This report will cover the last two weeks of October from a variety of locations.... Flamingo, Biscayne Bay, and Everglades City.
Bait is everywhere now and the fish, wherever you find them, are taking advantage of the last of our really warm weather as they prepare for the coming winter conditions. Along the gulf coast of the Everglades most of the fish are still outside where all the bait is. Bait of every size is being worked hard by lots of small ladyfish and there are some bruisers nearby looking to eat the ladies. Small to medium schools of the fall mullet run can be seen any day when the winds aren't blowing. When the winds are up you can mark the mullet by the occasional large tarpon blowing them up as they move from offshore into near shore areas. We're finding redfish, speckled trout, tarpon, snook, snapper, grouper, and a host of other species wherever the bait is. It's not uncommon to have days when we catch and release 100 to 200 fish on light spinning gear and small lures. Along the way the occasional redfish or some nice sized speckled trout get invited home for dinner if desired. Here's some pics of the action at Flamingo....
This 40lb tarpon was hooked up on a lead head with a Gulp tail and very light (10lb) line. After lots of jumps and runs the fish finally wore through the 30lb leader right at the boat....
Here's one 24" red that did come home with us...
After three or four days out of Flamingo it was time for a very short night trip in Biscayne Bay, fly fishing for tarpon and snook. We had the Bay almost to ourselves last Tuesday night, sight fishing in less than perfect conditions. We still managed to hook up with one tarpon on fly that jumped off halfway through the fight and saw fish everywhere we looked for them. There were lots of very nice slot sized snook if you knew where to look for them - but not fish that wanted much to do with our flies. Kind of frustrating to have snook after snook follow the fly to the boat without taking. I'm guessing that a few hours later on a different tide those fish would have eaten everything they saw.... Not very comforting when you only have three hours to get after them. The tides this week will be perfect for early evening snook and tarpon fishing...
On Saturday it was over to Everglades City for a bit of exploring. Just like Flamingo, lots and lots of bait everywhere with everything feeding. Most of the bait we saw was on the small side and the fish feeding on them were as well. In short order we'd caught and released flounder, trout, ladies, jacks, and the usual nuisance species - all on small artificials (mostly jigheads with soft plastic or Gulp tails). Water temps are still very high for this time of year. We found water in the 74 to 79 degree range during the day. Normally I'd expect four to five degrees cooler at the very end of October. The spots we checked should be very active as temperatures cool during the next four to six weeks. I love the Ten Thousand Islands, it's a real departure from the conditions at Flamingo - nothing like a bit of variety.
Tight Lines
Capt Bob LeMay
(954) 435-5666