With the exception of the past few days heavy rains, fishing continues to be hot both day and night now that summer is here.... This report will cover the past two weeks when the emphasis has been on tarpon (both night and day) and some really good topwater action in the 'Glades for reds and snook.
First the night scene, sightfishing action for baby tarpon continues to be good any way we've tried. Fish up to 40 lbs and better are eating lures, flies, and live shrimp. All that's been needed is an outgoing tide and a few shrimp moving. Our most recent outing with Brad Cummings and his friend Aaron, last Friday night we jumped 6 and released two of them at boatside in Biscayne Bay on light spinning gear in just a few hours. Later that night after dropping off my anglers a little exploring found many more fish that ate lures and flies. It will be like this for the rest of the summer. Once the tide is falling, the fish will be feeding, and there'll be no one else around. Biscayne Bay at night is a different world than the busy urban area that it is in the daytime. Tarpon heaven!
Out of Flamingo we've moved into the expected summer mode with a few twists. Heavy rains have moved most of the small bait offshore leaving some very hungry snook and reds along the shorelines. The highlight for last week was the top water action. We're using noisy surface plugs to locate fish, then switching off to soft plastics (Exude lures, of course) or my own backcountry jigs when we find the fish. We're even finding redfish that attack surface lures in four feet of water... hungry fish! If the snook and reds are hungry, the sharks in those same areas are even hungrier... Almost everything we hook is up running for its life with a large shark right behind.... One snook was landed so quickly it had hardly even made its first run, the 6 or 7 foot shark that chased it to the boat swam around us in circles looking for that meal that escaped... When the shark moved away, I released the snook and pointed him toward a downed tree to give him at least a chance at survival...
The small and medium tarpon action at Flamingo also continues strong. My last fly angler at Flamingo jumped a dozen small fish on little popping bugs in the interior before we moved out toward the coast. The bigger fish that day weren't very interested in our flies, but those little fish made up for it. Any day now the giants will begin to return from spawning. That will be the start of the great second season for the big fish in the 'Glades. They'll be in and around river mouths along the Gulf coast from Lostman's south to Cape Sable every day until the first cold front in October. Those fish will be feeding heavily to make up for the spawn and be preparing for winter. As we move into the serious portion of hurricane season the giants will be available every day. They'll still be tarpon, though, some days eating anything, some days nothing with a hook in it. They're still the greatest inshore gamefish -bar none.
Tight lines
ps. anyone wanting to get a look at my backcountry jigs, Don's Bait & Tackle in Homestead is stocking them.. I'm still tying flies for the Fly Shop in Ft. Lauderdale for all you fly types...