# Fishing report, Flamingo 3 November



## MSG (Jan 11, 2010)

Bob,

What can you share about targeting these big fish with fly gear this time of year?


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Most of our fly fishing for big tarpon up in rivers is very much like fishing salmon since we're shooting at fish holding at specific spots (we can see them either rolling or blowing up mullet) - and fishing deep... We use full intermediate lines and count them down (big, black fly with large bead chain eyes on a nine foot leader with 80lb shock tippet). This rig sinks at about one foot per second - count down to a nine or ten foot depth after casting at right angles (across the river) up-current of the fish. As the fly gets down to the depth you want strip long and very slowly allowing the fly to swing right across where the fish should be holding... I tell my anglers to keep stripping and ignore any bumps, taps, etc. A big tarpon in deep water is so powerful that they can take the fly while moving towards you so you have to keep stripping no matter what happens or the line will never come tight (once they eat they're slow to spit....). When the line comes tight you're in business.... 

In some spots we're anchored or staked up -in others we're either drifting or I'm poling us into position... By the way - this is how we work them in rivers year 'round when they're in place. We don't just sit someplace and blindly dredge for them - it's much more narrowly aimed than that.... Hope this helps...


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## sjrobin (Jul 13, 2015)

We are setting or breaking seasonal high temperatures in Texas so the tarpon in the Glades should be unusually happy.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

Bob, I've noticed over the years that migratory poons, rest up, and feed up before their journey back down to the Keys. These are fish that made their way up north, then will head back down the same path, tho some more offshore and not up top high and happy. By the fall, they are tied and wore out from the journey. However, they know where the good feeding holes and rest stops are and will pull in for a break and some food on the journey back. These can also be residential fish that come into various areas during the summer and early fall. Then group up in a common gathering spot. I haven't targeted them this year in the fall, but many years, I've caught grown poons in Sept and up until late Oct, from the Glades to Boca Grande this way.

Have you notice this your way. Have you been fishing a spot in the fall, for normal species, then several days later find a group of poons there, out of the blue?


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Tarpon, wherever you find them are pretty much temperature driven. In the fall when they disappear from the coastal areas of the 'Glades they're not far away, they've just moved offshore enough to find a bit warmer waters. When it's mild for a few days they'll come right back in. My guess is that the mechanism is simply the falling tide. If those waters are warm enough the fish will come right back in for a few days - the moment it turns cold enough they'll disappear again. We get a two week "window" of sorts -usually just before Christmas when, like magic, the big fish are up inside Whitewater and very accessible. They're only there because of the warm water. The moment temps fall again - they're gone. We think they're not far off since it only takes a day or two of warm water before the fish respond. By the way - all winter long the center of Whitewater Bay stays a degree or two warmer than the coastal waters....


On the reverse side, one hard cold night and they're just gone.... Each winter I'm completely dependent on mild weather to draw them back inside. Some years we have great inside tarpon fishing in January - other years it won't start until February, and on a cold year not until almost the last week of February just because of cold water.... Makes it tough to book a tarpon charter then since none of us control what the weather temps will be from year to year.....


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

CApt Bob, Do you think it's the same fish or do you thing it's migratory fish that pop in and then cooling or cold weather pushes that group out and they continue southward? Then, when warming temps allow it, more fish heading southward offshore will pull in, rest and feed up until the weather pushes those fish out.... Etc

I've noticed some of those fish are still bright silver in color but come up inside to feed. But there are areas where fish will hang year round, going from shallow to deep rivers when it gets cold and they will be dark gold with black backs from the tannin in the water.

Your thoughts?


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

I think a big population of fish call the 'Glades home and never go anywhere except during spawning season - then after it's over they wander back home... When it's warm enough, they're inshore when it's not they're just offshore waiting for it to warm back up. Funny thing, all the guides around Choko/EC say that migrating fish head west then up to Boca Grande while all the fish we see from Lostman's south seem to be headed south down toward Islamorada... To further complicate things, in late April a few guides I know specifically target fish that come from the west towards Middle Cape (the north entrance to Lake Ingraham then head south along the coast down to Cape Sable, then continue straight south to First National Bank and points further south. I've often wondered whether they're seeing fish that come across from the Yucatan (and I know folks down in Key West who have the same speculation....about the fish they see coming from the west towards them....

