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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
February 7, 2007
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fished the second day of snook season last Friday out of Flamingo. The water temps were at 66 or so first thing in the morning and we were fly fishing all day. My anglers were a pair of canoe anglers that fished the outside the day before. The first cast of the day, on the extreme eastern side of Whitewater Bay produced something out of the ordinary... a 20" pompano on a small minnow streamer pattern. Although I've caught more than a few pomps in the interior over the years, I've never seen one on the eastern side of Whitewater, and normally the ones in the interior are a bit on the small side. I guess the fish are a bit confused with the weather patterns this winter...
We went on to catch and release five snook, a few speckled trout, and assorted other species. The hot fly that day was a Blacklight Special. It's an all black streamer pattern with a maribou tail, body of "Body Fur", with large holographic eyes on a 1/0 hook. It's been a great winter pattern now for a couple of years. Although our biggest snook was just under slot size, I did get to see the biggest snook I've seen in the interior of the 'Glades in years -- unfortunately I saw it after almost poling on top of the fish in about three feet of water. I've seen lots of 20lb snook, this one was nearer 30lbs... When a snook is more than six inches wide across the top of its head it's up in the Palm Beach to Stuart size range. Hope I see her again. By the end of the day the water had warmed up to 70 degrees in the Bay and up to 74 in a few sheltered shallows but we never saw any big tarpon. It would have been hard to see one at all in the 20+ mph wind conditions... I'm still waiting for the winds to lay down for a few days, then the big fish should make their appearance.
Yesterday it was over to Everglades City at the extreme western end of the Park for a day of cold weather (and water) fishing. After two or three days of high winds and rain, the drive over from my home in Broward county was in steady rain the entire 94 miles... My angler Dave Johnson met me at the motel and 20 minutes later we were on the water as the rain began to clear. My first check of the temperature gauge showed water temps at only 53 degrees, not a good sign. Add to that more wind expected (although not the 25 to 30 of previous days...) and we were going to work for our fish. The wind that's kept most anglers off of the water for a day or two had also blown most of the water out of the upper interior bays. Back there the wind is just more powerful than the tide some days (particularly in winter). The run south was an adventure that was occasionally stopped when we just plain ran aground in areas where there should have been plenty of water. Add to that the fact that the tide would continue to fall out for at least four or more hours and it was a white knuckled trip. Salvation was a few creeks full of fish with just enough water to get after them. I quit counting when Dave had caught and released more than 20 small snook in one creek, all on artificials with spinning gear. We might have had a higher score with flies... We went on to catch and release a nice redfish in another bay that weighed exactly 6lbs on the Boga Grip along with more of the small snook and another few small reds. We also finally found some upper slot snook sunning themselves out of the wind that all had lockjaw... It's tough to work your lure just right through an area without any action, then pole into that same area and spook large fish that had just ignored what went by them... By the end of the day the warmest water we'd found was only 61 degrees. The run back north wasn't as tough as the run south but the water was still very low. I only hit bottom twice. Today I'll be straightening out the skeg on my motor...
Tight Lines
Bob LeMay
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