SNOOK, TheY are back!
Capt. Jim Hobales
July 22, 2012
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
071012
I am fishing out of Haulover marina in N. Miami Beach this morning with Larry and his son Shawn. Our first stop was to net some bait which was plentiful, two throws of the net and I had enough to live chum all day. We started out pretty quick casting "Twitch n Raps" and caught a few decent size Barracuda's, 10 Jack Crevalles and some keeper Mangrove Snappers. We moved on and found a school of big Jacks in a residential canal, I turned them on with live chum and we couldn't stop them. We had 5 hook ups and all made their way around dock pilings, it was still allot of fun. I continued chumming and Shawn hooked a Snook of 5 lbs. we fished little longer and at 1030 they were wore out so we called it a morning!
07/ 12-13 /12
I am over in the Marco Island area pre fishing for this weekend Backwater Series Tournament with partners Bruce and Mitch. We had iffy weather on both pre fish days but did find some Pompano for fun. We spent most of the day looking for bait, Redfish and even got a round of golf in in the afternoon, it's not all work!
071412
Today is the final tournament for the year and we would like to really win if possible! We checked out at 6:30 am and ran to our first spot our goal was to get 1 fish and go. This spot is only a mile away and we wanted to start fishing top water lures while the oyster bars were still exposed. Mitch and Bruce were both throwing top water so I rigged up a mullet. It got hit and pulled it off, I dipped into the live well and found a pinfish I didn't know it was in there. I cast up into a pocket, as the cork hit it just kept going. I got tight and the fish fought hard so we new it was good. We got the fish in and it was just under 5 lbs. and it was only 6:55 am. We continued fishing the spot, I only wanted to stay here until 9 o'clock.
The top water bite was non existent today but they were eating bait! I hooked a good fish which made a couple good long runs and tried to get me in the trees. we saw the fish and new it was close to 27 inches as we netted it. Once we put it on the board we were relieved it it was just over 26 inches and fat. The unfortunate thing was it was hooked deep! I cut the line so we didn't hurt the fish when we put him in the live well it went belly up. Mitch worked the fish for 30 minutes and couldn't get him to revive. I put him on ice because the rules are you can't release a dead fish! He was still close to 6 lbs and we continued fishing trying to get a bigger one to go with him. We possibly had 2, the first got me in the oysters and cut me off and the 2nd got ate by a big Bull Shark. I had not charged my batteries for a couple days and lost all power which changed my game plans. I was close enough for sea tow to come jump me which allowed us to get going again. We had a good day caught a bunch of fish but came up short. The 1 lb. dead fish penalty took us out of the top 10.
071512
This morning I am part of a 2 boat trip I had set up with the guys from Fuji Guides from Japan, I had Himmo and Alex. We started out catching bait, while I was throwing my net I had them casting top water lures We had a good bite of Trout, Ladyfish, Jacks and Mangroves while catching bait. We moved on and got into a pretty good Snook bite, we had 15 Snook up 10 lbs. It was nice because we were side by side with their friends in the other boat trading off fish. we ended up the day with Alex catching a 20 lb Tarpon. Himmo had what appeared to be a big Snook peeling line and running circles around the boat before he frayed thru the line. We caught allot of fish today and they were all smile when we left.
072012
I am at flamingo today with Rick Harrison and Anthony, after catching bait we went to work. The tide was moving out pretty good and we set up on a point drifting bait past and hoping for a bite. It wasn't really hot but we had a couple hits and misses. I saw Anthony's cork go down and told him just start winding, once he got tight the fish really took off. He fought it back and forth, we knew it was big by the swirl it left. He got it up next to the boat and it was the perfect tournament Redfish, 27 inches and 7 lbs.
We spent the next couple hours feeding the Snook, Rick and Anthony traded off catching them. It was allot of fun with the biggest Snook @ 9 lbs.
072112
I am fishing with Bill Marks today, he was the owner of Moonlighter push poles until he retired and sold it recently. I have know Bill since the 80's, he has been around the best and has stories to back it up. He told me stories of guys that I haven't heard since my beginning days in the Miami Sportfishing Club. Bill was a member of the Miami Beach rod and reel club so we had allot in common. His push pole were state of the art back in the 80's and I'm not sure if any other brand was out there.
I got his call last week and when I recognized the name I was surprised but glad to talk to him. Bill said he hadn''t been to Flamingo in a while and would like to go so we did. We caught some bait and then went to catch some Snook! It took a while but they finally turned on although they weren't the bigger ones I have been getting and the numbers were down a bit. We had 20 or so bites and caught @ 10 fish. The fish were hitting the baits and knocking them out of the water, it was fun to watch. The biggest Snook was @ 8 lbs.. We ended the day bouncing Gulps on the deep edge of the grass flats, we caught Trout, Ladfish, Jacks and Snappers. I had fun, the stories go back years thru the history of the sport I do. He knows or knew everyone, the stories are awesone and It was a pleasure!
Flamingo Fishing Forecast:
Since the reeze of 2010 the snook bite in Fl. bay has been little to non exsistant for the most part. I would get one here and one there but for the last 3 months they have been everywhere. Fl bay, Gulf beaches and rivers ity has been fun>
Target Species:
SNOOK!
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