Tarpon Time!
Capt. Jim Hobales
April 12, 2013
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
The weather has really been playing games with us, cold then warm and plenty wind. The days I have been able to get out before the wind or late in afternoons the Tarpon have cooperated.
040413 I am with Al Lewis and his son Wiley and Darren and his son Josh down at Flamingo. It was cold and breezy out of the North this morning and very little water. I started outworking a grass flat where the Tarpon like to lay up. Wiley was first to hook up with a 2lb.Trout. We were casting "Twitch n Raps" in 3 different colors and waiting for the water to rise. Wiley said he saw something in front of the boat come up and roll. I said cast in front of it he did and he was hooked to a giant Tarpon that was happy. He thought the line was going to break and held the line with his hands and broke the fish off. I didn't get it but hey we hooked a big Tarpon 15 minutes into trip. I moved to a run off creek and we got into a great bite of Trout, Jacks and Ladyfish but no Reds or Snook. I ran to one of my favorite spots and put out some baits. We sat for a while but tide was moving good and finally had our bait get smashed. The fish ran a did a big head shake showing itself, it a big Snook. Al grabbed the rod and the fish really put up a hard fight we landed it, took some pics and weighed it. The 15 lb. Snook really made our day but it was just starting to get good. The rods kept doubling over Wiley caught a perfect 27 in Redfish then Josh was hooked up it went like this for 2 hours, unfortunately we lost 6 or 7 fish that could of made the day even better. Darren and Josh both caught big Lemon Sharks. They ate good with a couple big Reds and Trout and were extremely happy! Al dad is a personal friend so I couldn't have a bad day.
040813
This past week I had Keith and Benson from Boston fishing Biscayne Bay, we started out catching Bluefish, Jacks and Mackerels. The birds were chasing baits schools in the same area I was Tarpon fishing. This afternoon/evening trip produced 8 jumped Tarpon up to 150 lbs.
041013
I am with Scott, Derek and Frank from Switzerland the winds are blowing and I couldn't get out of the Government Cut safely. I ran back into the bay looking for the bait schools but they weren't there. We worked the grass flats for anything that would play in hope of hooking a Tarpon. Frank hooked a good size Bluefish which we released after some pics. We kept casting and now Frank has 130 lbs. of Jumping Tarpon on the lightest rod in the boat. Frank did a good job on the Tarpon had him near the boat twice and possibly a leader release. The fish gave us 5 good jumps and after 15 minutes or so frayed us off. Frank did a great job considering he had no experience fishing! I started fish some of the bridges, now Derek with very little fishing experience is hooked up to a big Snook. The fish made a few good runs and bolted between the pilings before I could say open the bail he yanked on it getting cut off by barnacles. Scott was next with a nice 7 lb. Jack, but the wind is really blowing now! I ran near the pilings on 36 st. flat and got into a great Trout bite, every cast for 90 minutes produced a fish. We had Trout just over 3 lbs. a few Cuda's and some Jacks. They were tired and hungry so we called it a day.
Tarpon are here on both coast, go fishin!
Capt. Jimbo
3053338149
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