| Good time for Tarpon on the beach
I would like to start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year! If you are reading my fishing report then it seems like your in the right mind set and have your priorities straight, "fishing". The new year started out with a major arctic blast of cold weather and a bit of a fish kill down at Flamingo. The water temperatures dipped down to around 49 degrees on Thursday 1-3-08 and some Snook and Goliath Grouper couldn't tolerate it. I found a lot of dead Goliath Groupers on a channel edge, we pulled up one to see how big and it was and it was well over 100 lbs. I guess the cold effects all sizes, the Snook were just floating in a stunned daze until they warm up or die!
There is a positive side to the cold it will put the fish into their "winter" pattern which usually means it is moving them and stacking them up all we have to do is find the area and we will normally catch plenty out of one spot or shoreline.
The cold snap will definitely help our Tarpon fishing off of Miami Beach, the
water temps up north are intolerable and it will push them south for warmer temps. The Shrimp will start to run pretty good in January and that will in turn cause the Tarpon to feed. The full moons are usually peek for the Shrimp runs but the new moon can stir them up if we get a cold snap and some N.E. wind, these Tarpon will be here until June. this is a simple trip for people vacationing on the beach. There are some other fish that like to get in the mix on those Shrimp runs as well, Permit, Snook and Some big Mangrove Snappers all bite real good.
010408
This will go down as one of the toughest days I fish all year, frigid temperatures the night before and then cloud cover and rain during the course of the day. I had canceled the day before because it was just unsafe and although today wasn't as bad it wasn't much fun. Bill and his son Gage just wanted to catch some fish, we worked hard trying but the fishing was just shut down. Areas that are typically day savers did not produce a bite. gage ended up with one lizard fish which I guess is better than nothing. I am so glad I don't have many of these days.
010508
I am very nervous this morning it is still very cold and after talking to a couple of my fellow guides that had fished there the day before I had a right to be. There was talk of floating fish, dead fish and no fish in general, this is not what you want to here! I had my cold weather game plan and it has worked for me over the years. I met Brad, Claudio and Brad at the dock and we were off, the boat ride was cold so we didn't go far or fast. The first spot is my honey hole for cold water Redfish, normally all you have to do is toss a Shrimp in there and it gets eaten. That wasn't the case today! Brad #2 finally had a bite and caught a nice 22" Redfish, it was a start but it was the solo fish there.
I went to a big open grass flat with shallow pot holes thinking the fish might be trying to get shallow and sun themselves, they weren't. The next spot is a channel where I have actually caught fish when it's real cold, but all we found were dead Goliath Groupers on the bottom. I kept moving from spot to spot and hoping the sun would come out and warm up a bit. The winds were 20 MPH and the cloud cover kept it cold. This next creek can be a life saver sometimes, today it produced another 18" Redfish. I ran to a creek that had some protection and as we motored in we saw some floating Snook, I thought to myself this cant be good! It didn't take long, Brad # 1 had a nice hit but missed it. He cast back in the same spot and was rewarded with a Snook and then another, before to long both Brad #2 and Claudio started to cast to his spot and every one one was hooked up for the next 2 hours. We went thru 8 dozen Shrimp on that spot catching Snook after Snook. Brad #1 had the largest Snook at 28 inches. The trio were extremely happy and we called it a day. I was not nervous any more!
011108
John called and said he would like to do an afternoon trip for Tarpon, he said he would be getting off a cruise ship at 9 am and could meet me by 10 am and had to be back by 2. I advised John this would not be an easy task but I would give it my best shot if he still wanted to. The cool weather and strong winds of the past week made things difficult but you have to be able to adapt to the conditions. We started out heading north in the inter coastal in a no wake zone, we trolled a big Rapala plug thru the bridge span and had a serious hit! I always hope for big Snook but this time it was a big Jack Crevalle. John fought against the Jack and a ripping tide for about 5 minutes. The Jack was a solid 8 lb fish and came off as we were bringing it aboard. We made another pass an got hit again but this one didn't stay attached. I went to were I had been on Tarpon before the cold snap but they were gone. We spent the rest of the time we had working Docks mangroves and the bridge span Tom managed to catch a bunch of Barracudas he left somewhat satisfied for the conditions.
