 |
Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
January 25, 2005
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
There were lots of dramatic changes this week at Flamingo, most of them weather related. We had quite low water temperatures early last week, then a slow warming trend that ended last Sunday night when another strong cold front really dropped the thermometer... Fortunately my last booking was on Sunday and the fish seemed to turn on just before the front changed things. As usual fishing weather fronts means expecting strong winds and some accompanying rain. As the front passes the rain ends, skies clear a bit, and you can feel the temperature dropping.
In the morning despite intermittent rain we found lots of speckled trout, ladyfish, and jacks biting in Whitewater Bay. After two hours we left them biting, having caught and released almost 30 trout, another 30 ladyfish, and assorted small jacks and snappers. Our biggest trout was about 21" -- we caught them on jigs, shrimp, and soft plastic lures in 62 degree water. As the weather improved we changed tactics and began poling shallow shorelines looking for snook and redfish. Although we only caught and released one snook we spooked quite a few big ones that were lying along shallow, protected, mud bottomed shorelines. Most of these fish were in groups of half a dozen or more and seemed more interested in warming up than feeding....
Just before noon we again changed gears and ran west to fish one of the many rivers that drain west from Oyster Bay to the Gulf coast. We found lots of small gag grouper and one small goliath grouper (jewfish) on jigs tipped with shrimp. We caught and released 10, the biggest at 23" was a handful on 10# spinning gear. Along the way we also caught and released a small permit of about 4lbs. I can only guess that the water near the bottom must be a bit warmer than surface waters... Not a bad day, fishing in marginal conditions, with winds approaching 25 to 30mph during the afternoon...
By this weekend the last days of January should once again provide moderating temperatures and a bit more active fish.
Tight Lines
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
