April 2008

Spring is here April Forecast The fishing has been good thru March, the one constant we have had is the wind which normally dies @ the 2 week of April. On the days the winds are down and and we can fish around the beaches and Government Cut there have been Tarpon, Permit, Snook and numerous other species. April is the month we switch to Crabs and the Tarpon bite is usually consistent every night. If you have ever read my reports you know I am a big proponent of the Gulp products and during the day they catch fish that Shrimp don't, so use them if you can. The Tarpon will be everywhere at Flamingo as soon as the wind dies, April and May are when we start to notice them in the Gulf in more than one area. There are still some Tarpon in the Back country but the wind has effected this in a big way. The Snook fishing has been and will be very good now that the water temperatures are back where they like it. The Redfishing is always good but during the next few months it will produce some schools on top of the flats which is what we all love to do and see. The Tripletails will start to show up in the Gulf as well and these are a bonus while Tarpon fishing. Every day and year that goes by I learn new info which in turn I offer to my clients. One of those thing I hope to capitalize on is the Permit I have found for the last 2 years while Tarpon fishing. 040308 I am part of a corporate group trip today, I have James and his wife Linda onboard and we are starting out in Government Cut. The wind is up around 18 knots, we gave the Cut a shot for while but it was a little to much for Linda. James had caught a couple small Snappers and we decided to move to calmer waters. The bay worked out they caught 20 Trout and a few Barracudas. 040408 Today we are doing the other half of the corporate group and I have Troy, Bruce and Larry. The winds are even stronger this morning taking Government Cut out of the picture. I decided with the other captains in the group to run north to the next inlet which was holding a lot of bait and some big Jack Crevalle. I spotted some birds diving on the way up and checked it out, on the first 20 cast the trio of anglers hooked up on Jacks. They kept me busy running from rod to rod unhooking there fish for about 30 minutes, it's cardio fishing at it's best! The Jack bite continues for an hour with a couple big Trout mixed in. I can still here Larry laughing at how incredible it was. we moved to the inlet where Troy had a monster Jack rip the eyelet out of his Rapala X Rap. Troy caught several nice Spanish Mackerel and Bruce had a big Jack hit his plug and come loose. We finished the day Trout fishing catching a handful. 040508 Eric called me and said he wanted to take his 2 young boys Eric and Pete fishing and to concentrate on teaching them and letting them catch all the fish. I said no problem this is a big part of my business! I hate saying this in every report but it was really windy again which in turn muddied up the high water. The tide starts moving 2 hours earlier to the west so that's the direction we headed. I was looking for schools of Trout, Jacks and Ladyfish for these guys to get the feel of catching fish. We worked on casting and then getting a feel for a Gulp jig on the bottom, it don't normally take long for the kids to get it. The fish responded and the Jacks,Trout, Ladyfish and Snappers started coming in the boat as well as the wind gust that continued to get stronger. We ended the day Shark fishing but even the Shark didn't like the wind today. The kids came up and thanked me for a great day without there dad telling them, to this really made my day! 040908 Kathy and Rick are here from San Diego, Rick turned 50 today and this was his gift, pretty nice. They love to fishing and every time they come in I try to show them a different part of our fishery, but Tarpon has to be on the list. We started out casting at a point looking for Tarpon and then working some pot holes and sight casting at muds. The muds were full of Redfish and Snook, between them they caught 20 Snook and 12 Redfish using Gulp Shrimp and the Twitch n Raps. It was time to search for Tarpon so I ran to the Gulf, the winds had picked up to 20 mph. It took a little searching, but we found them and hooked a monster. The fight didn't last more than a couple of minutes the Tarpon landed on the line when she jumped, breaking it. Rick caught a 23" Trout while we were waiting for a Tarpon bite. There was a big storm withy some funnel clouds coming our way so we made a run back towards the marina. I stopped at a spot so Kathy could catch a Trout and get her SLAM since Rick had already caught his. 2 SLAMS for the day and a lot of fish caught. Happy birthday, Rick! 041008 I am with Rick and Kathy again today but Kathy is not giving Rick a chance like yesterday, it's not his birthday any more. This morning is slick and the Tarpon are everywhere, we cast and cast at them but didn't get a lot of interest in return. It took a while but we hooked a 50 lb. Tarpon for a few jumps, that got the blood pumping. We started out with a jumped Tarpon and moved on to Snook and a bunch of Redfish and then killed the Trout while trying to catch a few Ladyfish for bait. A big Tarpon is still high on the priority list so we ran out to the Gulf. The winds picked up just as we arrived there but we some free jumpers and had a couple shots at some laid up Tarpon. The Sharks wouldn't leave our baits alone we had them circling us like a bad movie. It did get interesting when a nice Hammerhead came up behind us. We cast at it but no luck as it spooked off, Hammerheads are a blast! The Tripletail's made a brief appearance but we moving quickly and not interested either. Rick's lure got hit and all he could say was I saw the flash. Thats how fast the Tarpon can be! Rick and Kathy caught 6 or 7 Sharks and they were done Kathy quit fishing and she normally don't. Rick said that's it, lets head in. 2 