub-tropical low off the coast off Georgia have not made it easy. The fires north and west of us has brought in a haze that has mad sight fishing very tough to do, with that being said we have managed a couple fish. Today I am fishing with Carlos, he bought a Pathfinder 22 and wanted to learn how to fish south Biscayne Bay. We started out on the west side with a big Cuda eating his lure, it was a great hit with a couple long runs but we were actually fishing for Snook and looking for Bonefish. We did see one individual tail and then a big school but no takers! It was dark all morning no visibility at all we ran out to Ceasars Bank and fished some light bottom. It didn't take long and we had a Permit cruising on the back of a Eagle Ray. Carlos cast the Crab in front of the Ray and the Permit bolted off the Ray and hit it. Carlos made the mistake of setting the hook and pulling the bait away from the Permit but the Permit wanted it bad; it chased it hitting it again. The line came tight and Carlos did his big Bass hook set and pulled the hook after the permit crushed the crab and started taking line. This is a no-no. just start winding the fish is going to run hard and fast enough to set the hook. We were having a really hard time seeing and the fish would just pop up on us. Carlos made some cast at some big lemon Sharks that just refused to play. I showed him a couple other ways to save the day and he ended up catching some Mutton Snappers, Jacks, Ladyfish and Cuda's. I know he dropped me off and went back out trying for a Snook.
051207
I'm fishing with Rick and Kathy from San Diego today and tomorrow, today we are at Flamingo. The wind is down, I told them we really need to take advantage of the early calm. The first spot we went to was very active, fish were busting baits, tarpon were rolling and there were wakes on the surface. I don't know what more to ask for! I rigged Twitch n Raps and explained how we were going to work the area. The tide was just starting come in and the baits were getting beat up. It didn't take long and Kathy was hooked up she had a nice Snook peeling some line off the reel and then making a jump. Kathy brought the 26 3/4" Snook boat side where I landed it, we snapped a couple photos of her first Snook and released it. Rick answered back with a couple Redfish and then Kathy was at it again; this fish it zippin line of the reel but ran to open water. That's not really how Snook do it. I thought it was a big Redfish as it made its third long run. The fish finally decided to show itself with a jump, it was a very nice Snook! Kathy got it along side the boat where I lipped it with the Boga-grip and brought it aboard. Kathy was excited and so was Rick this is what they had came for. They do a lot of freshwater fishing at home but wanted to try our back country fishing. The tide came in and the west winds kicked up, this caused the water to muddy up and get rough where we were at. The rest of the day we just targeted everything we could Trout, Jacks, Ladyfish, Catfish and spent the rest of the day Shark fishing.
051307
This morning I'm with Rick and Kathy again, we are fishing the south side of Government Cut. The wind is down, its calm and the Tarpon are rolling everywhere! I rigged a couple Crabs and started our first drift. I gave them both a Twitch n Rap to cast while we were drifting, there were 5 other boats out and no one hooked up, this means they just are eating. I told them persistence will pay off all the other boats left and they kept casting. Kathy say she's hooked up the fish is staying down and pulling hard, her fish ate the Twitch n Rap. This lure is supposed to be for shallow water were are in 20 feet. The fish ran and will not come up Kathy put the heat to it for 20 minutes and finally had to let Rick take over, now he's in the hot seat. The fish finally came up and let us know he in fact was "the silver king". The Tarpon made his way to the inlet and did the "down and dirty" Rick fought the fish keeping pressure on it. Here's were it went bad; a freighter was in bound into the inlet and it was moving pretty fast. As the freighter was next to us the Tarpon made this incredible run and leep in to the wake that was coming off the bow of the ship. There was nothing we could do but watch in amazement, we had no room to work and the Tarpon knew it. That is a tough way to lose a fish after 45 minutes but it was so cool.
We went back and tried to for another Tarpon but they were shut down so we made our way down to south Biscayne bay. Sundays on Biscayne Bay are ridiculous, the boat traffic and lack of courtesy is incredible. This made for a tough the rest of day. A parade of big boats running by us on the edge of a flat actually knocked Rick into the water. We hooked a Shark and saw a Bonefish but the tide was low we tried several things but there wasn't a lot going on. I ran back to Government Cut area but it was just to busy. We ended up in the bay Trout fishing until it was time to go.
051307
I dropped off Rick and Kathy and my evening guys were there early. Gary and Brian jumped in and we were back to Government Cut. I told them because it was still early and with the boat traffic it might take a while for the Tarpon to feed. I was wrong! On our second drift right around 5 o'clock Gary's reel was screaming and at the end was a 120 lbs of jumping Tarpon. The Tarpon landed on the line breaking it. We set up again and
made another drift, at 551 pm the line started peeling off again. Gary picks up the rod and the fish is staying down, this normally means "BIG", after 25 minutes the Tarpon showed itself as it was trying to make its way to the inlet. The Tarpon half way rolled so we could only guess how big it was. The Tarpon finally made its way into the inlet and this time a cruise ship was on it way out, not a problem! The Tarpon pulled and swam across the current to the north side, we attempted to force him up over the ledge until the ship passed. This didn't happen the cruise ship was only about a 100 yards inside of us and the Tarpon ran straight across and back to the south side. The Tarpon leaped showing us how far away it was. I told Gory to hold on and start cranking as I ran in front of the cruise ship than was kicking up a 3 foot wave. I could only imagine was the people on the deck were thinking as I cut across the cut within 50 yards of his bow, this was not very smart. The Tarpon jumped in front of all the people on the cruise ship letting them know why we did what we did. This Tarpon made one last attempt to go under the ship as it made it way past us. I held the boat in reverse as Gary pulled as hard as he could to the cheers of hundreds on the deck of the ship. The Tarpon didn't make it under and we are back at it. It's about 45 minutes in to the fight and the Tarpon has made it's way into the cut along the north jetty. There was about 15 guys fishing on the rocks watching us fight this fish. The Tarpon finally made a jump where we got a good look at it. Gary has done a lot of fishing in his day and I have seen quite a few Tarpon and we agreed this was a very large Tarpon, over 160 lbs. There was a crowd gathering a police boat, tow boat, tug boat and the pilot boat were all watching. Gary was intent on landing this Tarpon and kept the pressure on. The Tarpon made one last jump before running down the ledge and cutting us off. I didn't see who yelled it but someone said that Tarpon looked like 180 lbs. I agreed this the second biggest Tarpon ever hooked on my boat. The weather changed and the winds switched and the bite shut off. We gave it another hour with no more bites so we called it a night.
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