# Flamingo - First timer in my new-to-me Shadowcast



## dan_giddyup (Aug 17, 2018)

Feb 18-20
Fished out of Flamingo for what I'd say was my first time with the caveat I did a guided bait trip there ~20 years ago.
Picked up my Ankona Shadowcast 16 in Ocala and headed south with my bro in law Tony.




  








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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020







We stayed at the Travelodge in Florida City. Locked up the boat at night, fly rods and push pole in the room. No issues at all. I was surprised how big Florida City was with loads and loads of chain restaurants and retailers. Made it very easy to eat, re-supply and fuel after each day in the glades. Also made it way too easy to quickly overload on delicious Cuban food.




  








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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020








Day one we started out front in Florida Bay on a super low tide. I had taken the required boater's course but without a GPS device it was far from clear to me where the poll/troll, no wake, etc zones actually were. Kept it conservative and stuck pretty close to the main channel until we got towards some of the islands. Wind was thumping pretty good, water clarity was pretty poor. Saw some bait, some fish moving but catch for the first half of the am was just a small jack. I used to catch them growing up in the Big Bend area so it was a fun little reminder of those days.




  








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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020








Around lunchtime we decided to head to the backcountry. As a Coloradan for the past ~25 years the mangroves and dark water seemed much more true Glades to me. From the minute we dropped the skiff in the water I was insanely excited. Just beautiful and fun to imagine all that lurked beneath the darkness and in those never-ending mangroves. Long story short we got lucky pretty quickly. Overcast and even some rain during the day seemed to have the fish super happy. We proceeded to move loads of snook. Some of them were real toads!
Lots of flashy misses along with a fair amount of premature releases but we brought plenty to the boat. I fell in love with snook. We caught them on fly, soft plastics and plugs. Tony wasn't super comfy on the platform so I mainly poled and fished from the back.
He stuck a nice snook and a great little tarpon as well. Even caught a small gag grouper. Beautiful fish that reminded me of a bass with teeth.





  








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dan_giddyup


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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020


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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020








I really couldn't believe our luck on day one given that we didn't really have any idea what the hell we were doing.

When you're throwing into the lumber, hangups are inevitable. We lost count of how many times we had to go into the trees to recover a hangup.





  








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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020








One particular time the wind was blowing pretty good, my bro in law was hung up, I was reeling in my line, and we were closing fast on the trees. Long story short I was looking at a tangled bunch of deadfall sticking me in the face pretty good. At the last minute I decided water was better than wood. Bailed off the platform into the water. Thankfully only waist deep, hard bottom and no local reptilians nearby to eat my ass. Laughed it off and got back in the boat. Cell phone survived the dunk. 

Day two we met up with Capt Ryan Accursio and fished on what felt like a yacht compared to my little Ankona. We cruised out on his HB Biscayne in the darkness in search of tarpon.





  








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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020







Ryan's changing careers and becoming a game warden and we were lucky to grab what was likely one of his last official charters. He got us into rolling tarpon on a glass calm morning very quickly once the long run out was done. I hopped up from with fly rod in hand and after a handful of mediocre casts one came tight. Was still barely awake when I cleared the line and a less than 50 lber took to the sky. Holy sh*t... hadn't caught one since maybe 18 years ago in Islamorada. Fish continued to roll all around us and in hindsight I should've popped this one off instead of fighting all the way to the boat. But... I've only brought one to the boat prior so ~10-15 minutes later I got my hands on her.




  








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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020











  








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dan_giddyup


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dan_giddyup


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My bro in law was up next with a spinning rod and soft plastic and I was in the heckling seat. He hasn't sight-fished much so delicate accuracy with the bigger rod was a little challenging at first. I was calling him 'death from above' after a buddy's punk rock song about fishing topwater for bass in Missouri. The first handful of his casts landed with bomb like effect and sent the fish skedaddling.  Wasn't too long before he was hooked up and a nice fish launched 15 feet from the boat. No gill rattling at all but much more like a giant mullet leaping frozen in mid-air. Very cool to see. Fish came unbuttoned right after that. Given my heckling and the fact I had one in the boat, I told Tony to keep after it. No luck after that, wind started to come up a bit and the rolling subsided so we started chasing snook.
Fun trying to have a fly rod angler and spinner going at the same time but we managed pretty well. I got to sight cast a little wolf pack of three and coaxed one to eat. That. was. fun. Pulling them out of the lumber is a blast but getting to actually see the fish and feed it is definitely my favorite.




  








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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020











  








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dan_giddyup


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We fished a handful of other areas catching more snook, a random Spanish mackerel and some trout. Good fun and it was certainly nice to fish with a young guy who knew the area well and put us on the fish. I switched over to a spinning rod to make things easier for two of us to fish the front. Fun to hear Ryan from the platform coaxing me into fishing a topwater soft plastic. Fishing something your guide can see keeps him in the action and makes it much more fun for everybody.




  








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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020







We got off the water around 430 or so and headed straight to Robert is Here. Dayumn... an ice cold fruit smoothie really hit the spot.

