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Capt Bob LeMay

Fishing report, Flamingo backcountry - 1 Dec

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Here's this week's report. Only the first portion is about fly fishing so you can ignore the rest.... All of our snook were caught and released on a 9wt rod using 2/0 Whitewater Clousers (my own variation of Bob Clouser's famous pattern -this one comes with a wire weedguard....)

 

 

We only fished three days last week but found fish every day despite bad weather conditions and water temperatures that went up and down like a yo-yo. Our first day had us fishing in high winds with intermittent rain. That day we were fly fishing and I had local angler Mike Shore aboard. With winds blowing at 20 and gust to 25 that day we made tracks for one of several rivers that drain from the east into Whitewater Bay. As we concentrated on points and structure it took a few spots before we hit our target -small to medium snook just looking to tag anything coming their way. Here's two pics from that day (we went on to catch and release a half dozen snook in that bad weather.... all on my version of the Clouser minnow...).
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As you can see from their dark coloration these guys had been up inside for a while... That day the warmest waters we found anywhere were barely 67 degrees.
A few days later I had local doctor Tony Muina aboard and most of our fish that day were misses but with some interesting highlights. Water temps had risen almost eight degrees in three days which made finding them a challenge. One of his first fish that day was a nice small mackeral (we're finding them up inside rivers that drain directly into the Gulf) -here's a pic. The lure shown is what we used most of that day when we weren't bait fishing.... it's a 1/4 or 1/8oz lead head with a Gulp tail and everything eats it...
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A short time later we started using live and dead bait and ran into more than one fish that just took us to the cleaners... The first was a big grouper that made it back under a tree (from the fight I'm betting it was a Goliath grouper...). Our next big fish was a hot blacktip that went at least 80lbs and almost spooled us before wearing through the heavy mono leader (we were set up for grouper and reds at the time..). Tony got to watch some serious greyhound type surface running as well as a couple of great spinning jumps before we came un-stuck.... We went through this routine on more than one occasion - telling me that we're finally moving into our cold water winter fishing along the coast....
Our final day on the water with father and son Robert and Rob Abramitis was more of the same... heavy grouper action and again a large blacktip that both just took us to school. Finally Rob got his first redfish and it was a dandy. At 28" it was just over the slot limit- here's a pic.
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We also caught and released a bunch of small speckled trout before finding a couple to bring home... here's another pic, this one is Robert...
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I'm expecting more of the same in coming weeks. We'll also be looking for the first big tarpon to come back up inside Whitewater Bay just before Christmas if the water stays on the warm side....
Be a Hero! take a kid fishing!
ps... Since it is December it's time to think about a gift certificate for your favorite angler. With a phone call you can arrange a trip with me to be taken any time in the coming year....

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Not a lot of activity here of late but I sure appreciate another fine report. Keeps the salt juices flowing.

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Glad to help... Here's a pic from the dock that I launch out of down at Flamingo. This yellow crowned night heron is there day after day (and still manages to keep just out of range of the crocodile that likes to sun on the same ramp...).

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Appreciate your heron. We have a bunch of live and laurel oaks and one big slash pine around our house, and last year we had seven active YCNHeron nests, each with two or three young-uns! Talk about a messy car!!!

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Nice report. I love the snook when they get dark like that. That tannic water sure turns them black

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When you find a bright, shiny snook way back up inside you can pretty much figure that he's a new arrival.... the reverse in true in spring when for a few days you find these really dark snook near the coast as the "break out" occurs and the inside fish leave their winter haunts and travel back outside.

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Thanks for the report. Wonder what specifically makes them turn colors

Water color/clarity. Generally, darker the water, darker the fish. Clearer the water, lighter the fish.

 

However, you can't see very far in silted water, but it scatters light well for the first few feet, and fish in this area will be very light in color.

Even in clear water, deeper water is darker, less light penetrating, so the fish can be very dark.

 

As far as I understand it, the more sunlight the fish lives in, the lighter the body color will get.

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Mike's got it right about the color of inside fish as opposed "outside" fish... Almost all of the interior waters on the saltwater side of things down there, from the pure salt into brackish and up into freshwater has a strong brown tint to it from the tannic acid leached out of the mangrove roots that line every interior shoreline. That same water will begin to color your hull over time as well. One other minor point about inside versus outside waters where I am.... it's simply that the entire area is a tropical jungle - one day a fish is on top of the food chain, then next day his name might be at the top of the daily menu. In other words with all the "hungries" of every size in that area, blending in is a great Idea for any fish if they're able to change colors in a few days... Here's a few of my favorite pics from a few of the places I run each day -today we were over at Everglades City... a few days ago it was Flamingo.

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In pic #5 I see an angler that seems to be wading. Appears to be alligator bait to me. Were you fishing for alligators?

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Yes, you do see an occasional guy wading on top of or next to oyster and shell bars... No, it's not something I'd recommend since less than a hundred feet from where he's standing we routinely hook up with big sharks (many of them bull sharks... #3 on the list of sharks that eat people world wide....) any time the water is temperate or warm. At least once a day if we're fooling with sharks we'll actually hook one too big to even slow down... I've handled them at the boat up to around ten feet long, they're very aggressive so I'm not keen on wading in any of the areas we fish in.... In a similar spot two miles to the north we had a tiger shark in the 11 foot range cruising around and under my skiff looking for something to eat. We were only in three feet of water -that's how I was able to spot him...

 

By the way, that gorgeous spot didn't survive hurricane Wilma in 2005... Here's what it looks like today....

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