# Everglades backcountry report, 30 March



## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Time for a long overdue report. This time of year most guides are booked continuously wherever they fish down here. We started off the month looking at nice warm weather but high winds came with it (for almost two weeks) so we were hunting for sheltered spots (that might also hold fish....).... Early in the month there were very few local anglers on the water (figure they were seeing the same weather forecasts I was....) so at least the backcountry had very few anglers anywhere you looked most days. Finally with a break in the weather the big tarpon were easy to find and laid up perfectly for fly and lure anglers. All told it was pretty frustrating since everywhere we found them... they weren't eating flies at all. In fact most were spooking away just as any fly line landed nearby - long before they ever saw the fly..... On the other hand big fish in nearby rivers were eating live baits and lures just fine.... Here's a series of pics from one day on the water with local angler Andy Hessen and his two sons Chris and Brad.... Chris struck first with this nice snook on a small lure in Whitewater Bay right at dawn....

After loading a few small ladyfish in the livewell we were off to one of the many tributaries that drain from the interior of the 'Glades out into the west coast near the Shark River area, setting up in one that usually held fish..... At first we didn't see any tarpon then one or two rolled and we decided to set out a bait or two. After a few minutes I was a bit discouraged and considering re-locating when one rod went off and we were in business with Brad on the rod. That big fish fooled me since it didn't jump at first so I thought we'd tangled with a bull shark.. Finally it showed and it was much over 100lbs of big tarpon -and a real problem since it didn't jump much at all.... I was taught, years ago, that a big tarpon, smart enough not to jump - was almost impossible to beat. After almost 30 minutes on the rod Brad finally got the leader into the rodtip - but the fish was clearly a long way from being whipped.... It went on to finally wear through an 80lb leader.... That fish kept me so busy trying to keep it from getting under trees from one side of the river to the other that I was never able to manage a single photo... Since it was Brad's first tarpon he was worn out (at least for the moment...). Time to run to another river -and it was loaded with tarpon. Andy started the action hooking one of about 70lbs on a small jig (look at the pic of the snook to see what we were using....). Here's are two photos of that fish....



We went on that day to jump eight fish from 70 to well over 100lbs bringing two to the skiff on lures and three on bait. The action simply never slowed down. To add to the action we had a small goliath grouper come off the bottom right up to where we could see him attack a bait meant for a tarpon... Here's Brad ready to release the fish...


Along with tarpon, snook, and everything else going on the spring run of roe-fat speckled trout is also well underway.... Find one and you'll usually find a big enough school of fish to keep every rod in action until you've caught your limit (four per person) or gotten tired of releasing them. The very good trout fishing should remain on tap for at least the month of April -great action for all ages (and pretty good table fare as well).

I expect the tarpon fishing to actually get better in coming weeks all the way through the first two weeks in May... after that the big fish will move out on their way down to Islamorada to spawn (leaving nothing but "small tarpon" -up to 60lbs or so behind to take up the slack). All in all these next weeks will be a very good time to be on the water....

Be a hero, take a kid fishing!


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## Fish_specialist (Jan 1, 2014)

Thanks Bob-


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## iMacattack (Dec 11, 2006)

Hope to see you there Saturday!


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## Blue Zone (Oct 22, 2011)

Nice report, thanks. Any idea as to why the tarpon were fly shy?


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## Semper Fly (Jun 11, 2011)

Great report Bob ... your report forecasts potentially good fishing for the Marines coming in May.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Those laid up fish we found had just arrived (after being run out of the interior by a sudden temperature drop) and just weren't interested... I figure the combination of really clear water (although still stained dark) and their desire just to rest and warm up is what caused them to be so spooky. By the time we realized just how badly they'd respond the weather changed again (high winds) and we just weren't able to get on top of them again. I had planned for us to go down to a 10wt, with longer leaders and smaller flies but the lovely shallow laid up areas were just shut down by high winds. In contrast big fish in the rivers that drain into the Gulf are in a pretty stable environment that's not really bothered by windy conditions and when pushed out by dropping water temps, have much shorter distances to go when they return. The fact that every river has lots of baby ladyfish for forage might also be a factor contributing to our success in that area....


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## lewis_walker (May 22, 2012)

Damn it too much to process is it turkeys or tarpon and snook great report good luck
Lewis


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## Sandalous (Oct 30, 2013)

Nice report Bob. We crossed paths in northern WWB saturday morning.


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## scoutchamp (May 25, 2015)

Bob - we have a small group heading down on Sunday to camp and fish for a week. Curious to know how the bugs are at Flamingo. Your report has us all excited.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Bugs are non-existant during the daytime (as of today - but it was blowing....) I imagine that at night things do get buggy. I'll be back down there on Sunday for a nine day run. Today we jumped five tarpon from 50 up to 100lbs in a small river - one on bait, four on small lures... We ended the day with a solid bunch of big, fat trout on the same jigs the tarpon had been eating. Our biggest trout was 21.5".....


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## Viking1 (May 23, 2010)

Thanks for the report and pictures!


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## krash (Jan 9, 2007)

lemaymiami said:


> Time for a long overdue report. This time of year most guides are booked continuously wherever they fish down here. ....
> 
> Be a hero, take a kid fishing!


Nice report, with all the flowing fresh water have you noticed and differences in the park areas ?


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

This time of year I'm up inside day after day.... In that area you really won't notice any changes at all. What moves fish in the interior is water temperature mostly until the spring rains start. Once it starts raining a lot, all the baitfish except the mullet start heading for the coast (to the west) -and so do the snook, reds, trout, etc. The most notable change we're seeing at the moment are the many schools of finger mullet pushing up into Whitewater (yipee....).


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