Adapt to windy conditions
Capt. Jim Hobales
April 28, 2009
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
042409
Today I am doing a 2 boat trip with Captain Rich Smith down at Flamingo. I have Joel, Chris and Steve on my boat and they buddy's Tim and Jeremy are with Rich. We started out on a bank working Top water plugs and spoons and it didn't take long. Steve hooked a big 23" Trout not to be outdone, Joel hooked one on a Skitter walk. It was a lot bigger at 26 1/2 inches and weighed 5 1/2 lbs, a great Trout for Flamingo. We continued fishing and caught a bunch more Trout up to 4 lbs. and Chris who was casting a spoon hook a monster Snook which was on a Sting Ray. The Snook broke the surface and shook her head that's when I started to coach him on how to fight it. Chris did a good job and land ed it, we took a couple nice pic's and made sure she was healthy enough to release. We worked around the coast but there wasn't much going on. We hooked some Goliaths and laughed as they doubled the rod and then would run into a tree and cut them off. We laughed all the way back!
042609
I am with Jeff today and we are fishing Florida Bay, the wind is up and constantly blowing 25 with higher gust. Jeff is from New Jersey and Jersey guys don't care if it windy, they all seem to be not bothered by it. We fished hard and only managed 2 Jacks, 2 Trout and a 30 plus inch Snook, We had a couple missed opportunities but it was slim pickens. The wind was steady at 30 plus at the end of the day. We are fishing again tomorrow and I told Jeff we would catch more fish and do it on his fly rod. Jeff can cast pretty good so he was excited about the morning, I promised him a shot at Tarpon.
042709
The wind is down when we arrive at the dock, I told Jeff to set up his fly rod. We took off and once we got into the back country I trolling motored to some rolling Tarpon. Jeff was casting a small minnow pattern and it got hit couple times but either one of us liked it. We changed to one of Jeff flies, it hit the water he popped it and was hooked up. We landed the small Tarpon and went on to catch 5 of 13. I said lets go catch some Snook, he caught a few on flies and several on the Twitch n Raps. I told Jeff we need a Trout so you can get your SLAM he agreed and we went a caught one. We had thrown some small Jacks into the live well in case and by now the wind had picked up to 30 mph again. We went to a Goliath Grouper hole and put out a bait, when it got hit Jeff was shocked at how hard the fish it. He got broke off and we rigged over and over. We saw a couple of them but we could not land one. It was late and time to head back, Jeff caught a lot of fish today and we were both tired
042809
I am fishing with Doug and Evan in Whitewater Bay we started out on the Tarpon again today only to jump 4. The wind is howling again today around 20 mph and we moved around a lot with not to many bites. We got into some Trout and Jacks and then went looking for bait. On one spot he had 3 shots at big Tarpon laid up on the banks, Evan was casting a paddle tail and the 100 lb Tarpon followed it right to the boat before turning off. We had another head on shot and then Doug cast at a point and a had on swirl on his bait, no hook ups but plenty of adrenaline. I made it up to a bait spot I saw them cast on them and could hardly get the net in the boat. I had big Pilchards and some finger Mullet mixed in. It was off to start live baiting, we worked some really good spots but no Snook. Doug wanted to fight a Grouper and didn't care what kind, I stopped on a point and had them pitch out live Jacks. The first couple got them into the trees but the next 10 or so got beat and Doug and Evan were loving it, they caught them up to 20 lbs. On our last stop I was going for broke, I was throwing
net fulls of pilchards out trying to turn the fish on. Doug hooked up and landed a really nice Redfish as the Jacks were busting the pilchards around the boat. We took a couple photos and released it. I threw out about 500 pilchards and just watched them as we headed back to the dock.
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