Day three: We were pretty shellacked and got a little bit later start leaving the ramp around 730 or so.

Tony decided to hop on the platform in the morning and I was able to put a dozen or so snook in the boat on the fly rod. All of a sudden I feel the boat shaking a bit and I knew he was falling off the platform. I had told him at the start of the trip' "If you're gonna fall off the platform fall in the water not the boat" The pole had gotten stuck pretty good in the soft bottom after a hard push and that threw his balance off just enough. He hit the deck and ended up rolling an ankle a bit but nothing too bad. We laughed it off and he poled from the deck after that. Our day one honey hole didn't produce quite as well one day three, but we found fish in other similar looking areas. Lots of eager albeit small snook.

Did some adventuring and ventured further out making about a 30 minute run from the ramp. Didn't feel comfortable trying to replicate the tarpon run from day two with Capt Ryan so we were in snook mode for sure.

Took us a while to find fish and we definitely poled a fair amount of shoreline that seemed pretty dead at the time except for some sharks and three different sawfish.




  








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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020







We hit another spot and my bro in law was catching them cast after cast. Nothing big but still an absolute blast. Wind picked up again and I wanted to fish some good looking wood near a canal mouth. Tony ended up hooking a beast of a snook. On the first jump he was yelling "Tarpon on!" Not quite but still a really nice snook. Wind was blowing us into the trees, I was trying to reel in a line and stick the push pole to hold our position. I'd seen a similar movie on day one so made sure I stuck the pole hard first to avoid going face first into the lumber and taking another swim. Just as I got down to help with landing the fish the 30 lb shock gave way. Only fish we had cut through it and of course it was the snook of the trip. Oh well...

We fished past dark that day.




  








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dan_giddyup


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Mar 1, 2020







More snook across the bow but I really wanted to get another tarpon in the boat. We fished to the little rollers in the canal until the mosquitos were trying to carry us away. Tony moved a couple fish on a plug but no hookups. We cruised back to the ramp at a safe speed with blood suckers hitting our cheeks and eyes. Making memories is what I always say to my kids when situations are less than ideal... We made plenty on this trip.

Now I'm working out the details on how to get my skiff back to Colorado in time for carp season. But first, a quick trip Mosquito Lagoon next week!
Cheers Fellas


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## mro (Jan 24, 2018)

Cool write up


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## DBStoots (Jul 9, 2011)

dan_giddyup said:


> Feb 18-20
> Fished out of Flamingo for what I'd say was my first time with the caveat I did a guided bait trip there ~20 years ago.
> Picked up my Ankona Shadowcast 16 in Ocala and headed south with my bro in law Tony.
> 
> ...


What a great "first trip"! Thanks for the report. Ryan is an awesome guide and young man and he will make a fine FWC Officer. Hope you and your brother-in-law can come back soon!


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## fatman (Nov 23, 2012)

got-damn. Strong work!


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Great report and good timing since a week or so later and the temps dropped like a stone... We're still praying for warm weather again...


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## GaG8tor (Jul 8, 2019)

Great job. I lived in Colorado for a couple of years and loved it. If it weren’t for family back home and lack of salt in the water I’d still be out there. Safe travels and good luck with the carp.


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## GaG8tor (Jul 8, 2019)

PS. If ya need help getting that skiff back I know a guy with a pickup.


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## Drifter (Dec 13, 2018)

awesome write up. Makes me miss the glades.


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## georgiadrifter (Jan 14, 2009)

More importantly....that Cuban sammich! Soriano’s?


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## dan_giddyup (Aug 17, 2018)

georgiadrifter said:


> More importantly....that Cuban sammich! Soriano’s?


Dammit... regrettably not. Don't recall names of the places we hit but that was definitely not one of them. Duly noted for next time! thx


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## t1ightl1ines (Mar 5, 2016)

if you are going to flamingo you need to stop at Dions fried chicken. Breakfast of champions and they have rec fuel! its inside the mobile gas station after you get off the turnpike exit 1 and turn right on 344


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## yobata (Jul 14, 2015)

t1ightl1ines said:


> if you are going to flamingo you need to stop at Dions fried chicken. Breakfast of champions and they have rec fuel! its inside the mobile gas station after you get off the turnpike exit 1 and turn right on 344


There's another one in the Mobil in Islamorada


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Dion's, of course, is a big Mobil gas station that usually has a few trailer rigs there at dawn since it's the go to spot for most locals on the way down to Flamingo - on the NW corner of Palm Dr. and Krome (correct spelling...)Ave. Here's the correct address for all of you gps guys...
16 N. Krome Ave, Florida City, 33034

Me, I love fried chicken but my stomach.... not so much.


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## Ricky Wolbert (Oct 27, 2019)

dan_giddyup said:


> Feb 18-20
> Fished out of Flamingo for what I'd say was my first time with the caveat I did a guided bait trip there ~20 years ago.
> Picked up my Ankona Shadowcast 16 in Ocala and headed south with my bro in law Tony.
> 
> ...


Nice report , sounds like u did good slimming your new skiff


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