We fished both days this past weekend, making the long run well before the sun showed each morning. Nothing like being more than 20 miles from the ramp before the sun actually showed up... The first day was all about variety with light spinning gear and lures (mostly bucktails and lead heads with Gulp tails...). Local angler Andre was my only one on the rod and we stayed busy most of the day. Our first fish was a keeper sized flounder (not very common this time of year), carefully released back into the tangles he came from. Our next fish were snook, trout, and redfish in that order. Here's a photo or two...
this was just before the sun showed up
Our only keeper sized red, at 20" still a bit on the small side, note the lure - more about that later
Quite a few of these, along the coast and back up inside Whitewater. Andre caught them all the way up to about 18"...
Although we didn't hook any of the tarpon we found, we still wound up with a backcountry slam and a variety of other species - all carefully released to fight another day. The variety that day included snook, redfish, speckled trout, snapper, grouper, flounder, and three little barracuda (way up inside the interior).. The best news is what we saw that day... lots of little snook and redfish in the 6 to 13" size range up in clear shallow water shorelines. That bodes well for their recovery after last January's cold weather fish kills. If I'm not mistaken they were spawned after the fishkill...
The next day I had a father and son team from the Carolina's and we targeted the tarpon along the coast to the north of the Shark River. Lots and lots of tarpon still inshore and feeding hard getting ready for the cold weather that will push them back offshore. Although we only jumped two and got one to the boat (I didn't have time for a photo..) we had lots of shots. The volume of bait along the coast is nearing its highpoint now. Vast quantities of small pilchards, glass minnows (bay anchovies) everywhere you look with lots and lots of small ladyfish feeding on them. It only takes a moment to see schools of mullet pushing hard in from the Gulf as well.... It's not hard now to load a well with the ladies for tarpon baits (and the other things that will eat ladies on sight in the 'Glades). We wound up the day with a few grouper spots and scored on one of them. Here's a pic of the smallest one...
this pretty goliath grouper (jewfish for you old timers...) was carefully handled and released still full of fight. Note the classic rounded fins that distinguish a goliath grouper from all others... Our second one was almost twice as big...
Now for a minor commercial plug... Here's a few pics of the gear we used... locally Don's Bait & Tackle (Homestead) and LMR Custom Rods (Ft. Lauderdale) are stocking some of my jigs and lead heads...
The bottom three are my standard backcountry jigs, the red & white got the snook's attention on Saturday..
This is what we're using with Gulp tails, in 1/4 and 1/8oz sizes, note the heavy hook... I'm filling orders for quite a few local anglers now, and a few from out of state that know what they want...
Tight Lines
Capt Bob LeMay
(954) 435-5666