This past week was a break from my regular charters. I was lucky enough to be able to fish with Beau Yeiser and Tonya Wiley from Mote Marine Lab in Sarasota. Our target, the three days we were on the water, was strictly sawfish. For those not familiar with sawfish, they're on the endangered species list (the hard work of Tonya and others with Mote Marine laid the ground work to get the species listed), they can grow to more than 20 feet long, and the Everglades is their last remaining stronghold. Everywhere else in the world they've just about disappeared, but there are still lots of them in the 'Glades. They've been protected by state law all the yearsthat I've been fishingthe 'Glades, but they stillneeded the additional protection. Since we were only trying to catch (and carefully release after taking measurements) or maybe tag one we went about it the same way you'd go after sharks. The only change that I made was to rig without wire leaders so that any sharks would cut free after the bite.... That was a good decision since we managed to hook more than 30 sharks each day. On more than one occasion we only had one hook in the water with everything else needing to be re-rigged. It was lots of work but well worth the effort. Although we only fished areas where I've caught them in the past or found them sunning themselves in really shallow protected coves we never found the first saw... My best guess is that they're out in deeper Gulf waters this time of year since most of my catches are made in the warmer months. For scientists like Beau and Tonya it's just as important that the fish weren't where they usually are since they record everything we did as part of the overall database for the animals. Now for the fishing part... Each day we began by catching the bait we needed, a mixture of ladyfish and jack crevalle. While catching bait with artificials (1/4 oz bucktails or 3" Gulp shrimp on 1/8oz heads) we found lots of everything else including snook, speckled trout, snapper, a 3lb pompano (in Whitewater Bay of all places...). Our best snook was right at 10lbs on a bucktail in the mouth of small creek.... Once we set up to target saws we ran unto some other interesting critters. The first wasa very nice snook in Whitewater that weighed 9lbs before being released. It was actually the smallest one we caught, here's Beau with the fish...[img][img]
The next "incidental" was a very nice tripletail in a Gulf side river mouth...[img][img]
It also weighed right at 9lbs. The last day on the water we also ran into a few goliath and gag grouper. They're a real handful since you usually hook them next to submerged trees. This big gag measured exactly 30 inches and weighed almost 12lbs...[img][img]
I'd like to claim that we regularly catch them that big, but usually it's tough to get one that's over 24" (the legal keeper size...). During the three days we saw lots of tarpon from 20lbs up to and over 100lbs. Although the water is just too cold after yesterday's cold front, they'll be back along the coast once things warm up again - just in time for the weekend is my guess.
Fishing report, Everglades - Flamingo 
