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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
October 3, 2004
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
The month of September was tough. I lost 10 days of bookings which wouldn't be so bad if they weren't the only ones that I had... I still made it out at least one day a week almost every week and found the fishing to be darn good. Very nice sized snook every trip on lures, flies, and bait. Lots of small to medium tarpon as well.
I finally got to fish a booking on Friday. With David Nie and Mike Cao from Boston aboard we caught and released snook up to 31". Not bad considering the water is still pretty muddy and big 'gators made a try for almost every fish we hooked. I'm betting the fishing will improve every day from now until that first cold front. At the first cold front the tarpon will disappear but there will be lots of other species biting. These next few weeks will be our best opportunity all year to sight-fish a really big redfish. Big breeders (our best is 35lbs) will break away from offshore schools to prowl shorelines now. There won't be many but the ones you find are easily mistaken for sharks- they're that big!
Although the water along the coast is still fairly murky, the fish are still in around river mouths and just inside interior bays. Water temperatures have dropped a bit. We found surface temps of 78 degrees along the coast at dawn.... Whitewater Bay currently has a lot of freshwater but small trout are beginning to show along the west side of it. While water temps will drop as we move into fall, rain will also diminish and Whitewater and other big interior bays will become a bit more salty, just in time for the migration into the interior of lots of reds, trout, and snook.
For the past month our tactics have been directed to take advantage of end of summer heat. We've worked top water lures and flies until 9 or 10 each morning then switched to working deep around corners where downed trees and other structure hold fish. Believe it or not I've observed large 'gators working the same pattern... In fact at least 6 slot sized snook had to be worked around a few gators that figured out that my skiff was part of their fishing opportunity. Although we never lost a fish to one they sure kept trying. One of them persisted in resting his chin on my pushpole (we were staked out) while he waited for the next fish....
Although most of Florida has taken a beating from hurricanes this year, South Florida seems to have dodged every bullet... The Everglades also escaped any damage at all. At present anyone heading this way will find all of our fishing opportunities and facilities in good shape. I suppose that next year it will be our turn.
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