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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
December 17, 2003
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
The trout fishing has been quite good in Whitewater Bay this week. The first spot we hit produced more than 20 fish (for catch and release) and all were heavy bodied, slot sized fish. They hit bait under Equalizers, jigs under Equalizers, tipped jigs, and surface lures. This is the time of year to break out a light fly rod with a sink-tip or intermediate line. A seven or six weight is just about right with flies sized from a #2 up to about 1/0... Here's a tip. We're using spinning or plug casting gear to locate the fish then switching to flies when fish are found. Look for spots with moving water over the kind of structure that provides an ambush spot for a hungry fish.
Bait along the Gulf coast is almost non-existant now, except for clouds of glass minnows (bay anchovies, actually) being worked over by pelicans. When you see them bombing the same area over and over, that's the place. We were able to pick up a few fish around the edges of such places but not enough to target them seriously. We're still finding redfish around the entrances to salt creeks on the rising tide. A surprise has been small to medium sawfish. We're catching and releasing one a trip now along the coast. If you do hook one release it carefully, both for your sake and the fish's since they're protected.
With the cold front coming this week I'll be looking for warm up spots during the day in Whitewater and Oyster Bays. These are small, shallow coves that are protected from the wind and have a soft mud bottom. Around the middle of a sunny day after a cold night every snook and nice sized red in the area may be there.... The fishing's not easy since the fish are there to warm up instead of feed, but a careful approach and small offering may get rewarded. The first time you pole a warm up spot most of the fish will be invisible until they explode away from your skiff, but a little practice will help you spot fish laying motion-less on the bottom. This is not the kind of fishing for someone using a trolling motor....
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