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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
April 4, 2004
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
This week's fishing was pretty good. Water temps have risen sufficiently that an occasional cold evening doesn't seem to slow down the fish the next day. We've actually had a few days with fair weather, something unusual this year... Mullet are starting to school up but not in any great numbers yet. Pilchards are making their first appearance in small creeks inside river mouths. In the next few weeks things should get better and better with warming waters and a bit less wind.
Our biggest tarpon this week was estimated at 125lbs at boatside. Mike Morgan and Frog Cockerham from Texas fished with me for most of last week with Mike fly-fishing and Frog using spinning gear. Frog went toe to toe with the big fish in a small river near the Gulf coast. He also beat another one almost as big in the same river. Every tarpon is an individual and no two fish fight the same way. That second fish jumped a half dozen times when hooked while greyhounding away from us. Some of the jumps were more than ten feet in the air! This week we couldn't get any of the big fish to eat flies, but a live bait or a well placed lure did the trick. Frog also scored with a nice snook, sightfishing in Whitewater Bay. The fish ate a small jig in two feet of water. The fish was released after weighing 10lbs on the Boga-grip. Not bad on a light spinning rod with only 10# line... During the week we caught lots of fish on fly but the big fish just wouldn't co-operate.
We finished out the week fishing local angler Larry Simon and his two sons Chad and Rob. As of yesterday the wind was again howling out of the west, northwest and finding spots to fish took a bit of work. Our first two spots really paid off. By 9Am we had caught and released over 100 fish on lures and bait. The fish included trout, ladyfish, jacks, mackeral and other species. When the sun had warmed the water a bit we visited a shallow area where Chad scored with a nice 8lb snook on a small jig. We then went to deeper points near the Shark River where several different kinds of grouper were caught and released. Of course the ones we released were on the small side, the bigger fish did their own releasing... We ended the day fishing inside waters where Rob caught and released his first shark, a bull shark of about 50lbs. He also hooked and fought to the boat a cobia of about 20lbs. That fish managed to pull the hook at the end of the fight and get away. I think Rob will remember that one...
Here's a strategy when fishing in marginal conditions. In Whitewater and other bays with lots of islands there's always islands to fish behind when the wind is blowing. Instead of just fishing out of the wind look at the corners where moving water is next to relatively calm water. Places like that create feeding opportunities for hungry fish that will lay up in the calm water and feed on what the moving water presents. It sure paid off for us yesterday.
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