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Flamingo, gulf coast, 25 Sept 2013
Capt. Bob LeMay
September 25, 2013
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
After a long stretch without the phone ringing I hit the water on Monday for a day of exploring out of Flamingo
(at least that's my excuse -and every now and then a day on the water beats a day in the shop, hands down). When I'm operating solo I tend to be on the water this time of year as early as possible so I watched two or three crocs at the ramp slip away quietly as I dropped the skiff before dawn... Leaving my truck and trailer at the ramp, it was north up Buttonwood Canal into the interior for the long run across to the Gulf coast. When I returned in the afternoon my truck was still the only one in the entire parking lot (it's that time of year...).
I try to hit spots when I'm on my own that aren't on the usual agenda to see if I can learn something for later use. The first spot, a small island in Whitewater held a nice 28" snook that jumped on a topwater lure. Basic exploring stuff for me is a rod with a topwater lure, one with a jig or leadhead/Gulp tail rig, or just a simple gold spoon... If it's fly gear ( I keep an 8wt and a 10wt ready as well) I'll use a small baitfish pattern or a much larger fly -usually black in color. That snook ate the topwater well enough that I had to work a bit to release it as carefully as possible. Here's a pic, just as the sun was beginning to show....
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Hitting a few additional spots along the run west didn't produce much on the topwater, but I was in hunting mode and didn't do more than one or two casts at any one spot. Once out on the coast I found more snook, some pretty large, but all I got was a few pops on the topwater without any hookups. Now for the good news, along with more small bait along shorelines I immediately found a variety of tarpon, some small as 30lbs and a few that were easily in the 100 to 130lb range. All were loafing and rolling right where I expected to find them so I left them be until next time when I have an angler aboard. If you do a lot of tarpon fishing this time of year you expect that for every tarpon seen at the surface there are at least a half dozen nearby holding right on the bottom.... The good news is that the tarpon numbers will grow and grow as we move into October. As usual the tarpon fishing will end on the first cold night (about four weeks from now....) as they leave the coast and move offshore to find warmer waters....
Wind conditions Monday and the rest of the week aren't good with south to southwest outlook until Friday... By Saturday the winds will shift to north/northeast - much more favorable conditions for everything along the coast. After clocking a few miles and checking out different spots i ended the day at a favored shoreline point that holds everything from big snook, to grouper, and so many sharks that anything you hook is likely to get crunched before you can even get it boatside.... Everything there just took me to school... but some of the bites acted like big snook or grouper and just powered back into nearby downed trees....
One other observation to note... I'm beginning to see lots of small schools of finger mullet along shorelines and up on top of extremely shallow flats that were almost dry at the very beginning of the incoming tide. Those small mullet will increase in numbers along with the tarpon in coming weeks. When the wind shifts to the east they'll be tight to every sheltered shoreline and things will get interesting....
Whether it's Flamingo or at the west end of the park in the Everglades City/Chokoloskee area... the Park is the place to be in the fall. While running 66 miles on Monday I never saw one other boat anywhere - nothing like the 'glades this time of year.
Tight lines
Bob LeMay
(954) 435-5666
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