more SLAMS today between them they had a total of 10 SLAMS on both days. 041108 My partner Paul and I drove all night to get to Jacksonville for a tournament on Saturday only to get there and have dense fog. We sat at the dock for 20 minutes and I finally couldn't take it anymore and said lets go. We idled down the inter coastal with out being able to see in front of the boat, eventually getting to where we were going. I told Paul this spot is good and the Redfish didn't wait long to show us they were there. There were a lot of fish there and I felt confident fort he next day. We didn't have time to pre fish more than one day, but from talking to other anglers at the captains meeting the weather had been terrible anyway. I was confident in my new partner this year and felt like we were going to set the world on fire. 041208 The boat ramp was busy with 122 boats launching at the same time, but that's when the competitive juices start flowing. We checked out and we were on our way to a spot my friend Don from leaders and sinkers in Fernandina Beach told me about. The first stop was close and the fish we there but uncooperative. I told Paul lets go, I don't want to get to our spot and have someone else there. as we drifted up to the area we saw a school of Reds pushing up onto the oysters that gave us hope as the tide kept falling out. We worked very hard for the next 7 hours not to get a bite. We saw the fish, cast to the fish and watched them swim away constantly. The winds were howling and muddied up the water make it hard to sight fish. We hit all the spots I new in the area and it was just as tough as it could get. It wasn't only tough for us 62 teams out of 122 didn't weigh in fish. This is the hard part of fishing outside of your local waters. We left Jacksonville disappointed but on a positive note for our next few tournaments. 041408 Dan said his plane arrives at 1100 am and would like to be on the water for as much of the day as we could, I said no problem. I met Dan on South Beach and headed to Government Cut, I knew we could we could catch some fish in the area. The Tarpon are stacked up, free jumping, rolling, sliding and just laid up in there giving us plenty of opportunity to cast at fish. In the process Dan caught several other species including Snappers and a nice Barracuda. The cold front that was pushing thru seemed to have the fish shut down today, but I refused to give up! I had Dan casting a Mirrorlure Catch 2000 which hooks a lot of laid up Tarpon, today was no different. The fish hit it so hard Dan was stunned, the Tarpon raid about 10 inches of line so there was no doubt he inhaled it. It was getting late and Dan had to be somewhere so we called it a day. 041708 Kevin and Anthony are in from Massachusetts for some partying on South Beach and some fishing. We started out in Government Cut and Kevin Hooked a 50 lb Tarpon which he hooked on a 12 lb rod there was plenty of fight in this one. Kevin fought the Tarpon for 30 minutes and the line nicked something and the fish was free. There were other species today including a 23 inch Red Grouper that ate a Crab drifting for Tarpon. The Groupers must of moved in with the cold this week, Kevin caught another on a Gulp Shrimp. Anthony stayed busy catching Cuda's and had a giant needle fish that was about 5 feet long. We had Tarpon come up on a crab and hit it later in the day but let go. The weather deteiorated as we tried to catch another Tarpon, with the winds at 25 mph we finally called it quits. full moon plays games with us 041908 Richard was my first regular customer when I started guiding in 2000 we probably fished 8 times that year. I haven't heard from until this past week, Richard always brought his grandsons and this time it was no different, he brought his grandson Jonathon along with his buddy Eric which just returned from Iraq and Donna. We went out and just caught Trout, Jacks and Ladyfish for a couple hours. I asked if it was time for a shot at a Tarpon and they jumped at the chance. I ran into the Gulf of Mexico and put out some baits only to have the Sharks eat them, they didn't care we caught them. Jonathon had a big one on for a while until it broke off. Richard got the rod next when a big Blacktip ate the bait. This shark was tough richard fought it with everything he had and it took over an hour to land it and snap some photos. They were beat so we headed home. 042008 David, Hung, and Willy made a mistake and ended up in Chokoloskee this morning, when he called and told me I gave them the option of just going home or i would wait for them to get to Flamingo. They wanted to fish and they made it there 945 am, by 1030 we had released 3 Reds and a Snook. These guys just wanted to bend the rod they said they had never done any fishing like this before and liked it. I bounced around from spot to spot catching a litlle of everything but the bite was definitly slow today. We had a shot at Tripletails and most were spooky, but we did hook one on a Twitch n Rap which is a great lure for Tripletails. We did some Shark fishing and Hung caught a giant Sting ray. 042108 Tony and Louie are life long friends wanted to catch some fish today, the tide was ver high and falling but the fish werent on my first spot. The second area we fished was more productive, their lures were getting smashed but still we had no fish in the boat. Louie had a big very big Trout hit next to the boat only to get off. It was Tony's turn and he had a big Trout as well and it came free. I was just a bit frustrated and picked up a rod and cast the same chartreuse jerkbait they were throwing only to have the fish let go the same was. These were all 5 lb Trout and I guess they were better at the game than we were! I netted some bait and satrted running around we ran to the Gulf in search of Tripletails, I spotted a big one and rigged a pinfish on a float and handed it to Tony which in turn hooked the big fish. Tony fought it all the way to the boat where it fell of the hook as I was about to grab it. This happened 3 times! Normally this is where I start looking for banana's in the boat. I said I got a wreck thats holding some fish lets go and it was holding fish, as we pulled up the Tarpon were everywhere. Thousands of them bu they were moving pretty good. I rigged a pinfish and Tony pitched it out in front of the school, now Tony is hooked up with a 50 lb Tarpon. The problems just wont end today, a screw fell out of the bail spring! I took one out of another reel and Tony landed the Tarpon. There has to be a Banana somewhere on this boat, just to many issues. The Sharks over ran the area so Louie caught a few and then hooked a Permit on a Gulp Shrimp only to loose it. We stopped on the way in and did a little Trout fishing before calling it quits. 