 |
Everglades National Park & Biscayne Bay
Capt. Jim Hale
August 31, 2005
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Cane Polin’ Charters Fishing report August 6 through August 31, 2005
For the most part August has turned out to be a good month for inshore fishing. Though, this last week I was fishing for tree limbs. My fishing rod was a 16” Stihl chain saw and back up was a Ridgid wet vac. Before the hurricane, sweltering heat and typical Florida afternoon thunderstorm have tried to make it difficult to fish later in the day. Fishing in the mornings was still our best bet. I have not fished since the 24th of August due to Hurricane Katrina but prior to that I can report from Florida Bay and Biscayne Bay.
In Florida Bay there are still a lot of schools of redfish. They once again dominated the flats. On the average these schools have about 50 fish in them. Some days I’m chasing school after school and other days the schools split up and you see single tailers every where you look. Mike Stasko, of Cutler Ridge, FL, fished along with me and we managed to only catch 6 out of who knows how many reds we saw.
The last day I fished was the day before the hurricane hit. I looked for the redfish all morning long and couldn’t find them. After searching the entire flat I went back to the place I originally started from and where I’ve been seeing them religiously. There, they appeared in schools in front of the boat. The water was getting low but there were many schools of redfish still around the boat. A couple of quick casts into these schools and 6 redfish were released in 20 minutes. The fish averaged 6 lbs. with a couple of 8’s. The redfish that are tailing are a little more finicky and a little spooky.
On the Westside of the park the tarpon are showing up in large numbers from Cape Sable to Harney River. The out-going tide with the bait pushing out into the bay have the tarpon going crazy. I’ve seen fish as small as 40 lbs and up to est. 180 lbs in these waters. In Middle Cape we jumped two in thirty minutes on live finger mullet (quarter-ounce jigs will work as well). Small tarpon are still on the flats rolling in the morning. These fish are only around 15 lbs. They are easily taken on fly. The fly I like is the light green color Lefty’s Deceiver or white minnow patterns will work. The snook are still along the beaches and an out-going tide seems to be the best. Fishing around mangroves with water movement is holding these fish.
In the second week of August I had the pleasure of fishing with Mike Leech (Ambassador of the IGFA) and his son Eric. He had the pleasure in seeing South Biscayne Bay for all it can be. Mike and Eric spent the morning chasing and casting on many schools of bones. All the bones early in the morning were tailing in extremely shallow water, kind of spooky and would not eat. At the next spot we chased school after school and finally managed to hook up on an 8 and 10 lb and missed a couple more. We were using live crabs the size of a quarter. The permit were on the outside and along channel edges on an out-going tide. There were also small pods of tarpon rolling just off Elliot Key on calm mornings, once again the green Lefty Deceiver is my fly of choice.
Next month hopefully I will be field-testing some new inshore baits by some of the leading manufacturers and will give you a report on how well these baits produced. Because of Hurricane Katrina, the fresh water run off to the Bay will shake up fishing for a week or so. But I expect it to return to normal in the beginning of September. I will be on the water everyday awaiting their return and I will let you know next time how the waters are doing. Good luck to everyone who was affected by Katrina and I hope the clean up goes easily and quickly.
Tight lines and gin clear water!
Capt. Jim Hale
www.CanePolinCharters.com
800-950-FINS
786-255-1788
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
