fishing report, Biscayne nights & Everglades days

[lemaymiami]

The past two weeks had us fishing in tough conditions mostly with a continuation of the bad weather that characterized these past few months. The good news is that it's finally settled down, the big tarpon are in, and everything is biting...

We fished one night in Biscayne Bay for tarpon on fly. Dr. Nate Mayl did a great job, catching and releasing a 30lb fish on an 8wt. rod. That night the winds were 20 to 25 out of the South. Just getting the skiff into position for a shot was tough. Only an experienced angler like Nate had any chance at a fish. Next time I've promised that the weather will be just a bit better....

The backcountry out of Flamingo is where I've spent most of the last two weeks, also in mostly bad weather. The first week we stayed in the interior as high winds from the west muddied up the coast and made finding fish a challenge. John Sheffield from Texas and his fishing partner Jim McKenzie from Punta Gorda fished with me for five days and we worked for all of our fish. John caught several nice snook on lures using a plug casting rod, his biggest was over the slot at about 12lbs. It was carefully released after a photo or two. Jim's best fish was a 24" speckled trout which is the largest interior fish I've seen this year. It too was released to fight another day.

The surprise that first week was something I haven't seen in the years I've fished Whitewater Bay. We found more than a few stingrays one day that were accompanied by cobias, sometimes two or three... The cobia were in the 10 to 20lb range and hungry enough to attack any small jig tossed their way. It was fun to sight, pole after and cast to rays that had various "shadows" behind them. We hooked three, getting one to the boat. On several occasions a hooked fish would have one or more followers... I'm guessing that the high west winds brought these fish inside, but I'll be looking for them the next time we have the same conditions.

As the first week ended the interior fishing began to slow and we finally had a partial window that allowed us to fish along the Gulf coast. John Blazer from Tampa and his 80yr old dad, Jim, fished with me for two days and the fishing was just on fire. Since fishing with lures had slowed we shifted to live bait and just hammered the fish with snook up to and over the slot, redfish up to 30", speckled trout from 18 to 22", and a variety of other species including bluefish, goliath grouper, and others... All at the same spot for two days. Each day the first bite came on almost the first cast and the action lasted until the tide slowed...Many times we had more than one fish on at a time. John's best fish, though, was a 10lb snook on a very light spinning rod with a small lure. That fish ran him in circles, snagged him up twice, got around a nearby corner on one occasion... a great catch on really light gear.

At the end of the week, on Saturday, it was back to fly fishing with long-time customer Joe Huggard who comes from Europe when he can to fish here and other exotic locales around the world. We only found one spot that held big tarpon that looked hungry and Joe made the best of it. On his first or second cast to fish that we could see holding in a small river he hooked up with a solid 80lb fish on fly. It was a perfect river fish, running and jumping, but staying in one section of the river (about the size of a football field). As he fought the fish we could see other big fish moving out of the way, but not far... Twenty minutes after hookup the fish was at boatside for a few photos and a release. It was what the spring time tarpon fishing is supposed to be every year.... In a day or two we'll be back after them with another long run of fishing dates without a day off. It's that time of year.