042208 Dan Fred and Matt are from Toronto , eh. It is breezy to day but we caught bait and made the long run looking or the Tarpon I saw yesterday. It rough but do-able Dan said this is not rough for them. We made our way to the wreck and it didn't take long, these guys were tripled up on 5 lb Jack Crevalles for the first half hour. I saw a school of Permit and pitched a crab to them and handed the rod to Matt, after 10 minutes it broke off. The Sharks were thick and we were teasing them up because the Cobias were coming behind them. Dan hooked a Cobia and he was holding on with everything he had, Dan got it up next to the boat and we released the short Cobia. It wasn't long and he was at it again with the same result. Matt was casting a chugger at the Sharks on his plug rod and that's what kept the Cobias coming, until the 10 foot Bull Shark go my 10 year old "lucky chugger'. This Shark took about 45 seconds to strip 200 yards of 12 lb line off his reel. There was plenty of action and Matt had a Tarpon eat a pinfish only to throw the hook. These guys were so tired they canceled there to go trip bass fishing the next day! 042308 I am with George and his dad George and we are fishing in Whitewater Bay, George told me his dad only fishes artificial's so I went back country. George Jr started off with a Redfish and then his dad caught some Jacks on a X Rap fished on a deep point but he fishing was slow. I ran to a area that produces multi species just for them to get warmed up, George Sr. hooked a ladyfish and then we got into a great Trout bite George Sr. was casting a popper and Jr was using an X Rap and it was every cast for an hour. I asked do you guys want to try for Tarpon and they said ok. the next couple hours were dismal at best. The winds picked up and were out of the west which makes it somewhat tough to find them in the Gulf. I ran back and worked my way back into Whitewater and we Finally got into some nice size Snappers and Sr. had a decent Goliath on but it came off. We caught plenty of Trout, Jacks, ladyfish and Snappers and finally called it a day. 042508 Today I am involved in a 2 boat trip, early on I have Andrew, Cane and John and they caught plenty of Trout, Jacks and Ladyfish. Andrew and Cane had in important meeting to get to so they cut it short. In the afternoon Rick and Rob took there place and we went out and caught more Trout and some bait. We put the bait to work but the high winds and muddy water were working against us. We manage a lot of bites but we couldn't seem to get them into the boat. John finally had a big Shark eat his Ladyfish and fought it for 20 minutes. The Shark came loose at the boat, I couldn't figure it out. The day was already long and the guys were done so we called it a day. 042608 I have a father and son combo both named Tim so from now on it's Jr. and Sr.and we are at Flamingo today. The wind is not to bad yet and we fished shallow to start but the bite was slow. This was a 2 boat trip and the other capt. advised it was slow for him too. I ran out and caught some bait and we made a run out to a wreck in the Gulf. On the way out we spotted a nice Tripletail on a crab trap buoy and caught it. Jr was shocked at how high the fish jumped and pulled pretty hard as well. We continued running out to the wreck, but the wind was picking up. As soon as we anchored a Cobia swam up to the boat, by the time I got a bait rigged up it swam off. I rigged some rods with live bait down deep and it wasn't long a something big had our bait and was running with it. The line was broke off as the fish ran thru the wreck. The wind really pick up and we decided to run back in, on the way we saw a lot of Tripletails, Jr hooked and caught a few more. They were all in the 5 to 7 lb range. We ran around looking for a Snook, chumming with live Pilchards. We finally had some fish smashing our chum baits but we missed them. It was late and we headed in both Tims were thrilled with the day. 042708 Tim's brother Lex and his son Alex are here from Texas, the goal is to have Alex catch a lot of fish. The winds are really blowing this morning, 20 mph plus. I looked for protection and we even got into some baits that were getting busted but no bites for us. I ran to another spot and we caught some Trout and Ladyfish but no Snook or Redfish. I moved again and we found some baby Tarpon, cast after cast they would not bite. This is frustrating but it happens. Tim wanted Alex to catch a lot of fish and so we ran out and caught loads of Trout, Jacks, Snappers and Ladyfish. It was time to catch something bigger so we went looking for Sharks. I butter flied a Ladyfish and it did not take long before a 100 lb Bull Shark ate it, 20 minutes later we had it boat side taking some photos. Tim said they had enough and lets head in. Tim, Lex and Alex were tired and Alex was excited about the big Shark. If your thinking about a fishing trip, the next few months are great, give me a call if I can help at 305 333 8149. Let's go catch'em, Captain Jim Hobales Select another page || Go to Home Page

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