August 2007

really hot fishing August 2007 The fishing remains good in the areas I cover, Miami Beach, Biscayne Bay, (north and south) and Flamingo have all been productive for numerous species. I usually concentrate on the main species of Tarpon, Snook, Bonefish or Permit but some people just want the rod to bend constantly; so I try to entertain them. The Snook fishing in Fl. Bay and backcountry has been really consistent; there aren’t a lot of complaints by anglers when it comes to Snook lately. I have been on Tarpon; they just love the Twitch n Rap! One of the great things that happens while casting the Twitch n Rap is that all the other fish destroy it, so multi specie catches are the norm and gland Slams on that one lure happen a lot. The rest of the month will be interesting the heat has been up in the mid to upper 90’s so the key still is early and late. 080607 Today I am fishing with Mark and his son Griffin on his Andros tower boat in south Biscayne Bay for Tarpon, Bonefish and Permit; this was a really different experience! I was running the rear trolling motors from the tower and was able to spot fish from really far away, “no poling”. The boat did some things really good and floats shallow but you need to be able to turn quickly and chase fish, which takes time in that boat. We were running along Elliot Key when I spotted some baits getting busted up, we stopped and there were some Tarpon mixed in with Cuda’s. I hooked one of the Tarpon and tried to pass it off to Marks son but it came off, Mark caught some decent size Cuda’s. I spotted 5 Permit on a shallow white bar but they must of seen us first and moved on. I power poled down on a point that has a lot of current and the fish seem to pour thru, but we had some serious storms moving our way. First we had a ray with a couple Bonefish cruising with it, then a single small Permit and then 2 pods of medium size Tarpon and then a monster rainsquall, which made us move. We ran over to a creek and hid while it passed over us; once it did we popped out onto cutter bank where we found some tailing Bonefish. Mark made a couple cast with no luck. The key I told him is to be able to cast really far! There were more storms moving are way so we ran to the west bank, we got into some Bone fish overt here but they were moving quick and again poisoning was tough without a push pole. This day was to help mark out with some spots but more importantly to teach him some new techniques. 080407 this weekend is a bit of a get away for me. I’m in St. Lucie visiting my mom and sister but brought my boat along just in case. I called my long time friend Jorge who lives up there and asked if he wanted to fish when I came up this weekend, this is a guy I grew up fishing with so it was great. I ran right to the jetty because that’s all I heard about for 2 days while I was there. I rigged a couple of Twitch n Raps up and let the fish catchin begin. We had a couple strikes right off the bat, followed by some boils. Jorge caught a big Ladyfish and I caught a good size Jack, where are the Snook I asked? We kept talking and casting, it been about 6 years since we have seen each other. I found a certain rock that I kept getting boiled on so I cast again and again. Finally a big St.Lucie Inlet Snook was on and pulling drag, we went back and forth with the big Snook finally straightening out my hooks. This is the first time I have had a fish do this, the hooks that come are strong but they finally met there match. My customers have hooked plenty of big Tarpon on them so this was a first. What I like to do is use the sure set trebles on the back and leave the front one. We decide to run to the North Fork and try some sots I use to fish up there; luckily we got into some Tarpon and caught some more Snook. This was a great reunion. 080607 This morning Francisco wants his son Ricky to catch fish, nothing special “just catch”! We started out in front of the old “zoo” There can be Snook, Tarpon and Bonefish in there, the other thing is bathers. At 7 am there were people swimming right in the area I wanted to fish. We ran south and fished the jetty off of the lighthouse and wore out the 3-5 lb. Jack Crevalles, throw in a couple nice size cuda’s and it was a good start. On the horizon a monster storm was breathing down our neck so we kept an eye out. The tide was falling and I ran to “Stiltsville” area but the freight train was coming we had to go. I was really glad I brought the Pathfinder 22 today. I ran back towards Key Biscayne and it was in our face. We made it back to the marina and 15 minutes later it was gone. We went back out and got into some Tarpon, which appeared to be feeding. I rigged a Gulp 7-inch jerk bait on a jig and the tarpon slammed it. The sad part is it didn’t last long and then the sun came out and they were gone. They caught several more Jacks and they had to leave. 