# Fishing report, Everglades-Flamingo, March 24



## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

This time of the year we should be well into our early tarpon season - the weather has had other ideas...

With a cold front coming every five to seven days March this year has been a challenge. Still, we're catching very nice trout, good sized redfish and getting shots at big snook up shallow most days. The un-settled weather has moved the animals and birds as well as the fish. A few days back we came upon a pair of bobcats running back and forth along a wild Gulf side beach for a few minutes. In all my years of running the backcountry a bobcat is rarely more than an occasional sight. I've never seen them right out in the open like this and don't expect to see such a sight ever again - my anglers that day, of course, were just fascinated so we stopped and just watched a spell... Since it was a very low tide we weren't able to get much closer than 200 to 300 yards away. Maybe that was why they seemed to ignore us entirely. A week later we poled up on at least ten small sawfish in one morning up on shallow mudflats - that's another sight that is a pretty rare proposition. A week later one of my anglers hooked a seven footer in Whitewater Bay and fought it to the boat for a careful release. Normally we never see anything other than small ones up inside... another crazy March story...

The highlight for me during this month was having Cliff Thompson aboard for two days. He's a skilled fly angler and fly tier who just happens to be in a wheelchair. Since he was my very first angler on wheels I was glad to listen to any tips he could pass on to be able to set up my skiff properly. After a bit of sorting out I had him tethered up in the bow casting platform to my bow cleat and with his brakes set we were after the fish. Here's a pic or two. 








With the weather co-operating for a change this shot was taken at about 25mph as we scooted across Whitewater Bay. Cliff was pretty much able to stay in that position most of the first day and a portion of the second day. We found lots of fish - but mostly on the small side for his flies. The tarpon we'd hoped for had disappeared the moment the water temps dropped out of their comfort zone... Here's a small redfish from his trip...









I can't wait to have him back aboard when the big tarpon are around....

These next pics pretty much show our daily routine these past few weeks, very nice sized trout, slot sized redfish were the staple fare...








































This last pic is of Brian Dowd's first snook on fly....










With high winds and cold water March has been a challenge. Once again this week the water temps are scheduled to drop and the wind will be blowing but I expect things to warm up a bit in a few days. The first week of April is less than a week away and the tarpon should flood back inside the moment the weather eases up....


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## deerfly (Mar 10, 2007)

How awesome is that being able to accommodate Cliff and his disability, throwing flies all over ENP. He had the best seat in the house up there. Jumping a tarpon or two would have been several levels over the top. I hope he has a chance to fish with you when they're more predictable over the coming months.  

Work permitting I'll be making my first pilgrimage this season to the central rivers this coming thu/sun. I hope the front and the wind has settled down by then. Might be giving you a ring to discuss the strategy...

btw - I found some material samples from your tying class at BCC, well I'm 90% sure that's where they're from. Was digging around for some other stuff this weekend and found them in a little inconspicuous bag. I couldn't believe it, took a few head scratches to figure out where they were from. One of the samples is in a resealable bag and has Mar 28, 1977 stamped on it, but that may be something I repackaged. The others are in the original plastic sleeves from the class. There's a swatch of polar bear hair and some other furry stuff I'm not sure about. One looks like black bear and another badger or something. I'll take some photo's and post them in the fly section and maybe you'll remember what they are. I'm thinking I need to incorporate the bear hair into some sort of two tone river tarpon snack for this season tho, talk about mojo...


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## Net 30 (Mar 24, 2012)

Seeing Cliff up on the bow, makes all of our excuses for not finding time to fish, pretty lame. Inspirational image! 

Well done Capt.


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