 |
Fishing report, Everglades backcountry
Capt. Bob LeMay
September 2, 2008
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
With T.S. Fay shutting us down two weeks ago, my next time on the water was three days towards the end of last week. We found the fish hungry as ever, although the Gulf coast was still a bit muddy, the interior was just fine. Hurricane Gustav was far to the south, but on our minds.... by Saturday those feeder bands were getting a little personal.
On Thursday, I had local angler Nick Olano along with visitor John Papadakis from Greece aboard. The mission was to introduce John to sportfishing and maybe a fish or two... Where he's from handlines are the gear of choice... Right after dawn we found good numbers of tarpon moving around in an interior bay and I had John working a small jig tipped with a Gulp shrimp. After a few minutes of casting and retrieving with nothing to show for it, he finally got a bite from a decent fish....
It was a 60lb tarpon on 10lb spin with a light rod.... That fish was an outstanding catch for an experienced angler, much less a first timer... After bringing the fish to the boat and a quick release, he went on to catch snook, and a variety of other species on that same Gulp shrimp. As Nick said, I think he'll be back... While John was using spinning gear, Nick was fly fishing and both released nice snook, then had lots of shots at baby tarpon that just weren't having any...
The next two days I had Ricky Turner and his wife Peggy scheduled from New Orleans. This is the second year that Ricky was able to bid for a trip I donate to CCA Louisiana, the Houma chapter, each year. With a quick change of their return plans so that they could beat hurricane Gustav back to their home we were set to hunt tarpon with a fly rod. There's some outstanding fishing in Lousiana but it doesn't include many tarpon... We fished on Friday and Saturday while that old storm got stronger and more certain to head their way.... That first day was the charm. We went right to the tarpon and Ricky got to work fish that ranged from 20 to over 80lbs. We finally hit the right approach and Ricky hooked up with his first tarpon ever... an 80lb fish on a 10wt rod.
I didn't have much time to take pictures since the fish almost spooled us on its first run. It was a hot fish and gave Ricky fits, doing it all... An 80lb fish on a 10wt is probably not the way to go after your first tarpon, but it worked out, and in the end Ricky had the opportunity to personally revive the fish while I motored the skiff along. At the end of the day we found lots of very small tarpon in an interior bay that were eating everything in sight except our flies. We left planning to come back at dawn the following day...
This brief dawn period was the best weather we had all day on Saturday. First the wind, then more wind, then the rain, we ended the day in a blinding downpour that left us looking like we'd in the water instead of a boat back at the ramp. Peggy had the good sense to pass that day so it was just the two of us. We had our share of shots at the tarpon but they were just not having any. Tarpon fishing is like that some times. It should be good again when the wind lies down.
Tight lines
Bob LeMay
More Fishing Reports:
|
|
|
|