I know next to nothing about the areas from Naples north towards you and figure that there's still lots to learn about migrating tarpon... That research is one of the good things about Bonefish Tarpon, etc. They're engaged in funding that research....


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

Our fish come from down south in the spring pull in to stop, feed up and spawn. After they've spawned out towards July, some will stay and hang out and spread out up inside the bays, either the smaller ones or some really big girls will go up in the rivers. I think the mass majority will continue north up the coast and pull into various spots. During the fall from late Sept, Oct and early Nov, they make their way south.

I don't think they migrate back and forth to the Yucatan or Cuba during the winter because a few solid days to a week or so in the Keys and they come right in.. I think during the winter they hang out in the Gulfstream deep waters on the ocean side of the Keys and wait until it's warm enough to settle back into those normal late winter, early spring hang outs in the Keys. In early April from what I can see, they start their migration back up the coast.

There have been studies from offshore fishing vessels down in the Keys during the winter where they sent down delayed thermometers in the deeper cuts and areas and take temperature readings from various depths and they show a definite temperature gradient where it's warmer near the bottom, as opposed to the cooler surface temps. They also probed the bottom and found that the temps of the sea floor stay at a constant year round. So in the cold of winter, those deeper waters by radiated sea floor drawls out inshore species to get away from the cold shallow water. During those time you see deeper fish in more shallower waters. Likewise in the warmer months (but not dog day hot like July and August), you'll see the offshore fish back out to their deeper haunts and the inshore fish back in the shallows. During the real hot water (July and Aug) you see some of those shallow water fish slip out to the deep to cool off, but might be back in during the early morning to feed after a somewhat cooling night. Then back out to the deep to avoid the blaring heat from the sun.

That being said, We have winter tarpon that will stay up in the Caloosahatchee, the Peace River, Myakka and the Manatee Rivers all winter long. This also includes some of the eastern rivers of eastern Tampa Bay and the Anchlote River. I've caught big ones where they were just as gold as a gold color Johnson Spoon with jet black backs, from the tea colored stained tannin freshwater. As long as it's deep, they will go right up in pure freshwater (sweetwater) and just stay. Some will stay all year round in freshwater, while others will come back out after the winter to meet up in the normal spawning grounds in the spring. I have a suspicion that they are mostly females that do that routine.

Ted Haas


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## kenb (Aug 21, 2015)

lemaymiami said:


> Most of our fly fishing for big tarpon up in rivers is very much like fishing salmon since we're shooting at fish holding at specific spots (we can see them either rolling or blowing up mullet) - and fishing deep... We use full intermediate lines and count them down (big, black fly with large bead chain eyes on a nine foot leader with 80lb shock tippet). This rig sinks at about one foot per second - count down to a nine or ten foot depth after casting at right angles (across the river) up-current of the fish. As the fly gets down to the depth you want strip long and very slowly allowing the fly to swing right across where the fish should be holding... I tell my anglers to keep stripping and ignore any bumps, taps, etc. A big tarpon in deep water is so powerful that they can take the fly while moving towards you so you have to keep stripping no matter what happens or the line will never come tight (once they eat they're slow to spit....). When the line comes tight you're in business....
> 
> In some spots we're anchored or staked up -in others we're either drifting or I'm poling us into position... By the way - this is how we work them in rivers year 'round when they're in place. We don't just sit someplace and blindly dredge for them - it's much more narrowly aimed than that.... Hope this helps...


Great tutorial, thanks Cap!


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## MSG (Jan 11, 2010)

Thank you for the info capt Bob!!


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

... and, of course, perfect conditions (weather) perfect conditions (water temp) perfect conditions (clouds of bait along the gulf coast)... and not a booking in sight. A guide's lament..


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