You can tell Fall is here! As I'm writing this report the wind is blowing 15 to 20 out of the west northwest and the temperature has dropped 10 degrees from what it had been. A cold front as everybody knows by now came through South Florida early this morning and moved into the Florida Straits and past the Bahamas. A welcomed change from the very hot temperatures we had been experiencing. You may be wondering how that is going to affect the fishing in South Florida well as long as we don't get another front as strong as this one during the next few days things will warm up quickly and the fishing will be as good as it was before the front passed through. Just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about here are the results of my last three charters of last week.
Fishing in Flamingo I had Jim and his son Matthew for two days. From the start my plan was to fish them one day on the outside and one day on the inside to give them an idea of just how big and beautiful Everglades National Park is. The guys are from Canada and enjoy freshwater fishing but where they fish the strikes are few and far apart and the water is cold so the fish are bit sluggish. We started out throwing Hook Up lures tipped with Gulp baits and Jim gets the first strike next to an island near the marina. Jim's rod takes a nice bend but the fish does not get hooked and we move on. We head up into one of the channels that intersect two flats and casting the same baits the guys start hooking ladyfish and jacks on every cast. They can't believe the action and are having a ball. Unfortunately for me I did not come to this spot looking for ladyfish and jacks but snook, redfish and tarpon. The snook are there but the guys are casting where the snook aren't. they are so excited by the jacks and ladyfish that I must throw a Hook Up lure with a Gulp shrimp to show them bigger fish are available right under there noses. First cast I hook up with a snook and hand the rod to Matthew who now wants to catch one of his own. For the next two hours the guys release four out of the six snook that hit their lures plus a few redfish. We move on and Jim hooks up with a nice redfish at the next spot and again we move on. Heading for the next spot we find at least four free floating tripletail and land two on Hook Up lures. For the next few hours the guys catch jacks, ladyfish, snapper and catfish and lose a nice blacktip shark that got away when one shark ate the bait under a CajunThunder and another ate the Cajun Thunder cutting the line. During the day we saw a lot of Bottlenose dolphins, manatees, tarpon and three crocodiles.
Day two we head inside and hit a few islands in Whitewater Bay. Matthew hooks a big fish on a Hook Up lure tipped with a Gulp jerk bait and while fighting the fish the handle on his reel breaks off. The fish is very big and at first can't find anything to break his line on but while trying to replace the handle the fish finally gets its act together and breaks Matthew off on a tree. The next island produces some jacks and two small snook. We move on and head to the Gulf. Once out in open water we see large schools of threadfin herring and I make a quick cast with my 10 foot West Coast net and fill the live well. We fish the baits under Cajun Thunders and the guys are catching only catfish but are happy with the catfish. I convince them that the spot I was headed for before we spotted the baitfish might have better fish. At this spot the baitfish schools are thicker and I think we missed the bite because the dozens of terns that are in the area are just sitting looking full. At this spot we catch a small snook and redfish and head back to the large baitfish schools in open water. Once again the guys are catching catfish along with blacktip sharks. We have about two hours left to fish and I am always looking for that pot of gold around the corner but the guys are having fun with the sharks and catfish. Another 15 minutes of nonstop action and the guys are ready to move on. We head out to a spot in open water anchor and start chumming. Almost immediately fishing live baits under a Cajun Thunder the guys start getting strong hits and by the time it was time to head in we had caught of 15 mackerel to five pounds on live baits and Rapala X Raps and lost four times that amount.
