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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
September 26, 2007
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
This past week all of my trips were spent fly fishing for giant tarpon with a bit of snook and redfishing thrown in.... The giant tarpon have been in along the Gulf coast of the 'Glades now for a few weeks but we needed the right weather to be able to concentrate on them exclusively. We had the right weather and more during the first half of the week, but faced difficult conditions on Thursday and Friday with high winds out of the south and southwest just shutting us down....
Along the way we found one or two surprises... The first major surprise was a school of large breeder redfish from 15 to more than 30lbs moving inshore right next to the mangroves in three to five feet of water. This is the time of year when the big reds are around but normally you only see them offshore between five and ten miles out. Since my angler was rigged with a popping bug for small to medium tarpon he cast it at the school and had several big fish turn after it... In the middle of all the excitement a jack crevalle of about 6lbs boiled up and beat the reds to the bug. After a brief battle we released the jack and ran around the school to get another shot at them. Just as the school reached us something large (probably more than one medium sized bull shark) attacked the reds from every angle and that was the end of that! For the next few minutes we got to watch our reds racing in circles, moving back and forth under the skiff, as they tried desperately to keep from being eaten.... It was one heck of a show, but very frustrating with fish up to and over 30lbs within casting range that just had survival as their goal. That pretty much scattered them and it was back to the tarpon....
The big fish are hungry now and really turned on. We had fish make more than one pass at the fly and some even chased it all the way to the skiff along the coast in water that ranged from five to almost ten feet. We caught and released them every day while the weather conditions were favorable. Joe Huggard, a regular visitor from Europe, is an old hand at big fish on fly. He really lays into them when they bite. We're using an intermediate line with a heavy leader connected to a Tarpon Snake fly. If you keep retrieving a fish will bite more than once until you've hooked him or the fly is back at the boat.
Not all of the fish were along the coast. When the outside action slowed a bit we went into nearby creeks and found a lot of smaller tarpon, most in the 15 to 60lb category. They were just as hungry as their big brothers but in much closer quarters...
Along with the hungry tarpon we found good numbers of full bodied slot sized snook in the same creeks that the small tarpon were holding in. Every one of the fish we hooked were in very shallow, sight fishing, conditions where you could see them follow, then attack the fly. Unfortunately they were all in and around lots of downed trees and other snags that they took full advantage of... It was sure fun stalking and hooking them but not a lot of joy when they ran back into the tangles. The fly of choice for the snook was a small woolhead mullet pattern on a 1/0 hook with wire weedguard.
As I write this report the weather outside is rain and more rain. When the weather finally clears the fishing should be great out of both Flamingo or Everglades City... This is prime time now in the 'Glades for the big tarpon and everything else. All of the fish are on the feed, working to fatten up before the first cold front toward the end of October. If you can get on the water now it will be as good as it gets...
Tight Lines
Bob LeMay
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