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Everglades National Park - Flamingo
Capt. Bob LeMay
June 19, 2007
Flamingo - Saltwater Fishing Report
As usual I've been running from both ends of Everglades National Park - the interior and Gulf coast out of both Flamingo and Chokoloskee/Everglades City. This time of year it's hard to decide which end of the Park has the best fishing, I'll let the reader decide...
I took a day off at the end of last week for some exploring on my own out of Everglades City. I wanted to check some spots and log in a few routes for my GPS in the deep back country inside of Lostman's River. While poking around near Pavillion along the coast I couldn't resist a little snook fishing. I quit counting when I'd released more than 15 small snook on lures before 9:30 in the morning. That's just not something I get to do very often these days... Although most of the day was spent running and exploring, the little fishing that I did confirmed that the summer bite is on and going strong. That morning the tide along the coast was right at dead low to the first hour of the incoming - I can only imagine what it's like the last two hours of the rise... not to mention during the falling tide.
Out of Flamingo the small to medium tarpon are going strong along with snook, reds, and trout. James Banta and his companion Kristen Hartley fished with me on Sunday and we had a great day. Kristen, a first time visitor to the 'Glades backcountry, caught and released a grand slam using very light spinning gear. She caught snook, trout, redfish, and a tarpon estimated at 25lbs all on just 8lb line.... A great catch and release for a beginner - all on live shrimp under an Equalizer float with a small circle hook - a deadly combination. James wasn't just along for the ride, using just an 8wt fly rod he caught and released tarpon, snook, and trout to keep up with Kristen. To cap off the day we broke out a heavier fly rod and he jumped several larger tarpon on a 10wt, bringing one to the boat for a quick photo and release. All of his fish were caught fishing topwater with small popping bugs, but the bigger tarpon fell for Tarpon Snakes on 1/0 or 2/0 hooks....
During the summer there are good numbers of small (5 to 25lb) tarpon in interior bays that are just crazy for small poppers and every other fish in shallow areas will attack them on sight as well. Popping bug heaven on a light fly rod! The medium sized tarpon (30 to as much as 70lbs) like to hang out in swift running Gulf side rivers and the small creeks that drain into them. We usually fish them with intermediate fly lines and flies slightly smaller than their big brothers (and sisters) want. In a week or two the bigger fish will begin to trickle back into their usual Gulf coast haunts and the fishing for them will just get better all summer long if weather permits.
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