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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
May 19, 2004
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
This past week the fishing has been pretty good out of Flamingo, despite unfavorable weather conditions. We're now in our second straight week of very strong easterly wind. Fortunately, the one area that's fairly well protected and quite fishable in these conditions has been the Gulf coast and the nearby rivers that drain into it. Of course the run back to Flamingo each afternoon hasn't been much fun....
The high winds have kept the water temperatures quite cool for this time of year with surface temps in the 71 to 72 degree range early in the morning. That's more typical of early April than the middle of May. Baitfish are still scarce everywhere except right on gulfside shorelines. What bait can be found are the usual bay anchovies with no pilchards to be seen anywhere. Our catches each day have been quite varied. A typical day will include snapper, small grouper, jewfish, trout, redfish, snook, spanish mackeral, black drum, and the usual assortment of fish that will strike a small jig bounced along the bottom this time of year. Doug Menne of Atlanta caught and released two black drum on lures that weighed 18 and 20 lbs. We even caught and released a small permit of about 4lbs that was with a school of ladyfish in one river.
The best bet right now is the snook fishing along the Gulf shoreline on the incoming tide. We're finding nice sized snook for catch and release every day now. Yesterday Alan Piter, a local angler fishing with his Dad, Marty caught and released his first snook on a jig with light line. It weighed a solid 7 lbs and is typical of the fish we're encountering while working a rising tide around downed trees. Because of the areas where we're finding them we're losing more than we're landing but that's snook fishing. When the wind quits blowing a bit the bite along the coast should get even better. This is the time of year when the offshore wrecks and markers should be hot but we haven't been able to fish them at all. I'm hoping that changes soon...
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