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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
March 24, 2004
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
It's been a tough few weeks since my last report, but I've been on the water almost every day or night in pretty bad conditions with either high winds or nasty cold fronts to deal with on a daily basis. The last few years we've had relatively mild winters and this year we've made up for it... Conditions have been hard on both anglers and gear. We broke bow lights twice in one week while night fishing around bridges in rough conditions. If any of your gear is in poor condition you'll generally find out about it when it's under stress. Enough grumping, let's talk about the fishing.
Night fishing on the right tide in the urban areas of Biscayne Bay has been quite good on the five nights we fished. As long as the shrimp are moving (even a just a few shrimp) on the tide baby tarpon line up under bridges to feed on them. When the weather is howling the baby tarpon are not so small. On several nights we hooked fish up to around 80 lbs on both spinning and fly fishing gear. Fish that size around concrete pilings are pretty much more than you can handle unless they run away from the bridge. On our best night we jumped 10 fish from 30 to 80lbs in less than five hours. Of course the next day you have to make a few repairs to your skiff and count a few new chips out of the gelcoat...
Flamingo fishing has been difficult with few fair weather days that weren't accompanied by cold temperatures or muddy water. Still, the inside and Gulf coast have places to fish even when most of it looks impossible. We've fished behind islands and in rivers when the big bays were un-fishable. On days when the wind is howling out of the east or northeast Gulf side river mouths have saved the day. The giant tarpon have been in Whitewater for several weeks now but rarely have the conditions allowed us to work them. Most of the fish we've encountered have acted like it was early January with fish widely spread out and not moving much at all. A few days we've found them laid up along a lee shoreline --really big fish in less than three feet of water. If you can figure out which end of the "log" is the eating end you've got a chance at a spectacular strike. Two days ago a well placed small lure drew an explosion from one that could be seen a quarter mile away. Of course the fish missed entirely but what a show! Our best day was last Saturday when conditions made fishing Whitewater Bay (and almost everywhere else) just impossible. A small river that drains into the Gulf provided a comfortable holding area for big fish. Joe Huggard and Tony Whitehouse of Luxembourg combined to jump 8 tarpon on fly that ranged from around 70 to over 100lbs in a river that is less than 100 feet wide. Tony Whitehouse finally got his first and second big tarpon to the boat, a 70 and a 100lb fish. We had to chase the big one up and down the river for almost 40 minutes. True close quarters combat! That fish jumped up into one mangrove bush, and had to be worked out from several others along the banks. I'm looking forward to the photographs. It was a great day (and we only broke one fly rod...).
This is finally the time of year when everything starts to turn on at Flamingo. We're catching snook, reds, and speckled trout almost every day. One day we even trashed a half dozen clouser flies on small spanish mackeral in the middle of Whitewater Bay. The size of the speckled trout has increased noticeably in the last two weeks and all appear bright silver, fresh in from the Gulf. We're also seeing the occasional jack crevalle between 10 and 20 lbs cruising areas where mullet are starting to school up. All that's needed now is for the weather conditions to settle down and the area should get hot.
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