| Hot weather brings hot fishing
May 22,2005
Flamingo
The end of April was good for my charters, fishing all kind of areas on the east and west coast of Florida. The Mullet were pouring down the west coast and we were there to intercept them. Tarpon, Snook, Trout, Jewfish, Jacks and big Sharks all were eating live Mullet and live or dead Ladyfish. There were some windy days that the mullet were hard to find and watching the Snook feed on schools was tough to watch, the feeding areas usually had some kind of tree where I couldn’t throw a net. This is the time of year finger Mullet show up and Tarpon and Snook school on the beaches west of Flamingo; this area can produce lots of Snook and as always plenty of other species. May thru October is my favorite time of year down here, Tarpon, Redfish and Snook are the targets.
Miami Beach
The east coast of Miami Beach has been good to me since my last report, The Tarpon have been eating Crabs and Shrimp (which are smaller now) sometime I’ll put 2 or 3 on a hook to give it a bigger profile. The Crabs have put the big fish in the boat this week Shaun with a 150 and then a 130lb Tarpon. The next night produced the same results Mike Ballard had a 130 and then hooked an 80lb. jumper. Mike is from England and had dreamed of this for along time
On a day when it was a little too rough in Govt. Cut for Steve and his wife Karen who are from California we went Trout fishing, we had an incredible day in north Biscayne Bay. The Trout started out small but plentiful, we went to an area that seems to always hold 1 good fish if conditions are right. Steve cast out a Storm suspending shad and hooks a 3-8 pound Trout moments later his wife fish a D.O.A. glow Shrimp on a popping cork rig hooked and landed the biggest Trout any of my customers have ever caught on my charters and I was in North Biscayne Bay. The Trout pulled line like a Jack at first and then came up and gave that Trout headshake that’s when I ran for a net. I pulled out the Boga grip and it weighed an impressive 5 ½ pounds.
On another trip we fished right out front of South Beach drifting large Shrimp we landed another 150lb monster. Jason and his buddy took turns fighting the Tarpon landing it 40 minutes.
The Snook are ready to start the spawning in the inlets; if you dream is a big Snook this is the time of year. The Snook will also be around dock that are lit up, bridge lights and shadow lines. The one big thing not to forget is the spillway fishing once the rain starts, there are a lot of spillways in the south part of the state and on both coast.
Flamingo, Govt. Cut and Biscayne Bay
The next few months will be very productive for Snook, Redfish, Tarpon, Permit, Bonefish and Sharks they will be everywhere. Big spawning Snook is what the summer will bring to the inlets. I will be out there every night if possible.
Redfish Tournaments
The last month has been none stop traveling, first to Jacksonville for the FLW and then to Alabama for the ESN Redfish Cup tournament. In Between all the driving, I managed to make it home for a few days see the family and do a couple of trips. Jacksonville was a little disappointing for my partner and myself. We decided to stick it out in a creek where we had some decent fish in practice and waited 2 hours to get in as the tide was rising. We only caught 2 fish in the creek all day and one was a short, this creek goes on for a mile; so its not like we were just sitting there. The next day we took a chance and went out to the Mayport jetties it was rough and 50 boats were already there, we had a back up plan not to far away. My partner Capt.Tim Shabareck found some fish in practice; the only problem was he was fishing in the Maverick HPX tunnel, and he was able to get into 5 inches of water. This day we were fish the 22 Pathfinder Tournament V it draws twice that much. We sat on an oyster bar and caught Redfish after Redfish, one problem 16 to 17 9/10 inches. The tides came in and we started casting all the other oyster bars. We ended up loosing a couple better fish and catching a 3-8 lb fish towards the end of the day. This tournament was very disappointing for us because we have always had success in Jacksonville, this time 78th out of 142 boats and we are sitting at 52place in the team of the year standings. Top 50 go to the championship.
Next we were off to Mobile, Alabama for the 1st tournament of the year on the ESPN Redfish Cup at Battle ship Park. This was really different from what most people are used to. Mobile Bay is large 8-10 miles wide and 33 miles out to the gulf from the takeoff point. Although Alabama has a good Red fishery they had 30 inches of rain, that a lot of freshwater which had pushed most of the Redfish out towards the gulf more fore salinity.
