Biscayne nights - Everglades days, 11-18 March
Capt. Bob LeMay
March 21, 2018
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
The weather was tough this past week - but finally got right at the end of the week. We started out with a night trip in Biscayne Bay and small tarpon were the targets with visiting angler Reggie White aboard. His fishing club in Virginia required him to use only 12lb tippet to be able to enter a tarpon in their fly category - so that's what I had set up for him (12lb tippet with a 40lb bite tippet). Conditions on that Sunday night were borderline at best with wind and an approaching cold front but we did jump one tarpon under a bridge... Lots of running to different spots only confirmed that there just weren't any small tarpon anywhere that night (the one we jumped off was never sighted until it took the fly...) so we went to plan B and hit a few docklights where we found small jacks and a few snook. Here's a pic of Reggie with his first snook on fly -very carefully released of course...
[url=https://imgur.com/6MifFeC][img]http://i.imgur.com/6MifFeC.jpg[/img][/url]
the smile says it all....
We were scheduled to fish the next four nights but the weather had other ideas so we cancelled the next two days then headed for Flamingo for day trips, still in high winds and cold waters... Out of Flamingo it wasn't much better than the Bay had been... We did catch a few trout on fly, but the tarpon never showed at all... We did find a few very big snook on Wednesday and Thursday - mostly by spooking them.
Those first four days were just plain tough - the weather pretty much shut us down.... so I was ready for a day off on Friday. The next two days - over on the Chokoloskee side of the Park were a different story...
On Saturday with Ed Rucks aboard we ran out of Rabbit Key Pass and headed south just before dawn. I had high hopes since the weather had warmed up considerably and the winds had finally died down... Using light spinning gear we found lots of trout and other species - then headed for a few redfish spots where we found them hungry... Here's two pics from that morning -the first fish was invited for dinner - the second released....
[url=https://imgur.com/9V6EY03][img]http://i.imgur.com/9V6EY03.jpg[/img][/url]
This fish was without any spots at all...
[url=https://imgur.com/Iieod9a][img]http://i.imgur.com/Iieod9a.jpg[/img][/url]
finally one with a spot...
The next day I had Matt Serraes and his 13 year old son Drew aboard - and we headed out to fish the same areas I'd fished the day before. At our first spot we caught and released a bunch of small trout and other species -then moved a bit offshore while waiting for the tide to get right where the redfish were. After finding quite a few pods of permit finning out at the surface - that wouldn't anything we tried (no crabs in my live well that day....) we gave up on them and headed back inshore where we found a big school of large black drum (they looked to be 15 to 20lbs) but spooked them before we could make a cast. After they settled down a bit we worked back in front of them and young Drew scored with a spinning rod and a small lure. Just nothing like tossing a lure into a big school of fish that were right at the surface pushing along... and Drew was hooked up solid. Fifteen minutes later he had his first drum to the skiff. It weighed 14lbs on the Boga Grip and was a real handful for a young angler. Here's Drew and his Dad with that first fish
[url=https://imgur.com/G4LzBAA][img]http://i.imgur.com/G4LzBAA.jpg[/img][/url]
an outstanding catch and release for a young angler...
Twenty minutes later, we found them again - and this time he hooked one that was a bit bigger...at 16lbs
[url=https://imgur.com/HjHxuTr][img]http://i.imgur.com/HjHxuTr.jpg[/img][/url]
We never did get onto the redfish that day - but did find a bunch of dinner sized trout and a nice sheepshead to go with them..
This time of year everything is very weather dependent. One day we're struggling - the next day it's on fire - all ruled by the water temps and the winds... As we move towards the end of the month if the weather will stabilize a bit we could be in for some great fishing. I'm looking forward to it...
Be a hero - take a kid fishing....
Capt Bob LeMay
(954) 435-5666
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