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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
February 24, 2004
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
I've been on the water three days and one night this past week. We installed a new motor on my skiff early this week. It's that new Evinrude E-Tec 90 and it's everything that I'd hoped for. More about it at the end of this report. The best fishing this week has been for tarpon on both fronts.
The first trip of the week was at night on Biscayne Bay for small tarpon around the bridges between Miami and Miami Beach. That night we put 10 in the air and released three at boatside. Although conditions were poor, with hard north wind mixed in with some rain the fish were snapping. That night the baby tarpon were a bit on the large side. Our biggest was estimated at 80lbs.... We found fish at every bridge we tried.
At Flamingo we found a variety of fish during the week while waiting for the water to warm up enough for the big tarpon to make an appearance in Whitewater Bay. It did warm up for a day or two while I was at home finishing up some fly orders. Of course when I finally got there the warm spell was gone and so were the tarpon. We did find everything from sawfish on down though including reds, snook, trout and a few other species. By Sunday the water finally was warm enough that the big fish started to show up. On Monday it seemed that every skiff in Whitewater was fishing them... We didn't linger there since I had other plans... Steve and Maggie Burke from New Jersey were on board and variety was our plan that day. At the end of the day Steve hooked his first tarpon in a river mouth along the coast on a medium weight spinning rod with 15# line. He fought the fish like a pro and worked it to a standstill in less than 15 minutes. We boated the fish for a brief photo then released it. That fish was almost 7' long, estimated at 125lbs, an outstanding catch on light line. For the next two months the big fish should be a daily possibility at Flamingo as long as the weather stays moderate. I'm looking forward to it!
Get a look at the new E-Tec motors from Evinrude. I'm very impressed with the 90. At idle it's almost as quiet as a 4 stroke... They don't require any break in period at all, you just install it and run it. I suspect that other manufacturers will be scrambling to come up with something similar... Finally there's a 2 stroke motor that meets the most stringent pollution requirements without breaking the bank. I won't know for certain about reliability until I've run it a few months. I won't hold back on reporting problems if there are any. I suspect that with proper care it will do everything that the manufacturer claims.
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