Back in Flamingo with Jerry C. and Gerald M. in Florida Bay. The front is slowly moving closer to Florida and the fish must sense it because in our first spot the water is loaded with small to medium sized tarpon and they are feeding. We rig up with Hook Up lures tipped with shrimp and jerk baits and Rapala Twitchin Raps. For the next three or more hours the guys land two redfish and one nice snook, plus lots of ladyfish and jacks and have more missed strikes then you can imagine by the tarpon and only put one in the air. We move on. We head out to the edges of Florida Bay and spot two tripletail but miss each fish. The next four spots produce a lot of jacks and bluerunners. While we are catching the jacks a few schools of permit appear but ignore our artificial lures. We get cut off by a few mackerel and decide to look for some more tripletail. On the way to the next spot I see some nervous water in front of us and as we approach the fish I can't believe my eyes. Not one but dozens of schools of permit with 20 to 50 fish in each school. The fish range in size from 15 to 40 pounds but will only chase our baits not eat them. We played with them for over an hour before catching a nice pompano on a Gulp sand flea. That one pompano came out of a school of close to 50 pompano. We did not catch a lot of fish this day but we saw more fish in one day then one might see in a lifetime. We also saw the first flock of white pelicans of the new season.
Today I am on a two boat charter out of Miami. We are to meet our guys at 7 AM and I have launched my boat at a boat ramp about five miles south of where we will meet our clients. On the way to the docks that our clients will be I sense that a school of baitfish are somewhere in the area that I am heading. I already have four dozen handpicked shrimp in my live well but live pilchards in the well will be a nice added edge on the fish. You're going to laugh at what you are about to read because my wife did when I told her that I could smell the baitfish from a distance. I could smell them. The wind was from the west northwest and somewhere in front of me was a big school of baitfish but I did not see them on my Lowrance depth recorder at first. After traveling a few more hundred yards my depth recorder lit up with baitfish markings. It was dark so I could not see them but I could hear them on the surface. One quick cast with my 10 foot cast net and I had at least three hundred pilchards in the well. We picked up our guys and headed to our first spot. I threw some live baits out for chum but only saw one explosion. A quick cast with a live bait and we got a solid hit but lost it. I think that fish was a snook but we will never know for sure. No more bites so we moved on. Our next spot is notorious for small tarpon at first light on calm mornings and that's just what we had. The tarpon were there and we put our baits out and waited. We fished live pilchards under a Cajun thunder with a #1 Mustad long shank hook to keep the barracudas from cutting our leaders and live baits free lined on Mustad circle hooks. Bill had the first strike but missed the fish. Paul got the second strike and caught a small sea trout. Paul had a vicious strike and hooked the fish. All of our jaws dropped when the 60 pound tarpon cleared the water. The guys were excited and I was worried because the fish was an 8 pound spinning tackle that was better suited for the 20 pound tarpon I was expecting. Paul fought the fish well and the fish started towing the boat south. After 30 minutes and getting the fish close the tarpon headed for the many docks in the area and then ran under one of them. I thought we were done but the homeowner was there and watching what was going on. He allowed us to get on his dock and helped us pass the rod and reel under the dock and to the clear side. The reel dipped into the water but the 8 pound line held and the fight was still on. The fish ran right down the shoreline threatening to repeat what it had done before. Forty minutes into the fight the fish ran under the 79th st. bridge and then turned and ran back under the bridge again. During all of this the fish jumped once again. At the 90 minute mark the fish ran under a dock and was so tired that we were able to pull it out and away from the dock only to have to repeat the process five or six more times only to have the fish try once more and break the thin line. Paul was disappointed and so was I but we had done what we could on the light tackle. We only had one hour left of our four hour trip so we raced back to the spot and put our baits out again. The action had slowed but we did manage to get one more strike and bill fought a nice bonnet head shark to boat side where it was released. During our long battle the other boat was able to release three tarpon in the ten to 20 pound range.
That catches us up for now!
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I have recently been wearing a lot of Columbia Sports Wear on my fishing charters and the new Blood & Guts shirts are amazing. I have had mackerel, cobia and snook just splatter me with blood and one good washing and the shirts are as good as new. Check out their web site at www.columbia.com
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Capt. Alan Sherman
"Get Em" Sportfishing Charters
www.getemsportfishing.com
Host of Florida Sportsman Radio Live/South
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786-436-2064