Spring mullet run
Capt. Jim Hobales
April 26, 2009
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
041309
I am with Craig Mcginnis and his wife Vanessa today. I suggested Whitewater Bay because the wind was well over 20 mph. He said he wanted to fish Floriday Bay for Tarpon so thats what we did. I netted some mullet and went to work, it didn't take long to bend a rod with a Lemon shark. The Shark cut us off right at the boat, I rerigged and put out another bait. This time it was a explosive bite on the surface, I thought it was a Tarpon at first but it ended up bing a big Bull Shark. We managed a couple of bites which we missed mostly because of the wind. The line had a big bow in it and we didn't get the hook ups. Overall this was a tough day by the end the wind was steady at 30. I thought about it at the trip and told Craig we would of been better in the back country. He said he enjoyed the trip and don't worry about it!
041509
I am fishing with my son James his friends Albert and Jimmy in Government Cut. We had perfect calm conditions which had the Tarpon playing. They all wanted a Tarpon and enjoyed the show the Tarpon put on all day, by rolling and free jumping. We had Shrimp, Crabs and finger mullet and they all were eaten at some point in the day. James and Albert both had hook ups but we didn't land either fish. They just enjoyed catching fish and they caught plenty of Barracudas, Snappers, and Groupers in the cut. I asked if they wanted to go try something else and they were up for it. I went out to 50 feet, rigged up gulp 4 inch Shrimp and jigged some rocky spot I like. The Grouper bite was incrdible every drop for an hour produced a Grouper, they were only 1-3 lbs but they had a blast. Jimmy had something peel off line and fought it for about 10 minutes before we saw it it ended up being a 4 foot Black Tip Shark. The wind started to blow, the sky was getting black so I took them back to the dock.
041509 (afternoon)
I picked up Etiemne at his dock and headed down to Government Cut.The conditions we opposite of the morning the winds were at 20 mph but out of the w-sw. I started on the south side of of the cut and we got slammed as the first bait was let out, Etiemne grabbed the rod and started to reel, he was inexperienced and struggled with the conventional rod. I explained hoe to fight the fish and he finally landed a nice 22' Gag Grouper. On our he next drift he got a 100 lb.Shark and on the third drift we got slammed and missed a Tarpon. I wish the night would of stayed like that but it slowed down. We got a bunch of small stuff and missed another Tarpon before calling it a night.
More Fishing Reports:
