October 07, 2020
By Florida Sportsman
Recent inshore fishing reports from the south region.
Latest from Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Casey with a 30" snook that got invited home for dinner.
The fish are finally getting active again. We spent a few days this past week down at Flamingo - and the fish are biting. There's so much bait along the gulf coast shorelines right now, that hungry fish can feed 24/7 when they want. The only downside so far is that the big tarpon have been a bit scarce. That should change any day now. These next three weeks are their last big feeding opportunity inshore before falling water temperatures at the end of this month will send them scooting offshore, just before Halloween.
Find a feeding station right now and every cast will be a redfish or a snook around any creek mouth along the coast. Water temperatures are still nearly as high as August with low eighties each morning, but not rising much above that given the rain/thundershowers each afternoon. I don't expect the fish on the coast to start their move inland until water temperatures begin to fall. So for now, the west coast of the Everglades is where you'll find us most days. And for those wanting to stay close to Flamingo, the fish in that area are pretty turned on as well. The other day, a quick stop at a canal mouth had my angler getting hooked up with small snook from his very first cast with a lure on light spinning gear. We lost count of how many he caught and released. It might have been as many as twenty.
Here's one that paused for a photo before going back where he came from.
At that spot, all we used were lead heads with Gulp tails. At other spots, a DOA Baitbuster was our second choice. Whether we're tossing lures with spin or plug casting gear or working the fly, I have enough rods on board to simply pick up another rod ready-to-go. My angler that day was Dave Boyden out of Maryland and I was working on his Pathfinder. As I write this, he and his buddies are down in the Keys for the rest of their expedition. Later that day, Dave hooked a nice small tarpon around 10 to 12 pounds on that same lead head/Gulp tail combination and did a great job of bringing it alongside the boat. As I reached for my camera, the fish decided to shake free and that was that. That day, we also found a few very nice tripletail that were pushing in around five feet of water against the falling tide, but we missed our shots at them. Once the crab traps are back in the water, all of our inshore tripletail will begin to move offshore a bit and once again be found hanging around those crab pot floats. But they're still to be found, right now, inshore and close by.
The fish were so hungry this past weekend, that twice a good redfish or snook never made it to the boat before a medium sized shark turned it into a meal. Mind you, all in less than three feet of water and close enough that I was reaching for the leader when things went south. Lots and lots of "hungries" right now and it will stay like this as long as conditions allow.
With good weather the next two or three weeks, it should get better and better. This weekend coming up, I'll finally be getting some fly anglers and we'll be hunting tarpon among other species. I'm looking forward to it.
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Everglades Backcountry
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
The first day after the cold front, I was fishing Mark and Lori Schweikert and we found snook, speckled trout and redfish. Enough for a double backcountry slam for each angler. We were finding mostly small fish with our lures using very light rods when Lori hooked up a really nice big snook. That fish gave us quite a time on only ten pound braid and a small, 1/8oz leadhead. The fish weighed in at ten pounds and measure 32" long.
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Flamingo Backcountry
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
We found a few small snook wherever we went. The pattern that worked the best had to be Steve's version of a Borski Slider, which got slammed by every fish he put it in front of. With two of the three species we needed to complete a backcountry slam we went looking for redfish, working up really shallow along several different shorelines. We found fish at several spots, but all of them spooked away from us until we moved out of Whitewater Bay and over to the west into Oyster Bay. The redfish there jumped on every properly presented fly - Paul with a yellow and white clouser, Steve with that Borski slider. Here's Paul's first redfish.
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Variety in Miami
Florida Sportsman member: FishFactsTV
It was an awesome day of multi-species fishing in Miami with my dad. We catch mangrove snapper, yellowjack, red hind, black grouper and trigger fish amongst others. During the day, I got this crazy looking snapper. I have posted it to a few facebook groups and everyone seems to be "sure" that its a mangrove, schoolmaster, mutton, lane, dog or schoolmaster.
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Sawfish Surprise
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
We moved to a small creek in hopes of getting into a big snook on live bait. There were no snook, but we did get a surprise. Jan hooked up a seven foot long sawfish, all while Declan was hooked up on a medium sized shark, so I was kept busy for a few minutes.
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New Flamingo Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: PoplinFabrication
The final day, we had an amazing morning with perfect weather fishing gulf beaches and river mouths with lots of the same, small redfish and snook and good sized trout. There was one good sheepshead mixed in. I lost a really nice snook that decided to bite while I had the rod between my legs, untangling my brother's bait from a downed tree. To finish the trip, we ran out to the crab buoys and got our limit of nice sized tripletail in less than an hour. I've never seen so many good sized fish out there and the calm winds made it very easy to see.
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Monster Everglades Snook
Florida Sportsman member: syxx
We finally got a good look at the beast and I won't repeat the words that came out after that, but let's just say it was exciting! The fish was wore out and we got her into the net easily. Sometimes pictures don't do a fish justice, but this thing had a huge gut and was likely the biggest one I've had landed on my boat. I estimate somewhere between 25 and 30 pounds. We snapped a few good pictures, released her healthily and she swam off just fine! What a spectacular fish. That's why I love fishing. You can be a 73 year old vet and still catch the fish of a lifetime after all those years!
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Everglades Backcountry
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
We had some pretty good fishing and clear evidence that it's just going to get better in coming weeks as we move towards Halloween. The first of the great schools of baitfish were getting torn up by small jacks, ladyfish, and small mackerel everywhere you looked in the area of Ponce de Leon Bay, just north of the Little Shark River. For now, the clouds of bait are mostly adult glass minnows, but the pilchards and other white bait won't be long to follow. We found snook, redfish, speckled trout, and good numbers of small tarpon each day in the areas we fished. Most of the snook and all of the reds were on the small side.
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Biscayne Bites
Florida Sportsman member: offshoreoffice
Tommy and I headed out of Biscayne National Park to fish with some live shrimp. We stayed covered up all day and managed some barracuda, snapper and spotted some small snook. We used small circle hooks with a 30 pound Momoi leader. I was a nice sunny day out on the water. Check out offshoreoffice's short video recap of the day.
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Tremendous Tripletail
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Local angler Doug Blinko got a really nice tripletail along the Gulf coast of the Everglades. It weighed in at exactly twelve pounds on the Boga Grip before we invited it to dinner. It was fooled by a small Gulp tail on a 1/8oz leadhead, using the lightest rod on my skiff. He hooked up inshore, in around five feet of water, and we were off to the races using light, ten pound braid. It was an outstanding catch and my biggest this year. I believe this is just the start of our summer-long inshore tripletails. When the pot markers are gone the come back inshore and hang out around any kind of structure they can find.
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Flamingo Reports
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
The trout run this spring was pretty good with fish up to and a bit over the 24" mark available almost any day, but it's over now. Thank heavens the snook and redfish have begun to take up the slack. As the stone crab season ends, crabbers have to remove their traps from the water. So there's no markers for the triples to hang around and we'll be taking advantage of that as they migrate back inshore. We got a ten pounder a few days ago in less than five feet of water. There are still lots of tarpon in every size along the Gulf coast, but any day now the big girls and their suitors will begin their spawning migration down to Islamorada or back to the north towards Boca Grande and leave our area. The signs are there. We're seeing fish beginning to daisy chain and play "follow the leader," which is a sure indicator that almost all of the big fish will be here one day, then gone the next. The good news is that every fish from 50-60 pounds and smaller will still be right where they've been and open for business. Starting about mid-summer, the big fish will begin returning to the 'Glades and keep on coming. By September we'll be in the middle of our "second season," something no tarpon angler will want to miss.
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Biscayne Nights, Everglades Days
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
At our first spot we caught and released a bunch of small trout and other species. We then moved a bit offshore while waiting for the tide to get right where the redfish were. After finding quite a few pods of permit finning out at the surface that wouldn't eat anything we tried, we gave up on them and headed back inshore. We found a big school of large black drum that looked to be 15 to 20 pounds, but spooked them before we could make a cast. After they settled down a bit we worked back in front of them and young Drew scored with a spinning rod and a small lure. Just nothing like tossing a lure into a big school of fish that were right at the surface pushing along and Drew was hooked up solid. Fifteen minutes later he had his first drum to the skiff. It weighed 14 pounds on the Boga Grip and was a real handful for a young angler.
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Results of Years Passed
Florida Sportsman member: ole_florida_mike
We're having 30-40 snook days. It has been the strongest showing of snook I've ever seen this time of year. Based on the average size of these fish I believe we can attribute this insanity to an awesome spawn two or so years ago. We're finding these fish deep in the backcountry along treelines and on the points. They're eating baitfish patterns enthusiastically, especially the #2 grey/orange Brushy Baitfish. Since the most recent cold front the mud flats in the back have presented incredible sight fishing opportunities. With high skies and lots of sunshine, the middle of the day warms these flats and provides a comfortable environment for these fish to hang out in. I like EP minnows and crabby flies on the mud as snook will take them and you're prepared for a redfish encounter. We've also been finding lots of baby tarpon way way back in the backcountry, in deep ponds. Areas we've never seen them before. String together a good stretch of warm days and the next report may very well be about the grown poons.
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Flamingo Snook and Grouper
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
On Sunday it was a repeat of Saturday with small snook hitting both topwater lures and leadheads with Gulp tails. After a bit of tarpon fishing, where small fish just ignored our offerings, we made a run to a nearby river where we found some big slot snook that just attacked any lure worked by them. There was lots of bait everywhere along the coast.
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Everglades Backcountry
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
My anglers caught and released snook, redfish, snapper, sharks, and a variety of other species. Almost all were on the small side and were caught using lead heads with Gulp tails. The highlight of the day was a few tripletail. The biggest weighed in right at 10 pounds, an outstanding catch using the lightest rod on the skiff.
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Biscayne Bones
Florida Sportsman member: Wild Bill
We decided to head west to the shoreline northwest of Mangrove Point. There we found the motherlode. Large singles were tailing in <6" of water, chasing small shrimp. At one point, they were even busting the surface. With only 30 minutes left of daylight, we made the best of the evening, landing two nice bonefish. The fights were incredible and they most certainly lived up to the rumors.
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Beach Snook Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: AlexNiles
The snook bite is absolutely on fire right now. I fished the sunset from around 7:00 to 8:15, on the bottom of an outgoing tide. I stuck to throwing small bucktails and DOA shrimp. The entire time I was there, cast after cast I had a fish on. The snook were so thick, you could walk on them. I had six in the slot, four snooklets in the 22-26ish range, and a fat 36.5" snook to wrap up the night. Unbeatable action on ten pound power pro and a light inshore rod.
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Everglades Backcountry
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
On Friday we fished out of Flamingo with visiting angler Enrique Torres and his son Eugenio, from Mexico. After a long run across the interior, we got down to business along the gulf coast near the Shark River, where it was big jacks, speckled trout and one small snook. All firsts for young Eugenio.
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Fort Lauderdale Mangrove Monster
Florida Sportsman: Regina Gallant
We made a pass near structure in about 14-17 feet of water and unbuttoned on a snook. Regina asked to do one more pass and she hooked this fish. The fish came up on top, head out of the water right next to the skiff with it's mouth wide open like a bucket and I grabbed it by the lower jaw. Everything happened so fast. The monster measured 49-inches! This fish was caught while trolling the Intracoastal canals of Fort Lauderdale. It was the bottom of outgoing tide at dusk when the fish ate a Rapala CD 14.
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South Florida Variety
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
The only good news is that snook, redfish, and speckled trout were everywhere we fished when the weather co-operated. We were able to fish from Flamingo, over to Everglades City, and even as far west as Port of the Islands
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Everglades Inshore Slam
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
That day we were working mostly small artificials on light spinning gear. Out near the coast, Randy tossed a 1/8 oz lure up against a downed tree and we were off to the races with a nice slot snook that fought all the way until I was able to grab it for a quick photo. It measured right at 30" and was Randy's first snook ever.
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Targeting Cobia from a Bird's-Eye View
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
Forum member miami mutton and his son went with some friends to target cobia and were joined by a great movie maker from @westwardmedia. They show us how drones are meant to be used... to look for fish of course!
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Family Freshwater Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: T - L U V
We haven't been able to get out much offshore, which doesn't mean we haven't been keeping the lines tight. My son and I have been hitting the sunrise canals around the house for bass and snakeheads and also a couple docklight snook in Fort Lauderdale at the end of the season.
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Biscayne nights, Everglades days
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Most of the snook and reds we found were pretty sharp and were seeing us just about when we saw them. That meant lots of missed opportunities up really shallow, but we did find a bunch of trout in a bit deeper water. We caught and released most of them, keeping three for the table. When we shifted to shorelines with a bit deeper water, both Larry and Sean hooked up with a couple of nice snook in the 22 to 24 inch range.
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Flamingo Backcountry Mixed Bag
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Winter species, mackerel, speckled trout, and gag grouper are moving inshore daily, reds and snook are moving back up inside and tarpon are here one day then gone the next. Each day now is pretty much a mixed bag. This is Riley Pevec with her first pompano, caught in Whitewater Bay on a small jig.
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Delray Beach Bass: Lake Ida
Florida Sportsman member: 23T
I launched the skiff today with my dad on Lake Ida and had some nice action on the bass using live shiners. Here's the biggest of the day.
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Success in the Everglades
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
As we poled along we began seeing a few reds and snook along a very shallow shoreline - Eric pitched his jig ahead of us and hooked up a big redfish and we were off to the races. It took us almost 15 minutes to beat the fish to where I could get a Boga Grip on it.
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Stiltsville Flats Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: Gary M
A fishing trip with Capt.Carl Ball with AWOL Fishing Charters was won in a raffle, so Saturday was the day! Tom and his 15 year old son Thomas met Capt. Ball at the ramp at Crandon Marina.
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Flamingo Action
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
I was fishing with Hector Silvera and his partner Luis on Hector's boat to show them a few spots and get them started fishing the backcountry. At dawn we made the long run across to the coast and found a few fish here and there on small lead heads with Gulp tails, catching and releasing speckled trout, ladyfish, jacks and snappers.
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Road Trip to the Glades
Florida Sportsman member: SLW Urocane
We used a combo of live shrimp under a cork, topwater, Gulp! swim baits and chunks of ladyfish. Caught 10 species throughout the weekend, including snook, redfish, trout, tarpon (small), bonnethead and blacktip sharks, ladyfish, jacks, tones of small mangos, catfish (surprise!), and sheepshead.
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Early Summer Action
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
From there we worked our way to the north towards the Harney, Broad and Rogers rivers, hoping to take advantage of the falling tide in that area. We spotted a few tripletail right at the surface but had to work to catch our first one.
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Glades Backcountry
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Now for the good news, they called me late yesterday to report that the big tarpon had showed up in good numbers. They also found big trout and snook up to 36 inches while also jumping off a tarpon well over 100 pounds, so maybe my coaching wasn't for nothing. I also got a second call yesterday that the big fish were in the center of Whitewater from another angler who battled one for 20 minutes on a lure, so it looks like we're in business finally.
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Flamingo Variety
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
We had a great advantage with the GPS trolling motor we held over the spot without anchoring, my favorite way of fishing. After setting up, we started catching our intended target, some nice sheephead.
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Flamingo Backcountry
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
On Friday in overcast conditions we did pretty well in Whitewater Bay (mostly) with good numbers of speckled trout, redfish, and one nice snook, all on very light spinning gear.
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Florida Bay Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: miami mutton
Went to Flamingo with a couple of friends, I didn't think the cobia were still around after this cold front recently and I was right, I went looking to a few wrecks and none there. I had a back up plan though, which worked out well.
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South Florida Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Down in the 'Glades we've been finding lots of small speckled trout that eat everything tossed their way each day. My last day there, last Wednesday, I quit counting when we'd caught and released over twenty at just one spot in less than 30 minutes on lures.
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Everglades Report
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
There were so many tripletail at this spot that a half dozen at a time would come up after any jig we tossed at them. My two anglers that day limited on a pair each for the table, while releasing a half dozen more on the same small lures.
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Fishing Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
There were so many tripletail at this spot that a half dozen at a time would come up after any jig we tossed at them. My two anglers that day limited on a pair each for the table, while releasing a half dozen more on the same small lures.
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September in the Glades
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Our last great catch that day was farther north where we went hunting tripletail in some pretty shallow waters. Josh got his first one and it was a dandy, weighing in at eight pounds.
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South Florida Inshore
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Daytimes are for the Everglades either out of Flamingo or Everglades City. Our most recent trip there was over on the Flamingo side for two days and the fish were biting.... I had Steve Benson, his 13 year old son Kobe, and Kobe's friend Luke aboard. These two young men are already accomplished anglers, ready to go heads up with anything we found for them.
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First Time to Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: duke6543
Within minutes of dropping the anchor it was one after another. Gulp shrimp was a good producer for trout and mangrove snapper and when the lady fish showed up and sacrificed themselves to allow us to use fresh dead bait the fishing took a turn for raising the excitement level.
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Triple the Fun in Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: flatsstalker
I got out with my friend Alex gonzalez for some triple tail action out of Flamingo and boy did we find them. Caught a nice 12 pounder, with other keepers as well.
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South Inshore Bite
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Closer to home in Biscayne Bay the night scene has been going strong with baby tarpon. Some nights we laugh since along with the babies, we've been hooking and losing much, much bigger fish. These fish are willing to eat any artificial shrimp that crosses their path while they're at the surface in the shadows under one bridge or another.
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Catching Fish, Day and Night
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
An hour later we were after big tarpon in a small river. The following pictures tell the story after we found a few big fish holding up inside a river, quietly poled near them and eased a live ladyfish over the side and allowed it to swim where they were holding.
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Fun in Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: Manbeast
Saturday was extremely windy, cloudy, and a lot of the water was blown off the flats so we didn't spend any time searching for the reds in the shallows. After having some trouble locating good water, we found a 31 inch snook and a 26 inch red to follow shortly after.
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Backcountry Success
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymimami
The last big fish that day was a solid 80 pound tarpon that picked up a bait meant for redfish in right around two feet of muddy water, gave us a few explosive jumps in a tiny creek near Lostman's river then shook the hook.
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October in the 'Glades
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymimami
Redfishing has been good most days and we usually find them with small snook. The big surprise has been the number of sawfish we've encountered while working bait for those reds.
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Flamingo Fun
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymimami
Out of Flamingo things are getting more and more active with schools of bait all along the Gulf coast that seem to be getting larger day by day. We're finding tarpon, snook, reds, trout actively feeding each day.
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Florida Sportsman member: lemaymimami
At night locally the snook and small tarpon are hungry wherever you find them. We managed to jump tarpon on both fly and spinning gear at more than one spot the one night we went after them. We also released three small snook up to almost slot size that were hanging around dock lights on the same flies and lures.
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Hot Bite in the Bay
Florida Sportsman member: Tidesright
We had to force my buddy John on the bow as he is always quick to jump on the poling platform. He got a shot and the line started to peel off the reel as the fish screamed across the flat. A couple tense moments later and Permit was in the boat!
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Summertime Flats Fishing
Florida Sportsman member: Tidesright
Onto the bonefish and permit, what many don't know is that this time of year can be epic! Early fall brings good tides and hungry fish multiple permit days are not out of the question and bonefish can be found and caught in the mix as well.
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Biscayne Reds and More
Florida Sportsman member: flatstalker
Fished the afternoon with my dad and nephew and found massive schools of snappers, snook and sheepshead. Mixed in were plenty of small tarpon which my dad jumped one on a live target sardine.
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First Time in the Glades
Florida Sportsman member: Tidesright
The best part of the day was watching Nina cast to tailing Redfish and successfully catch her first Redfish all on her own! It was truly a special moment for her and of course her grandfather was even more excited!
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Everglades Backcountry Fun
Florida Sportsman member: Lemaymiami
The fish ranged from 30 to about 80 pounds and, of course, using the lightest rod on my skiff the young man tossed a small jig, allowed it to sink, then hooked up solid on a 40 pound fish. For the next 20 minutes that young man fought that tarpon around and around with the fish doing its best to get free.
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Bones in Biscayne Bay
Florida Sportsman member: Tidesright
After some frustration with Permit and Tarpon we went off in search of Bonefish again. Missed a shot and right before we pole off three fish pop up, unable to refuse a well placed crab I was tight and the fish was off the the races. Fish was landed and released to fight another day!
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Fun in Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: Tidesright
Sunday was a friend and couple of his friends who once again never caught a redfish. Right out the gate we were casting at redfish that were pushing and tailing. Both of my buddies friends caught their first couple redfish each even doubling up at times. My buddy also got a good one on fly as well.
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Taming Tarpon in Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
These past ten days the stars in the backcountry have been tarpon of every size from 20 to 30 pounds all the way up to the big girls. We've caught and released two 100 pound fish up inside 'Glades rivers long after they should have already departed on their spawning run.
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Tiger on the Beach
Florida Sportsman member: landshark
The one thing that makes up for slow fishing is being surrounded by good friends and it makes the time we spend out on the sand enjoyable. My good friend Ben Begovic has been coming sharking with us over the last two years, but has never really put out a rod until just recently.
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Beach Bones
Florida Sportsman member: ReelDeep
Forum member
ReelDeep has been getting into a mess of fish off the Miami beaches including bonefish, snook and tarpon.
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Monster Sharks from the Beach
Florida Sportsman member: landshark
The shark made another 350 yard run this time with such an aggressive nature I began to worry this fish had just awoken and was hell bound. After about an hour of being in positions only seen in the matrix my strength was wearing thin as every muscle in my body began to convulse.
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Trout Chewing in North Biscayne Bay
Florida Sportsman member: closcab
We were using Live Target Scaled Sardine and Tsunami swim baits. We limited out fairly quickly. Although we did not hook up with any gators all the keepers were quality fish with too many to count that were let go. The trout seem very hungry and will go after anything that looks like a pilchard. The next few weeks should be great if you are looking a big gator trout.
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Day and Night Bite, Down South
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Four more times I had the leader but the fish was still way too strong. Finally Neil's rod broke at the base ferrule and it was all I could do retrieve the broken portion, which had slid down the leader to the fish. Giving it one last try I almost had the lower jaw when the fish slapped me upside the head with its tail and took off again, breaking the leader!
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Big Fish in Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: Bonesmuggler
Forum member
Bonesmuggler Got into some fish in flamingo recently and some nice ones at that, including a beautiful backcountry snook and a big tasty tripletail!
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Yo-Yo Shark Fishing from the Beach
Florida Sportsman member: Poseidon10/31
Finally got me a blacktip off south beach with the yoyo. We went 2-4 on sharks up to 100 plus pounds from 7-9am. We were kayaking blue runners out just past the sandbar. Fight time was 9 minutes and the tackle used is in the video description.
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Flamingo Reds
Florida Sportsman member: heavychevy15
The reds were everywhere in the morning and the first cast my buddy made produced a 29.5 inch red. Shortly after I got a 24inch red, so we decided to go after some snook. After a couple hours of no Snook taking our baits we went back to the flats. Found reds all over but they weren't willing to take anything we threw at them.
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Hungry Fish In The Everglades Backcountry
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Trout ate a small fly after we chummed a bit with small white baits. For about an hour every cast was a hookup or a missed opportunity. The fish were trout, mackerel, jacks, ladyfish, and some surprisingly large mangrove snapper.
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Flamingo On Fire
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Just before noon we made a shift in tactics, leaving the areas we'd been working and running a few miles north just before the high tide. Our first task was to load the well with the only bait we found, some very nice sized pilchards and small herring along a shoreline. Then shifted our tactics entirely to live chumming and working those same baits on troll-rite style rigs underneath where our chummers were getting worked over. What a difference that shift made. I'll let the pictures tell most of the story.
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Miami Backwater Bass
Florida Sportsman member: COBRA
Not to be discouraged I quickly switched areas and tried again. Still no Tarpon but we did managed a couple of Snook and some fresh water Jack Crevalle. Now the sun is higher in the sky and it's Peacock Bass time. Another short run and we we're into prime Peacock bass waters, ready for a fight. It wasn't long before the duo were hooked up to their first Peacocks Bass.
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Peacock Bass and More
Florida Sportsman member: COBRA
Speaking of lures, Terroreyz seem to be getting a lot of attention out here. Don't be surprised if while casting at some "obvious" Peacock bass spot, and you get slammed by one of the fresh water Jack Crevalle patrolling the area. It happens a lot while I'm out there with a client. The look on their faces is priceless! "salt water fish in fresh water?" is what I usually hear from them in astonishment. Anyways we took a few pictures for memories of the day. Thanks for reading our report.
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Everglades Backcountry
Florida Sportsman member: COBRA
Ok, so now we're nearing our first spot of the morning. It is a very nice point along a mangrove lined shoreline. I shut down the outboard and deploy the trolling motor to get stealthy. I hand my angler a rod with a DOA shrimp attached and tell her where to put the cast. She takes aim and fires off a 50 foot cast right on the mark. Bam! She's on her biggest Red to date. After a very touch and go battle she lands it, and it smiles all around. Most of the rest of the day we played with Trout and more Red's with a few jumped Tarpon.and a couple of Snook lost at the boat. All in all it was a very good day and I'm looking forward to many more days like it.
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Ft. Lauderdale Tarpon
Florida Sportsman member: The Lazy Marlin
Here is a a short video we just made of our first tarpon landed aboard @Thelazymarlin. No harm was done to the fish and was released to fight another day. Caught it on 15-pound mono with 80-pound leader, freelining a chunk of bonito (bimini bonito is the trick!). We are estimating this tarpon at 40 pounds. This is the first one we have landed out of about 5 that jumped off.
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Mission Accomplished : Cobia & Snook
Florida Sportsman member: Bullshark
I started off by attending a fishing seminar at White's Tackle in Stuart which was headed by the host of Reel Time Florida Sportsman George Gozdz. It got me pumped! It was a Cobia and Tarpon seminar.
So after we got our bait we hit the beach for Tarpon. We found nothing. Cobia never crossed my mind until the class but since I had a idea now how to catch them in this area we set out. That was one of the first times in my life that on the first trip of targeting a certain fish we nailed it. We went 5 for 7 on Cobia. We lost a monster that hit the rig with smaller leader but got our limit of keepers.
At this point things got crazy! First cast snook then he doubled up for 2. Then he hooked into a very large fish which was landed. We were beaming at this point at our luck. I noticed as we were leaving some very big fish cruzing the bottom of a channel. I said lets try for those thinking they were Tarpon. The first cast with my Tarpon set-up and the rod bent like it never has before then the biggest snook I've ever seen breaks out of the water. This is by far the biggest snook I've ever caught...
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South Beach Snookin'
Florida Sportsman member: Poseidon10/31
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OTE1t3GkUqI#at=59
Tried to get off the beach in my yak this morning but the surf conditions put an end to that. Instead, I soaked a couple mullet in the wash looking for snook and I was quickly rewarded. Went 1 for 2 on live mullet and called it a day. Looks like its that time of year. Fish was 39 inches with a 21 inch girth.
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Successful Trip to Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: USNavy_Angler
So this was our second trip to Flamingo. The first one we had very little luck landing fish. Given that it's a 140 mile round trip, it was tough coming home with only one Redfish landed all day.
We were dockside by 5:00 a.m. and in the water by 5:30 a.m.. Got to watch a beautiful sunrise as we planed through the channel on our way to our spot. Around 6:15 a.m. we began casting topwater lures while poling through the flat. Instantly caught and landed a Jack, and then a huge ladyfish. Things were looking up with tons of topwater activity from baitfish. Not long after those first two, I hooked and fought a large snook, but he got away. But then, wham! A red jumps out the water and swallowed by MirrOlure Topdog Jr! It measured at 29 inches and weighed 9 solid pounds! No longer then 10 minutes later my buddy fights and lands a snook like the one I lost, or maybe even the one I lost[...]
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Welcome to Jurassic Park
Florida Sportsman member: Sammy T
By now we have nicknamed this place "Jurassic Park". Again, no success and got our a$$es handed to us .
For the next week, its all I can think about. I make the arrangements to come back the following weekend with some heavier gear.
Saturday morning we strike out on the trout and make it over to Jurassic Park around 9:15. Get everything set up and couldn't get a second bait down before bait number 1 gets eaten (these things are in there thick!). Here we go again . At 1 hour we see its back and confirm it to be a sawfish.
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Reds in Paradise
Florida Sportsman member: flatsstalker
Headed to the keys on Saturday to meet up with Gil (aka Reel esc) and do some yellow tailing, but the other guys cancelled so we decided to take out his skiff and head out to fish flamingo . When we got to flamingo winds started blowing hard around 20 mph. Fished first spot but no one was home and with the winds blowing hard I decided to fish a spot that's protected, and as I expected we ended with 5 reds which 2 were keepers. Then we headed out looking to try for a quick cobia bite as all of a sudden the winds seemed to die down but no luck .
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Permit on the Flats
Florida Sportsman member: flatsstalker
Decided to do a late fishing trip with my girl and Capt.Rob aka GettingJiggy .We picked up A couple of crabs and shrimp and launched the boat in search of bonefish and permits. Rob wanted to pole some flats he had in mind and we did. 1st flat produced a very nice Cuda laying in a sand hole waiting to ambush incoming pilchards. Casted pass her with a mirrodine and saw her follow and with a fast run hit the lure and gave a screaming run. Next flat Rob decided to pole in search of permit. Soon Rob points out an incoming permit that I almost dint noticed as I was focused on another permit farther away. Casted the crab right in front of her and all of a sudden she turned grabbed the crab and we were on with an explosive run that almost spooled me[...]
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Key Biscayne Trout Bite
Florida Sportsman member: UrbanAnglerMiami
Hooked up with my buddy Rob, aka "Gettin Jiggy!" for some reds in Key Biscayne today. After Rob blacked out the well again, we headed out in search for some bulls. Rob makes catching bait look oober easy. Unfortunately, we didn't see a single one but didn't look too long before we found a new species at one of Rob's old spots. Speckled Sea Trout! Ironically, he had mentioned something about trout as I got a few nice ones the day before in BB. We rolled up on what we thought was mullet. I saw what looked like a trout's back ripping across the surface and made a long cast into the frenzy and hooked up to a 18 inch solid speck on a "chard". We started to hook up back-to-back, with a constant bite, I tie on a top water lure and the fun factor jumped up a notch or two. We quickly got our limit with 8 solid 18 inchers and we released another 7-8, 18-20 inch+. Rob decides to tie on a top water lure also and we were both like little kids, tearing it up. I lost a couple of hogs, one "gator" was pushing 30 inches. I couldn't believe it!
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Flamingo Action
Florida Sportsman member: ragsnook
[...]The weather was beautiful and the fish were hungry. We each caught a handful of redfish up to 24 inches, with Thomas catching the biggest ones. After that we caught a handful a snook and a couple of Black Drum as well. During the day I had mentioned to him that I fished the day before and had caught a bunch of sheepshead not to far from where we were and he was game to give it a try. Just like the day before the sheepshead were there and ready to eat. We caught our share of sheepshead for the rest of the day and even had a few surprise catches of a small goliath grouper and a nice size blue fish. Just another beautiful day in paradise if you ask me.
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Biscayne Bay Action
Florida Sportsman member: Gettin' Jiggy!
Fished with Joel (flatsstalker) yesterday. Started the day stalking the most elusive species on the flats, the sheepshead. Damn, those guys are spooky in shallow water. We couldn't get them to eat our shrimps. So, we moved onto some snook and found many, but didn't get the right shots on them. We had two fat snook come out from under the mangroves and nose Joel's lure, but they saw us and turned back for the bushes. Awesome sight though. That's what happens for poling too close. Joel had the hot hand with the trout and snapper after that. I moved to a little tarpon hole and we got one each[...]
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Gags, Sheepshead, Trout and Mackerel On Fire!
Florida Sportsman member: flatsstalker
Today I met up with Sean aka (Tailchaser69) and we decided to explore some spots I haven't fished for a long while. We got to the first spot and decided to fish with artificials. On the first cast we were met with a school of jacks singles and double hook ups. Suddenly we were both hooked up with blue fish and a pompano on soft plastics. The bite died for about 10 minutes and then it was on again, but this time we were on a non stop trout bite . Caught limit quickly and we decided to move on to the next spot in search of reds. On the way Sean spots a school of mackerel jumping .So we decided to hit them up and on again we were on amazing non stop bite[...]
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Backcountry Report
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
This past week it was mostly fly fishing and on Thursday and Friday I had visiting angler Jonathan Hey aboard. He was on his way down to Mexico from London and wanted his first trip to the Everglades. As anyone on the water these recent weeks can confirm, our local weather hasn't been the greatest. Lots of wind, day after day, and water temps that are moderate for a day or two then quickly drop five or six degrees in just one night. It's enough to make the fish a bit confused.... and this guide as well. Using just one rod (a lovely Sage 9wt) we worked the interior in Whitewater and Oyster Bays the first day and Jonathan got a backcountry slam of trout, redfish, and snook [...]
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Reds in the Bay
Florida Sportsman member: Gettin' Jiggy!
Today, I stuck strictly to sight fishing with Hai, aka Urban Angler Miami. We made the run out of Key Largo to the redfish grounds in Florida Bay. Hai had some good shots and landed 3 reds from 22-28". I managed to wet a line for a little bit and fooled a fat 25" red on fly from the platform. The water temp was between 67-70*F throughout the bay. Hai caught one of his reds on a skimmer jig tipped with a shrimp, and two on a gold spoon where the water was a little cloudy. We saw a lot of quality fish today, but didn't have the right shots at them. Not a whole lot of fish, but still a productive day for covering new waters[...]
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Great Day in Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: Shallow Minded 69
Went out yesterday early with a friend and his two boys as well as my own two boys for another adventure in the park. Needless to say, it was one of my best days ever. Started off at Snake Bite with over 20 Sea Trout of which we kept 6 within size limit. All other safely returned to the water, but boys had a blast with the non stop action. Then my little guy caught his biggest Red ever at over 29.5 inches. Action slowed down by 9:30 am so we decided to move closer into the flat. Picked up 3 more legal Trout and a bunch more little ones with even a Lady Fish and several Jacks showing up to the party[...]
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Florida Sportsman member: UrbanAnglerMiami
"We start to work a huge pea with live bait as the arsenal of lures came to a halt. I quickly realize the water was down a few feet combined with the cold snap that came threw, causing the bigger peas to lay near the bottom. They change their brilliant colors to a dark shade, blending almost perfectly with their environment but one tell stands out. The iconic sign of peas; their orange to red and golden flecks on the pectoral fins and tail. We got him to strike a few times but could not seal the deal. As the 6-7# pea decides he doesn't want to play with us. Doug hooks up again with a respectable male[...]"
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Florida Sportsman member: Getting' Jiggy
Got a late start with a buddy, Hai. Today's target was to find some calm, fishable waters. Trolling motor wasn't working, so I had to pole all afternoon. Basically, we were targeting reds, snook, and maybe a bonefish. Had a few shots at snook, and Hai had the hook pull on a 35 inch, plus or minus, redfish earlier on. Saw a few more reds, but didn't quite get the right shot at them. I pulled up to another spot, I spotted a nice red immediately and Hai got the right shot on this one and landed a fat 29 incher [...]
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Mullet Run Video Report
Florida Sportsman member: lunkerdog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3WPYzIZ97qs
Taking a humorous approach to producing a video to highlight the mullet run, or "happy bait", Florida Sportsman member lunkerdog shows how it's done in the Northeast. The mullet are here and you don't need a boat to get in on the action.
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First Snook!
Florida Sportsman member: dpdash
My boys have basically grown up on the forum, now they are 12 and 15. My youngest, Jack, in the last couple of months has been really into catching a snook, so much so that I've been told he HAS to catch one by his birthday, the end of October. We have gone to the beach looking for the mullet run, hit the inlet, tried some bridges but no luck. I've caught hundreds of snook down here but it has been a while since I've done much of it and I didn't really have a lot of confidence [...]
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Eight Days Fishing Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
This past week at Flamingo have seen some changes with morning water temps dropping about four degrees and tarpon finally making a good showing along the west coast of the 'Glades and up inside the rivers that drain the area. As usual the pics will tell most of the story. This is what you get if you leave the dock well before the sun is up and make the run out to the coast [...]
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Biscayne Nights
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Last night was one for the books. I met my anglers Neil Franklin and Michael Jameson at the dock on Miami Beach at 8 p.m. and we set out to fly fish nearby bridges, docklights, and other possibilities. With the high tide inside just after 9pm that night we had to hunt a bit before finding much in the way of fish and it looked like we were in for a slow night with lots of searching to find any hungry fish. Michael was looking for variety and maybe a tarpon or snook [...]
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The Flamingo Report
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Finally got back out on the water on Friday and we ran all the way across the interior to the Gulf coast before slowing down. It was high outgoing tide and that first shoreline was very active - we could see small tarpon rolling, small to medium sharks in really tight to the shoreline (in some cases so hot to feed that their backs were out of the water...). One of my anglers promptly hooked a small tarpon on a 1/8 oz. jig and we were in the thick of it [...]
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Hot Bite in Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: Brental8
We snuck out to Flamingo for Labor Day and had our hands full with a wide open snook and redfish bite. We tallied over 50 reds up to 32" and over 20 snook reaching 28". Black drum, seatrout, flounder, sheepshead, ladyfish, and a few big sharks also ate our baits, making for an unbelievable amount of action! The bite is on fire down there right now, probably due to the passing of the most recent storm.
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Life is Good in Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: scottbrown
The weather has been extremely hot but the fishing in the park has been really good with a lot of quality fish landed in the past week. The best time to focus your efforts during the late summer months is definitely early in the morning and late in the afternoons. Fish are certainly more active when water temps are cooler and will be much more open to chasing an artificial lure during these times.
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Fishin' in Flamingo
Florida Sportsman member: Miami101
The weather has been scattered rains and winds, I guess due to hurricane season. Also the bug levels are very high, and the roads are being work on which means delays once your inside the Everglades National Park (49 Miles from start to boat ramp). The water is cloudy due to the mix of fresh water into salt on the front side, and dark red tea color on the back side, and light cloudy green in some parts. The heat is pretty bad on some days, and there is a nice mix of thunder storms [...]
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Pump It Up in the South
Florida Sportsman member: Miami101
With the winds, heat, rains, and bad weather, and also finding myself much like everyone with little time to take long trips to fish, I started to explore some of the local lakes and canals. With the help of Kirk and Blake who had been fishing in this area and producing nice fish for a long time. We used my Gheenoe to get to some locations [...]
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Urban Angling
Florida Sportsman member: COBRA
Well folks, with all the bad weather we've had these past few days, the urban bite has still been very good. I had the pleasure to guide a very motivated and quick learning angler to her first "urban slam". We meet early in the a.m., to get a shot at some fresh tarpon. For strictly peacocks, you can get a later start. But if you want a slam...got to get up early [...]
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Glades Backcountry Report
Florida Sportsman member: COBRA
Boy, it's HOT out there...and I'm not just talking about the weather either. Mikey, and I fished the FFT XI tournament that was out of Flamingo yesterday. This has to be one of the most challenging tournaments we ever fish. In order to place yous have to catch and photograph all four "glam our" species in Flamingo...tarpon, snook, redfish and trout, and they all have to be big too [...]
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Beach Tarpon Success
Florida Sportsman member: reelgrimm
The tarpon have been pretty solid from Haulover to North Biscayne bay. In this video, we were targeting them on the beach. All fish in this video were sight casted.
Check out the video on YouTube.
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Flamingo Fishing Report
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Lots of rain and some wind this past week kept most off of the water. During the week we were the only boat on the water with rare exception along the Gulf coast of the Everglades. My anglers caught and released snook, redfish, trout, mackeral, cobia, flounder (and lots of other species including the usual sharks, etc) [...]
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Everglades Snookin' on Fire
Florida Sportsman member: scottbrown
I've spent the last few trips in the Everglades National Park and the action has been incredible as usual. The Snook are in their summer spawning rituals and have been absolutely ripping drag off the Shimano's. The key to catching these fish has been having the right bait and I'll give you a hint it isn't shrimp [...]
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Nighttime Snookin'
Florida Sportsman member: Double Threat
We caught 5 snook, (3 over slot and 2 under slot) last night. The bite is good right now with 12 snook to 40'' and some grouper and snapper by-catch in the last 3 trips. The bite should continue to improve during June.
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North Biscayne Bay Trout
Florida Sportsman member: NBB trout
I took my 7 year old out in North Biscayne Bay Wednesday afternoon for some trout fishing. We caught several small trout on cut bait and he landed this 24 inch gator on a live 3 inch sliver perch. That's my 7 year old running that dog.
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Biscayne Bay Permit
Florida Sportsman member: flatsranger
It was a pretty windy day but I decided to head out and hit a few of my favorite flats. I was actually fishing the south end of Biscayne Bay for bonefish near the Arsnickers. As it was so windy, I decided to stake out and cheat a little. I threw out a chum tube loaded with some crushed up shrimp from the livewell and waited for the shadows to appear. I had a couple of legitimate shots at some bones but managed to spook the first set and quickly lose a fish on the second set. Then I saw a huge bonefish (so I thought) and made the perfect cast...fish on!
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Blazzing it up!
Florida Sportsman member: mangohunter11
Been fishing when ever I have a chance off from work and mother nature. Dan and I as you read on the other report have been pushing the limits with the weather and new location to find fish. Snook and tarpon have been on the menu but I had recent chance to fish my home waters of Biscayne bay. With a window Chris and I set off on a mission for anything and everything that moved I was bound and determined of getting a bait or lure sent at it. Our long paddle and hours of standing on my kayak for what seemed miles paid off.
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Biscayne Nights
Florida Sportsman member: lemaymiami
Did more night fishing than daytime stuff these past few days. With less than perfect weather I guess we were lucky to be on the water at all... My first booking was a night trip with visiting anglers Baily Dent and Tom Hill who were looking for tarpon on fly. The way I go about chasing them we needed an outgoing tide so that meant [...]
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Epic Snookin'
Florida Sportsman member: Reef Bandit
"The snook fishing is going off", that's what my friend Manny tells me. "We're going tonight". Now I had just spent 6 hours of my life exactly one week previous to this going snook fishing with Mr. Snook himself, Dave Justice. Dave had never gone snook fishing and been completely skunked until about 2 years ago when he invited me, Mr. Snookless. You see, I have no luck at snook fishing. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm night blind [...]
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Flamingo Slob Snook
Florida Sportsman member: SaltFlyTyer
Last week we did some exploring in the backwoods of whitewater bay. After spooking 60+ redfish and a few monster snook in some 60 degree water we realized the fish weren't eating. After the sun warmed up the area I was able to manage this 38+" snook. With that we were able to catch our limit of 18-20" trout, and were able to see several sawfish which was exciting in itself [...]
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Miami Peacock Bass Report
Florida Sportsman member: COBRA
I had the pleasure of taking and old friend out for a half day of Peacock bass fishing. We've fished together before, many years ago, and picked up where we left off...in the fish. Jerry caught his fill of Peacock bass, and then some. He also landed probably one of the biggest Chiclids I've ever seen in the canals systems. Pushing 4 lbs. that one and fought like a banchee too [...]
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Everglades report, Flamingo to Everglades City
The last week of January has been a bit unusual since the mild weather has the fish in the 'Glades behaving as though it were early spring instead of mid-winter... The weather could shove us back into winter conditions but so far it's been very mild (particularly if you compare to the last three winters).
On Friday I fished Jan Maizler and his friend Don Eichin out of Flamingo. Jan was intent on lots of photos for an article he was doing for Cyberangler so my camera didn't get much action [...]
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