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Fishing reports, Biscayne nights
Capt. Bob LeMay
July 7, 2008
Miami - Saltwater Fishing Report
This past week I've been fishing locally in Biscayne Bay at night. Summer's hot and stormy days give way to cooler nights with lots of small tarpon and snook for both fly and lure anglers. This week it was all fly fishing with light, 8wt rods, sight casting to fish right at the surface. Most of the tarpon were hanging in the shadows under bridges (almost all of the bridges that connect Miami to Miami Beach have a resident population of tarpon at night..). The snook were in dock lights just waiting for a shrimp or small baitfish to venture close...
Night trips are tide sensitive.... you either fish the right tide or wonder what happened to all the fish. My last one was with local angler James Banta, a regular client skilled with a fly rod. We hooked up at midnight (remember, tide sensitive... that night things didn't get started until late at night, some nights the action begins right at dusk - more about those tides later) on the 4th of July. While everyone else was planning what to do that holiday, we were on the water just before the 4th and the trip would be over with before the sun rose that Friday morning.... Our first spot held fish, but every tarpon we saw appeared to be loafing. There's just something too casual about fish that are right at the surface but not feeding at all - or showing any signs that they were interested in much of anything... That first hour was tough, but we stuck around waiting for the fish to turn on.. When they did it was without much warning. One moment we saw a single shrimp jump away from the shadows the next moment any fish that saw the fly properly came after it... James got five great bites in less than an hour or two, sticking three of them solidly with the small white fly. Every night's different, every tarpon behaves differently, but the fish that night were all on fire. Every one rocketed away from the skiff in front of the bridge, then abruptly turned south with at least one or two pilings between us... As you can guess the tarpon did all the releasing. The last one also managed to claim half of the angler's fly line. Concrete pilings are really hard on gear. These fish were so hot that we were usually in trouble before I could even start the motor to give chase.... When the action slowed we left our first spot and went in search of more tarpon. With other spots not producing we began working a few docklights for our last two hours. It was a good move.
The first dock we hit must have had at least 50 snook swimming into and out of the lights. The snook, ranging from small to more than 10lbs were mixed in with nice mangrove snapper, lookdowns, and other assorted hungry types... All of the fish were milling around watching whatever the current brought them. When a shrimp or two drifted under the dock they were off to the races. You've never seen shrimp move that fast, running, skipping, and launching themselves into the air with hungry fish hot in pursuit. A few of the shrimp got away, most ended in great splashes made by feeding fish. Using the same small tarpon fly, James hooked and fought two to the boat in quick succession before the fish seemed to sense our presence and retreated far back into the shadows under the dock. He also managed to catch and release a nice mangrove snapper that out-hustled the snook to grab that fly. It was perfect late night action. As usual around docks for me, it's all catch and release while being as quiet as possible so that we don't bother the sleeping homeowner. After the action slowed at our first dock we moved to a nearby light and found a school of jacks just boiling under the light. I never saw what they were feeding on but every time that fly landed in the light a half dozen small jacks just attacked. We went on to catch and release another snook as the tide slowed and finally just about stopped. I schedule my night trips to last about five hours, just about the time for a tide to begin, get strong, then fade as it nears the slack point. It was a perfect time to call it a night....
The next days when the tides will be right for some early evening action (8pm to 1am) will be the 13th through the 16th of this month and they'll be on again exactly two weeks later. For hardcore anglers who don't mind fishing really late at night (or extremely early in the morning depending on your point of view...) every night all summer long will be fishable...
Tight Lines
Capt Bob LeMay
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