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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
July 3, 2003
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Summer time fishing continues hot and heavy. We're getting shots at nearly everything that swims at Flamingo right now. Here's a brief summary:
On Friday Neil Franklin of Coral Gables struck and fought a 100lb tarpon to the boat for release on spinning gear with 14# line. His fishing partner landed snook up to 9lbs in the same area. That day also saw lots of speckled trout, small grouper, large snapper, and the occasional spanish mackeral.
The next day Larry Simon and his son Chad fished with me. The morning was slow, with not much happening. By afternoon we had run nearly to Lostman's River looking for fish. In about four hours one spot really turned on. We caught 5 redfish, keeping two for dinner, and missed bites by big snook. Chad then fought to the boat and released two sawfish. The rare critters were under seven feet in length. I suspect we had on several quite a bit larger. In the next hour we hooked and lost animals that were in the "unstoppable" category...
Monday night I was back in Biscayne Bay with a late trip for baby tarpon in the urban area of Miami Beach. Joe Evans and his partner Bill used light fly rods to jump six nice tarpon, releasing two at boatside. We also had shots at some big snook, but they weren't having any.
Yesterday it was back to the Gulf side of the 'Glades, where we were pretty much in fish all day with Mark Barnett and his dad Stanley The first area we hit had ladyfish, jacks, large trout, good sized spanish mackeral, and schooling tarpon for about 300 yds with surface action everywhere you looked. It was a fish every cast for about an hour with lots of double hookups until the falling tide slowed. The only fish we didn't get bites from were the tarpon. Tipped jigs, DOA Baitbusters, and small plugs all drew strikes. The rest of the day we caught large snappers, lots of small gag groupers, more trout, and snook up to about 6lbs. We only had one bite from a big tarpon since large sharks kept attacking any tarpon baits we put out... We ended the day with a 12lb goliath grouper in Oyster Bay. That fish ate a pinfish meant for a snook and dragged the entire rig back under some mangrove roots. Mark did an outstanding job working that fish out of the tangles with only 12# line.
This time of year it's hot and muggy. The bugs attack like crazy at the boat ramp, but the fishing more than makes up for it... The best part is that we seldom ever see one other boat in all the areas that we fish.
Tight Lines
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