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Flamingo - Everglades National Park
Capt. Ariel Cabrera
January 24, 2002
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Celebrating Martin Luther King weekend began with some phenomenal fishing action. My good friend Ted asked me to sea trial a 20' Eagle flats boat he's considering purchasing so I just brought a single pole, just in case we found any fish to fool around with. We ended up testing the parameters of our equipment with some tough cobia.
I was able to catch a 21pound cobia using a light spinning rod and reel outfit. A total of five cobia were landed using yellow pompano jigs with plastic worms affixed to them. The best part was watching Ted as he tried to boat these fish with a tiny gaff. We had no net since this was not his boat and were not expecting to come across these big fish.
Although we put in at Flamingo we were actually closer to the beautiful Florida Keys. Ted and I released two undersized gag grouper, mangrove snapper, over 30 crevalles, and smaller cobia all within sight of the Overseas Highway. Later we encountered some large Spanish mackerel weighing up to four pounds. It took at least two stops to find these fish.
Even with 50-monofilament leader we got cut off 9 times, easily. We also caught a nice-sized pompano to finish the day.
Ted's daughter, Stephanie, caught a 39-inch redfish estimated to weigh between 18 and twenty pounds on a separate trip during the weekend. Of course, this oversized specimen was released after several photos were taken. Others that are biting are drum, seatrout, and even a few occasional catches of tripletail have been reported. Keep a keen eye because anything is possible this time of year.
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