Many teams opted to make the longs runs and after the first 2 days of practice we decided to go to Louisiana, yes that’s 2 states away. We drove to Biloxi 2 days and worked our way around the Biloxi area and finally into the Louisiana marsh. We were lucky enough to know that area from previous tournaments and we all for making the 110-mile run the first day of the tournament. We thought would have to stop and get fuel twice making that trip running wide open.
On Wednesday night at the Captains meeting the flag’s at the top of the battle ship made it very clear to us the ride back could be nasty, we had 33 miles of wind against the tide and it does get rough 3-5 foot seas every afternoon. Not to mention the 80 other miles from Louisiana, we decided against it. Leaving the Captains meeting we were frustrated thinking were not going to catch a fish in the tournament., we discussed it and decided to go to an area we both liked on the chart but had not pre-fished. This is a cardinal sin in tournament fishing but we had nothing and nothing to loose. We made a 57-mile run around Ft. Morgan that sits on the S.E.side of Mobile Bay down Logan’s lagoon, this area reminded us of Lake Ingraham at Flamingo. We went inside and hit the first dock Capt. Timmy was hooked up before I had taken my life jacket off, I netted the fish and measured him and squeezed it to try make the minimum size and again just a hair short.
We ended up catching 5 fish in that bay but all just under the minimum size limit.
Now What! All we had left was a series of dock that we had heard about and seen guys fishing all week. We left the lagoon and ran down the beach, Timmy started pointing to a wake on the surface but we were in deeper water, so slot fish was unlikely. We got in front of the school and cast. There were big Reds and Jacks and Mackerel’s I cast a Rapala X rap into the school the next 20 minutes I was battling a 40 Jack Crevalle on a Brand new Biscayne Rod and OKUMA reel with14lb Fireline. The school disappeared after that.
Mobile Bay has numerous oyster beds that hold Trout and Reds being we had nothing we were trying to figure out something for the following day. We found a series of jetties where Timmy caught a keeper and that got us to the scales with a 2.62 lb fish.
With a little help from fellow teammate Ron Hueston he directed us in an area that held some fish. The next morning we made an 86 mile run to Pensacola, Florida to fish docks.
We pulled up to an area we had never fished before again: and it was long we had a 3-8 Lb. Redfish in the boat. Wait there’s a catch here! We are in Florida we cant cull our fish .
This means you can’t upgrade after placing one in a live well; once in the
live well he goes home with you. I didn’t even think twice I threw him
back we caught 12 Reds off that first dock but only 2 were keepers which
would have only been 6 1/2 lbs . Not long after moving off that first dock the bite-stopped! man was I nervous! It started to get crowded in the area so about 1215 we ran a few miles north and tried some docks that didn’t seem to have as much traffic.
It wasn’t long and we had a 4-8lb fish in the live well and the I lost one around a piece of metal hanging off the dock. I thought that fish was big but we’ll never know or will we? As we approached the next dock we started catching them on every cast but they were shorts, one last cast on that dock and I got slammed the fish started swimming away from the dock, this fish was going somewhere in a hurry. Timmy netted the Red, as we went to remove the jig from his lip we found another jig identical to mine in his mouth plus my leader from the dock previously. That was interesting only he wasn’t as big as I thought! We put that Red in the Boat and headed back to the Weigh-ins,
with plenty of time to make the 90 mile trip. While in line for the weigh-in I did a 5-minute interview on ESPN 2. There was something like 26 teams not making it back from their long runs or having to be rescued on the 2 days. It definitely was a learning experience for everyone.
We ended up in 58 place and were not discouraged a bit, most importantly we ended up with points for the team of the year. A special Thanks to our sponsors without them these stories are not possible
If having a an enjoyable day on the water catching fish gets you excited give me a call, I’ll do my best to make it the best day on the water you ever had! I do specialize in keeping the kids pre-occupied with catching. Give me a call at 305 333-8149 and let me arrange your trip of a lifetime.
"Let's go catchem"
Captain Jim Hobales
CaughtLookinCharters
www.caughtlookincharters.com
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