081107 Today I fished with Frank and Alex at Flamingo. As we approached the first spot a big Tarpon busted a school of Mullet so I idle around to them. The Tarpon busted Mullet for the next 40 minutes until the tide stopped moving but they weren’t lucky enough to get hooked up, just a couple follow-ups. The baits were getting busted down a way from us so I poled into the area, which resulted in a couple Snook and a Redfish. The bite slowed and we moved on, every spot seemed to have at least one small Snook; again today the Twitch n Rap produced a bunch of Snook. These guys were interested in catching anything so we went to a spot that’s been holding some Tarpon and if they don’t bite the Snappers do. For the next hour and a half Frank and Alex caught Snappers (12-15 inches), Goliath Grouper 7lbs, Jacks to 5 lbs and Ladyfish on almost every cast. Once the sun come up and it gets hot look for the running deep water it is a bit cooler and the fish will be deeper. I like to bounce the Gulp Shrimp or Pogy’s on ½ ounce jig heads making contact with the bottom every time. Frank and Alex were happy and they took home plenty of Snappers for dinner. 081707 Greg and Phil are from far away, originally from South Africa now living in Alberta Canada, have been on a fishing vacation. They just returned from Eluethra in the Bahamas and want Tarpon and Snook to finish up their trip. Greg was an excellent caster, which make life easy for me. It didn’t take long and Greg was hooked up to a nice Snook that was running like a race car. Greg finally got the Snook next to the boat and it was a lot bigger than we thought, I grabbed the Snook and lifted it into the boat a beautiful specimen 34 inches 11 1/12 lbs. This was the start to a lot of catching for the next couple of hours; Greg and Phil caught a dozen Snook and a handful of Redfish with plenty of shots at Tarpon that did not want to eat. The lures of choice were as usual the Twitch n Rap and the Gulp Shrimp up in the mangrove roots which produced several Reds for Phil. We ran out and found some big Tarpon in the Gulf but the wind picked up and switched killing the bite. It was Phil’s turn he hooked a big Snook off of Middle Cape again on the Twitch n Rap, the Snook pulled, ran then jumped and threw the lure. It was a fantastic day until Phil got back and realized he lost his keys somewhere. 081807 Today I am fishing with Jeff, Billy and Jeremy from Arkansas, the trio are here working at Turkey Point and all 3 are experienced anglers. This may have been one of the easiest days I could have had except for the amount of fish they caught, I actually got tired of reaching over and grabbing fish to release. I told them we had about an hour before the tide started to move so we worked our way around with very little action. The tide started going out the baits started moving and Jeff was hooked up to a fish that fooled us at first, maybe because of the light tackle. Jeff was doing a good job and the Snook just would not give up. Billy and Jeremy were giving him a hard time about it until we got the monster Snook next to the boat. I reached down and scooped her up with the net and she fill the net completely! I weighed the big Snook on my Boga grip she was 16 ½ lbs and 37 ½ inches long I said it’s not going to get any better than that. Jeff revived the hard fighter for 5 minutes or so; this ensures a Shark would not eat her. Jeff next cast he was hooked up again, he had the hot hand for a while. Jeff probably caught 6 or 7 before Billy and Jeremy got one! Then all hell broke loose every one was hooked up none stop; in about an hour and a half they released 25 Snook from 18 inches to that monster. Jeff snagged a mullet and we threw it in the well. There were plenty of Tarpon rolling in the area so I waited until we got in to deeper water to use the mullet. As the guys were catching Trout over the grass flats, I hooked the mullet up on a Biscayne 12 lb rod when all of a sudden we saw a huge boil around the bait. The mullet just got ate I said and the Tarpon was in the air and the rod was doubled over. Billy is a Bass angler and never experienced anything like that before. The Tarpon threw the mullet but it was still on the hook and living so, we pitched it back out. This time a 50lb Tarpon found it and was not letting it go, this is what make guiding so much fun is when a guy enjoys a fish like Billy did. Billy got the release on this Tarpon and they all wanted one now! I netted some mullet but the weather was about to get bad and I decide to try an out run the rain squalls, this really turned out for the best. I ran to my little Tarpon spot and they were rolling everywhere, hundreds and hundreds of Tarpon big and small. The next fours we hooked 15-20 Tarpon, 20 Sharks, maybe a hundred Jack Crevalles up to 5lbs. They had shots at Triple Tails but it was the Tarpon Bite that was a blast. There were numerous times with 2 guys hooked to Jacks and 2 guys to Tarpon, one time I think 3 guys had Tarpon hook up at the same time. I thought the day maybe easy early on because these guys were good anglers and did everything for themselves, but some how I got worn out this was a great day of fishing. All 3 guys got their slams of Tarpon, Snook and Trout. The mullet did us no good the Sharks ate them. The Tarpon were caught on lures, the biggest Tarpon was 60 lbs. If I can help with some fish catching give me a call st 305-333-8149 "Let's go catchin" Capt Jimbo Select another page || Go to Home Page

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