Bad weather Snook
Capt. Jim Hobales
September 2, 2008
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
083108
The past couple of weeks have had conditions most guys don't want to go fishing in, wind and rain. I understand for most its there one day a week to get out and the want to be comfortable! Do yourself a favor go fishing in those conditions and every once in a while the conditions will repay you with plenty of fish.
This past Saturday was one of those days, while driving to Flamingo it was raining, lightning and breezy and a thought of turning around crossed thru my mind. I was was with my buddy Mitch from Biscayne Rods, we have been trying to get for a few months. We arrived at the dock and the conditions were calm overcast and the tide was already half was out, and one other thing we were the only ones there on a Saturday!
I ran to a spot I like and got on the trolling motor getting us into position and trying not to spook anything. Mitch was rigging his rod with a Twitch n Rap, I said I hate to do this to you but I'm going to put a Snook in the boat real quick. It didn't take long and number 1 was in the boat. I was throwing the Silver Flash Twitch n Rap and he had the Fire Tiger color. It didn't matter they both worked and we ended up with a handful of Snook as the tide bottomed out. I wanted a Tarpon so we took a ride out to the Gulf of Mexico and looked for them, it took a while but we found them. The water was muddy, we had to run around until we found the cleaner green water and that's where they where at. I changed to a X Rap and made long cast into the school of Tarpon. I got Slammed, the fished pulled 30 yards of line and all of a sudden the line stopped. I used the trolling motor to get on top and the fish was wrapped in a tree in 10 feet of water. The fish was still on but the to constant shaking wore thru my leader. All I could say was what a hit! Mitch wasn't going to be out done, he was hooked up with a nice Snook which we landed. A little friendly competion is fun, it makes you work harder. I was next with a big fish that hit my X Rap as it came over a bar, the fish measured 33 inches and was our biggest of the day. The weather was acting up and we made a run for it. I told Mitch we have to watch that island when it disappears we have to leave. I cast and turned around to look and the island was gone and the storm was a mile away. It was a big purple thunder head with black outlines, lightning and a water spout. I said lets go and not a second to soon. We made it back to the ramp got the boat on the trailer and ran over and hid for the 30 minutes, I thought we might be able to go back out. This storm didn't quit it was an outside band from Hurricane Gustov and really had some high winds and all the other bad stuff. I told Mitch lets go we caught our fish no sense of get ting hurt. We had 4 1/2 hours of quality fishing sometimes you just have to take a chance!
Flamingo Fishing Forecast:
3 storms on horizon but we could be ok until weekend.
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