011208
Today I fishing with Josh and Zach. I am a part of a 2 boat half day trip where the guys want to bend rods, no specie in particular but catch lots of fish. The conditions are cool and breezy and halfway thru the morning a big storm moved in with one heck of a giant water spout sitting about 5 miles from us. We sat in a channel catching Mutton Snappers, Cuda's and Blue Runners for about an 1 1/2 hours and just watched the water spout in amazement. We did get up on the flats but they were baron of any life. The low clouds were keeping the water cold and the storm eventually moved back across the bay where we caught a bunch more Cuda's, Jacks and Ladyfish. They guys were glad to get out since they were from Wisconsin ad Minnesota and it's really cold there.
011908
I have belonged to the Miami Sport fishing Club for over 20 years and the one thing that has always been constant is we show up strong when competing as a club. Today we competed the Miami Beach Rod and Reel club Sailfish challenge which we were defending as champions. I am fishing with my Buddies Capt. Gil Gutierrez on his new 32 Sea Vee and Wayne Burns. We have 2 other boats in the tournament since only top 3 boats from each club count so we piled onto 3 boats. It didn't take long we caught a quick sail and released then another we had 2 by 9 am and then the bite stopped, luckily some Dolphin moved in and kept us busy for a while. We ended up with one more Sailfish and 2 missed big bites, one possibly a Tuna. Lines were out at 3 PM so we made it back to a great party and beerfest. The club ended up with 12 Sailfish out of a total of 26 caught in conditions not consider great for Sail fishing. The Miami Sport fishing Club took first, Capt Gabby's Sea Vee took top boat honors and Peter Brandle was top angler with 6 releases. I guess we will be defending again next year.
012508
The weather this past week has been terrible but there finally was a break on Wednesday and the tarpon responded. Today I am fishing with Duane and Waldo and Tarpon is what they want! We headed out at first light hoping the Tarpon would respond after feeding on the full moon over night, there was enough cloud cover that sometimes allows us to get that early morning bite. The other thing we were dealing with was a cold front passed thru as well and the winds were straight down the coast. We went out and drifted the south side of Government Cut with no results I told Duane the there side might be better but he thought the strong winds and rough water was to much for Waldo to handle. We stayed in the inlet and fought the 20 plus wind and strong currents. We didn't get any Tarpon but we did manages some nice Mangrove Snappers. We only had a few hours as they had to hop on a plane to get home.
012708
Today, I am fishing with Joe, his wife Orla and son little Joe, Joe said he son is a 10 year old "die hard" and he wanted him to catch fish. This was their first Flamingo expereince and I wanted to make it a good one, mother nature had something different in store. This morning we had a cold front passing thru and the winds are up and out of the west, some say it's the toughest winds to fish; but we are here and we have to make the best of it. On our first stop little Joe caught a nice Redfish in an area I have a lot of faith in but fishing was slow. The next spot produced a Snook for little Joe, it's slow but he pecking away at a "Slam". Orla caught a small Ladyfish and then hooked another small Snook which jumped off. It was little Joe's turn again and his drag is getting pulled of pretty good eventually he landed a Goliath Grouper. The rain was moving in so we made a run away from it and back towards Flamingo and did some Trout fishing. The Ladyfish were mixed in and there were some big ones mixed in which all 3 anglers were loving, big Joe asked why we didn't come here right away. They caught some Trout,Jacks and Catfish as well and watched in amazement as the Porpoises rounded up bait on the flats. Big Joe needed to leave by 1 PM and so we headed in but little Joe would of stayed forever.
Hopefully we can get into a warming trend for a couple days and let the fish get back on track.
The Tarpon have made an appearance at Government Cut and ate pretty good from the reports I got this week. I will be fishing Government Cut Monday and keep everyone informed.
The back country Tarpon were in really good and will be back once it warms up again. If you dream of a giant Tarpon on light tackle or fly the next couple months is a great time in the Everglades back-country. I will keep my report updated for this outstanding fishery.
Capt. jimbo
305 333 8149
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