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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
February 21, 2007
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
As usual in February the weather runs the show. This past week was no exception, with three cancelled dates because of bad weather, I was only on the water with anglers for three days.... Every day was interesting, although not as productive as I'd have liked. Last Wednesday and Thursday we fly and spin fished each day finding fair numbers of nice sized redfish and snook in very shallow water. The highlight on Wednesday was a five pound goliath grouper working a flat along with some redfish in just over a foot of water. In fact I thought it was a red until we got it next to the boat... Working shallow was a real necessity since, with the wind blowing hard, these sheltered areas held most of the fish. I'd like to say that we did really well on the fish but that just wasn't the case. We had shot after shot at fish in clear water, but most were very spooky or just plain not interested in anything we were showing... We still managed to catch a variety of fish, most on the small side the first two days. The highlight of last week were the giant tarpon that have moved into Whitewater Bay. We had them rolling around the skiff and also found them laid up along one sheltered shoreline. Unfortunately on Friday the bottom dropped out of the thermometer as a strong cold front chased them back out into the Gulf.... With the next five days or so on a warming trend they should be back on station in a few days and we'll be back after them.
Yesterday was different to say the least with extreme cold temperatures at dawn. Although my truck didn't have any frost on the window, the other car at our house in Broward did.... When I dropped the boat into the water at the inside ramp at Flamingo the temperature gauge showed 52 degrees.... The lowest readings I saw on the run across Whitewater Bay was 49 in a few places. It's been a while since I've seen it that cold. The good news is that the water a foot under the surface was two or three degrees warmer which probably saved the day. On a really cold day the fish may not do much until after 10Am or so... Yesterday was no exception. We didn't start finding much action until nearly noon with a nice trout bite on spinning gear and small artificials. Once the sun began to warm up the shallows we began poling a few different sheltered "warm up spots" -- sheltered corners with clear water over a soft mud bottom, and we immediately began to find snook and redfish. The sudden temperature change had the fish working very slowly and reluctant to feed. The best (and only) redfish that we released was right at 24" but it took at least a half dozen presentations before we got the bite on a Gulp shrimp... We saw our share of fish but struggled the rest of the day. One of my anglers, a magazine publisher, did manage a backcountry slam of trout, redfish, and snook. A few warm days should make all the difference...
Tight Lines
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