Flamingo continues to be the hot place this past week, with tarpon and snook leading the action. The area of choice has been along the Gulf coast north and south of the Shark River. We worked that area for three days straight tossing nothing but flies and lures at fish working the surface. Our best tarpon on fly was a solid 60lbs taken by a visitor from Luxembourg, Joe Huggard. We got to watch as the fish turned and ate the fly, then things just got better and better. There are tarpon of every size now feeding along the coast as fall appproaches. The snook are feeding at the surface as well. Our best on a topwater plug was just under 30" caught by local angler, Rick Bell. Most of the snook action has come in the mornings now as it's been pretty hot each day. As the day heats up we went deep for snook in creek mouths. At dawn those same fish are prowling the shallow shorelines nearby...
Although most of the summer we didn't have any mosquitoes, that's changed a bit. A quick getaway from the boat ramp is definitely a good idea now. The tarpon action should continue to improve for the next four weeks until that first cold night in October. The fish are feeding up now before moving back out into the Gulf as the season changes. Snook and redfish action will continue strong as well but they'll still be feeding long after the tarpon depart....
One snook on Monday was so hungry that it rolled up on a hooked fish and actually ate a small jack crevalle on a jig that was at least seven inches long. Unfortunately after a brief struggle at the boat the fish, which had completely swallowed the jack, just let go... As I released that jack I pointed him away from where the snook was. Talk about a near death experience, I wonder what the jack made of the situation...
The flies we've been using have been chewed up thoroughly. Our fly fishing has centered around two rigs, an 8wt for tossing baitfish patterns and small popping bugs around structure and a heavy rod (an 11 or 12wt) for the tarpon. Although we didn't try them there are also a lot of sharks hungry enough now to eat a fly without any teasing and they're right at the surface so you can see them coming from a long way off.... The lures we've used have been mostly either topwater (Skitterwalks and Super Spooks) or offerings for fish near the bottom, jigs and soft plastics (Exude of course...).
Tight lines Bob LeMay (