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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
October 2, 2003
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
The rain this past week seems to have moved the fish around quite a bit along the coast and nearby rivers. Other guides are reporting lots of redfish everywhere except inside rivers mouths where there's just too much freshwater runoff. The few spots we worked had nice reds around oyster bars, which fit the pattern. Hunting tarpon on Saturday was tough during the morning. Spots inside rivers that have held fish for weeks were barren, not a big fish in sight.... In the afternoon a long run south along the coast paid off in spades. Every now and then you'll see something a bit out of the ordinary that you have never (not in 25 years) seen before. That was the case Saturday afternoon when we found great schools of spanish sardines along the coast between Cape Sable and the Shark River. All of the 'dines were between 6 and 8" long and they were packed so tightly that I could catch them with the dip net for my bait well... Everything was after them, from tarpon to bluefish. It looked just like great schools of mullet being attacked and chased by every hungry fish that saw them. The next day, remnants of the bait schools were still along the wild beaches but the water was a bit murky and the predators were not nearly as active. I don't know where all of those monster offshore sardines came from but I sure hope to get another day working them. Of course we were fly fishing and it's tough to get a fly eaten while everyone's gorging on live bait... We still managed bluefish, jacks, and assorted other bites -- everything except the big tarpon that were all around us.....
The next day Joe Huggard of Luxembourg caught and released a 75lb tarpon on fly on the inside. It more than made up for the frustrations of the day before. We still have a few weeks of late season tarpon fishing and if the rain gives us a break it should be great!
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