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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
December 8, 2007
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
fishing report, Everglades interior and Gulf coast - Flamingo.
This report will cover the last five days fishing out of Flamingo. This week the weatherman gave us a break and a promised cold front turned out to be very mild. That allowed a continuation of the great tarpon action we found at the end of last week, but not until we did a bit of everything else.... Whitewater Bay is holding some large snook and nice reds now in very shallow areas. The fish we found were just plain tough and very spooky. They were tailor made for long precise casts the way you'd approach fish that were really on their guard.... All we caught in those areas was frustration as we pushed out trophy fish that seemed to have lockjaw.
On Tuesday after enough of fish that weren't co-operating it was out to the Gulf coast north of the Shark River where we caught and released a little of everything including a nice gag grouper on a lure intended for a snook. Patrick Hilford from Ft. Pierce caught this nice grouper on very light spinning gear from under a downed tree...
[img][img][IMG]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee111/lemaymiami/PatrickJamesgrouper.jpg[/IMG]
Patrick and James worked each spot carefully but it seemed that Patrick had the hot hand as James lost a few nice fish (including a big snook on an Equalizer with his very first cast of the day...). All that ended in late afternoon up a small river that was just filled with big tarpon. This time it was James on the rod with a very large tarpon in a small river. James stayed with the fish all the way and just did everything right. When the fish finally came to the boat I took one good picture before un-hooking and reviving the fish. It was a solid 80lbs. Patrick took the rest of the photos, which I haven't seen yet. Here' the one of the shots that I took...
[img][img][IMG]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee111/lemaymiami/Jamesbigtarpon-1.jpg[/IMG]
To get a bit of perspective the leader (you can see the knot near the top of the photo) is about 8' long...
After the big fish we still had time to get Patrick hooked up but the remaining bites were either sharks that cut us off or explosions as tarpon missed the bait or we missed the bite... still it was a great day!
On Thursday and Friday I fished two brothers, Jerry Coletti from Tampa and Vinnie who was visiting. With Vinnie using a fly rod and Jerry a light spinner we spent most of the morning in Whitewater Bay casting at those same large snook and reds in shallow coves. We saw fish after fish as we poled shorelines but all were just too tough. We still landed a variety of fish in a few spots, mostly speckled trout, jacks, ladyfish, the usual suspects. Moving over to Oyster Bay we added a few redfish, but still nothing to photograph.
We then ran out to the coast to fish south of the Shark River hoping to find some nice snook and reds but got sidetracked by a large body of tarpon laying in 8 to 10' of water. The water was crystal clear, with perfect conditions. It quickly became apparent that the fish were not going anywhere and very hungry as well as very big. Some of the blowups we saw could be seen from more than a half mile away... Tarpon Heaven. Although we saw a few boats run by no else seemed to notice what was up. We quickly put out two baits and watched as two fish blew up baits without getting hooked, then another ate and quickly cut us off running right at us from only 30' away... With no baits left it was time to head back inshore. At our first spot Vinnie hooked up and fought a bull shark that was nearly 100lbs to the boat on 15lb line. After catching and releasing almost 30 speckled trout while trying to catch a ladyfish, we caught just one and decided to fish it since we only had less than thirty minutes fishing time remaining. We ran back outside and carefully idled into position where the big fish had been holding. I just didn't have the time to pole in properly.... We set out the one bait we had then looked for fish without success. Just as I was ready to secure everything for the hour's run back to the dock a large tarpon exploded the one bait and the fight was on. Jerry Coletti was on the rod for almost 30 minutes as the fish really pushed us around with only a few jumps.. Tarpon that don't jump much are particularly tough opponents, but Jerry stayed on her all the way. Here's a photo of Jerry about twenty minutes into the battle...
[img][img][IMG]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee111/lemaymiami/colettitarpon.jpg[/IMG]
I keep one 20lb spinning rod on my skiff, it's my big gun and fortunately that was the rod that Jerry got to use. He needed every bit of it on that fish. After using up all the tricks, the fish made a few lunges under the skiff before I was able to leader it. Here's a photo of the fish right at the end of the action...
[img][img][IMG]http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee111/lemaymiami/colettitarp2.jpg[/IMG]
The fish was every bit of 100lbs and our best catch this week. It made the hour's run home just right.
Now for the good news. The weather should be mild almost the entire next week and the big fish should be available every day, both in Whitewater Bay and outside along the coast or up in nearby rivers. With a little mild weather this time of year the Everglades is the place to be!
Tight lines
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