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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
September 18, 2001
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
This week the fishing along the Gulf coast in the Shark river area has been very good. On Sunday and Monday my anglers caught snook, redfish, and speckled trout each day. The snook were in the 10 to 12lb range, the reds up to 9lbs, and the specks were 2 to 4lbs. The shorelines continue to have large amounts of small herring, pilchards, spanish sardines, and bay anchovies on both incoming and falling tides. We watched tarpon from 10 to 60lbs and larger feeding on them all day long. As usual the tarpon were concentrating on the small bait and getting one to take a lure was tough. We caught fish all day long on lures, and bait. On several occasions each day we had sharks chasing plugs back to the boat. We caught and released sharks both days up to about 7'. I noted that two of them had orange tags in their dorsal fins and found out that reading them would have necessitated killing the sharks. (If anyone knows about a shark tagging program, I'd sure like to hear about it.)
Yesterday was strictly fly fishing in the same areas. My angler caught and released trout, ladyfish, and one snook. The same tarpon that wouldn't eat lures frustrated us by feeding heavily on the white bait while ignoring our flies. We had one strike on a popping bug, but missed him. Our trip was cut short when the weather closed in on us after a perfect morning.
Water conditions are almost perfect. Water temps across Whitewater Bay are at about 74 degrees at dawn and never got above 78 during the day. The tremendous amounts of rainfall have muddied the Gulf coast a bit, but not enough to hurt the fishing. As long as the wind stays out of the east to southeast it should stay good.
On a personal note, like everyone else I've followed the events in New York and Washington this week with sadness. As much as I love being on the water each day I know that there are a lot more important things going on right now. Yesterday we never saw another fisherman from Flamingo to the Gulf coast. I believe that whoever was involved in this attack has made a very bad mistake.....
Tight Lines
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