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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
June 6, 2006
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
This past week the small tarpon fishing in both the 'Glades out of Flamingo and at night in Biscayne Bay has come alive.
At Flamingo this past week we fished several days with mixed results using both artificials and bait. The bait situation along the west coast of the 'Glades is not your usual small bait along shorelines. We're finding great schools of bait from the shoreline out to the boundary markers (about 4miles out). The bait is large for this time of year and primarily threadfin herring. There's been so much bait available it's nothing to use up an entire load of bait chumming, then re-load the live well and go back after the fish. One sign of the great amounts of bait are large numbers of frigate birds (also called man-of-war birds) soaring and feeding along the coast in 5 to 10 feet of water... I don't know if this is attributable to last fall's hurricanes but I sure hope it lasts all summer.
On Saturday it was a change of pace to hunt tarpon on fly all day. Chip Reid of Washington, D.C. wanted a shot at his first one and that's just what we did. We started the day off with a small fish that ate a very small popping bug in Coot Bay just a short distance from where a hungry bottle nosed dolphin was just tearing up everything in sight.... That dolphin was putting on the kind of show you'd expect to see at the Seaquarium. After releasing our first fish we ran west to find its big brothers. There are good numbers of small to medium tarpon in Whitewater Bay now if you know where they hang out. They still behave like tarpon though so finding them is only half the battle. Along the way we caught and released speckled trout, snappers, jacks, and a few other species that just jumped on small white flies. Leaving Whitewater our next tarpon spot was in the mouth of a small creek draining into a river. We jumped off a nice 30lb fish there on a black fly and that set the tone for the rest of the day, with another 7 or 8 fish that just had to eat that black fly at other small creeks. Tarpon heaven on an 8 or 9wt rod... As usual the tarpon did most of the releasing. A great day for a first time visitor to the 'Glades. I hope he'll be back.
Last night it was another change of pace (and location) with a night trip hunting small (and not so small) tarpon in Biscayne Bay. My anglers were Reuben Garcia, his wife Cindy, and their young daughter Brittany. The small tarpon (up to about 40 lbs) are on fire now at night locally. We jumped more than 10 fish in four hours and everyone got one to the boat for a photo and release on light spinning gear. At one spot we could see six to ten fish at a time right at the surface so we could target the fish we wanted. The action was so hot we barely had time to fish two of the many night-time spots that are holding fish. I hope it lasts all summer. It's a great fishery for that first tarpon on fly, lure, or any way you want to tangle with them. As usual the tarpon do most of the releasing without any assistance. One fish was so hot that when hooked jumped into the boat, bounced of both Cindy and her husband before landing on the gunnel and then back into the water - still hooked up and full of fight. It was a great night without another boat in sight doing any fishing. Not bad for fishing downtown....
Tight Lines
ps: Don's Bait and Tackle in Homestead still has my backcountry jigs in stock. They're what we use most of the time when working shorelines in the 'Glades...
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