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Everglades National Park & Biscayne Bay
Capt. Jim Hale
April 26, 2005
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cane Polin’ Charters fishing report from April 1st to the 25th
Since my last report at the end of March I was not able to be on the water for the first two weeks of April as my father, who taught me how to fish and love the sea, passed away. Out of the 12 days available in April I fished 10 so far.
Being back on the water from the 15th of April until today, the sunny skies and brisk winds have brought at times some great flats fishing. With the water starting to warm up large numbers of bonefish, some of them being monsters, have been showing up in Biscayne Bay. Large snook and redfish have also made their presence known. Now that we are in the late part of April tarpon are now showing up in smaller schools. There have been some permit sightings but at this time they are still hit and miss. Some days I’ve seen 12 to 15 permit and some days seeing 0 to 1. As May approaches hopefully the winds will settle down a little bit and the cold fronts will diminish making a large push for permit. The weather this year seems to be a month behind the norm for South Florida.
As I had some cancellations this month I choose to go out and do some fun fishing of my own. I finally got to bend a rod myself. As the typical charters catching snook, bone and redfish I do have some great highlights to share with you.
April 15th on a snook fishing trip in Biscayne Bay we came across 10 to 15 snook over 12 lbs. But the finicky critters wouldn’t eat live mullet or shrimp, so we resorted to pinfish. After seeing many large snook we spotted one estimated over 30 lbs. After tracking this fish for 30 minutes we decided to blind cast the mangroves. In doing so we hooked into a large mangrove snapper and out of the corner of my eye I watched the 30 lb snook come out of the mangroves and chomp the snapper. The fight lasted about 8 seconds, GO FIGURE!
April 20th poling the flats on another windy day we went looking for snook. Numerous snook seen darting in and out of the mangroves produced two feisty snook for the angler, one of 8 lb and the other 6.
April 23rd with old time friend James Dillard we decided to hunt for permit and bonefish in Biscayne Bay. As you recall last month with Jim, the winds and timing just wasn’t there for him. A beautiful cast on an estimated 12 lb permit produced once again an empty hook. The permit was glad to take his crab and leave him the hook. Being in his rut he decided to chase down some redfish. Then again the black cloud just followed him. He put beautiful casts on plenty of large redfish but none would chomp.
On April 24th in route for a charter at Ocean Reef, I received a call that the clients needed to cancel at the last minute. Since being on the water already, I decided to try and bend a rod for myself. Making two casts one landing a large shark and the other landing a 15 lb bonefish. Knowing no one would believe me I netted him and took the picture as evidence.
Bones, reds and snook are here now in full force and permit are right around the corner. Like I said before the tarpon are starting to show up and should be in full force REEL soon. Open dates are filling fast.
Talking to you soon!
Capt. Jim Hale
786-255-1788 / 305-926-7423
[email protected]
www.canepolincharters.com
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