Fire in Biscayne Bay
Permit and Bonefish in the Bay
August 16 2010
Jason Burnett hopped out of the cab and on the Hells Bay with a cup of coffee in his hands to watch the Sunrise at Black Point Marina this Saturday. Conditions were perfect, calm bright sun and the first part of the incoming tide. Armed with a dozen handpicked shrimp and 6 crabs we started looking for pushing Permit down in the south part of the bay, normally I idle in certain areas to see if we can move some fish to identify their locations if they are not fining or tailing. This worked great as many Permit came near but not close enough. Finally after an hour or so into the tide we had some fish get close enough for some good shots and had one take a crab, 20 minutes and 28 lbs later Jason landed his first Permit on the flats.
Now with a Permit in the boat we headed to a flat that has been flooded by Bones lately. Within 5 minutes we were in schools of 20 to 30 fish just like the good ole days. Being it is summer time and the hand picked shrimp were not very large I decided to split shot the Mustad hook shank and put on the largest shrimp I could find. After blowing out a few a groups of 20 plus Bones, A school of about 40 Bones pushed a large wake and headed right at us, I instructed him to cast at 12 o'clock and open the bail as I backed us up away from the oncoming school. I saw the flash of a rolling Bone and Jason felt the tap on the braided line and he was off to the races.
This trend should continue and Florida Bay has had plenty of Redfish on high water mornings.
Good Luck Capt. Jim Hale
www.floridasportfishingcharters.com
786-255-1788
