 |
Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
October 5, 2005
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
The fishing this week has featured tarpon, tarpon, tarpon. On the water five of the last six days, we've been in fish now continuously until yesterday when the tarpon temporarily moved back out into the Gulf as a weather change occurred.... Put simply the "second season" for the big fish is well underway along selected areas of the gulf coast of the Everglades.
Tarpon from 20 to as much as 100lbs and over are just gorging on baitfish now. When the bite is on the birds mark fish as far as 500 meters off of the beach, but at the same time there are fish feeding all the way back to the shore. We've had many fish all around the skiff at times, ignoring us completely even when gulping bait right next to the boat... The downside is that the fish have been tough to fly fish. When they get on baitfish like this it's hard to convince one to bite a fly.. We've had some success with surface baitfish patterns and small popping bugs. We had a small bug blown up yesterday morning by a fish in the 60lb range... Lures and jigs have worked a bit better each day.
We've had some great moments, one small plug that we use for trout on top got just inhaled by a 60lb fish on light line. Another small plug got taken in around 2' of water by a fish that was easily 100lbs. That fish put on a show at close quarters until throwing the plug back into the boat. When the weather settles out the big fish should move in again and stick around for another few weeks.
Right in the same areas where the tarpon have been working we've seen good numbers of spanish mackeral each day along with the occasional small king (either small kingfish or monster macks soaring as much as six feet in the air striking at the surface) The tarpon action will all end when the first cold front appears toward the end of this month. The mackeral will be around as long as the bait is inshore in good quantity. While we've been hunting tarpon mostly, we've also had some success with snook in Whitewater Bay most days although the Bay is almost entirely freshwater now.
I'll be back on the water in two days, hopefully the weather will have sorted itself out by then.
Tight Lines
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
