Winter weather fishing in the Florida Keys
Capt. Steve Friedman
January 24, 2010
Islamorada - Saltwater Fishing Report
Despite the winter weather conditions we're having to endure lately, I've enjoyed some fine days of fishing.
Let's review the beginning of the week when the weather was a bit more kind. Some great folks from New York were interested in honing their skills in the fly casting department. We fished in the Everglades for snook and reds and had some choice chances. Although we had no hook ups that afternoon, the opportunities were there and we had a great time – even when we got caught in the rain on the way back to the dock. Adds to the experience, I say.
Once the front passed through, conditions changed on a daily basis. If you approach your day with an open and flexible attitude, you'll almost always be rewarded. Those who really expected to go out and catch a "mess of bonefish" were inconvenienced, to say the least. When it blows 30 out of the north, and even a Bloody Mary sounds too cold, it may not be the best time to sight-fish for bones.
Flamingo wouldn't have been a fun run, so the patch reefs would have been the best alternative. But I'm hardheaded, and like to bonefish. With water temps in the fifties, my confidence was not zooming. I had to soak bait for a couple hours to see if we could fish out a miracle. I got a couple rods out with some shrimp and kept busy cutting bait. The only bite we had was from a small bonefish, but I must have tied on the rubber hooks because the bonefish was gone before the fight was over. They won again. At least we got the small victory of hooking a bonefish on a day we shouldn't have been even trying for one.
Next we decided to catch dinner. We headed to the patches to see if we could stir up the entree. With some frozen cut bait, a chum bag and some dirty water, it wasn't long before the phones were out texting the chefs to get ready. Yellowtail, mangrove snapper and the main course, mutton snapper, were all eager to get in on the bite. In between bait snatchers and re-rigging we were also battling the now catch-and-release grouper – which were after our baits like it was their last meal. A busy rod makes a happy angler, even when it's cold and blowing 30.
Then it got colder. A client from Japan was eager to fly fish, and we fished late. The fish we found made for great casting targets because they didn't care what we had to offer. Can you believe there was a snook out there so desperate for some nourishment it actually ate our imitation minnow and fought with surprising valor? The first ever snook for my angler. We had redfish and goliath grouper tease us the next day by following the fly almost to the boat but never taking the fly.
So I guess if you were hoping to get a tan, or catch a career big bonefish on fly, you were going to be on a disappointing fishing trip. But an open mind and sometimes a stubborn will to use the fly rod will get you a great time on the water no matter what the conditions. As Capt. Bill Wert likes to say, "there's only two kinds of weather. Whether you want to go fishing or whether you don't."
Stay warm. Fish.
Islamorada Fishing Forecast:
Warming trend has already begun. Snook are returning to the Bay with consistent bite of redfish, trout and black drum. The reef is on fire with sailfish, snappers, grouper and mackerel.
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