Tag Archives: common snook

Fishing in Flamingo Everglades National Park, FL 7-14-13

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THE FISHING TRIP: Flats FishingCode Red Backcountry Charters
Aboard: Code Red Charters with Captain Ryan 786-505-4831
The Spot :  Flamingo Everglades National Park, FL
Weather : 10 to 15 knot winds, overcast weather, did not rain
Water: Clear water on flats, dirty water at outgoing tide
Fish catches: Redfish (Red Drum), Sea Trout, Snook, Mangrove Snapper, Lady Fish
Biggest size Type : Redfish 27″
Techniques : Artificial Lures only
Jigs : Artificial lures used were shrimp imitation and assassin sea shads that had white or chartreuse

Captain BollywoodThis weekend I had planned fishing in the Dry Tortugas on the Yankee Capts boat with Ed, a vertical jigging friend, but the trip was canceled. I then planned fishing right after a tropical storm on Newport Pier, but the storm dissipated and became rain and thunder storms. Then Ryan an old friend of mines turned Charter Captain gave me an offer I could not refuse and so I booked a trip with him and called Ed to see if he wanted to go. We met at Don’s Bait and Tackle before going to Flamingo. Ryan had all the equipment necessary for the trip including all the artificial lures we needed to use. Our target fish were Redfish   ( Red Drums), Cpatain Bollywood (Ryan) had already prepared the tackle, leaders, and lures for us and so it was a quick drop of the boat and off we went fishing for Redfish, a short 20 minute ride and we were at one of the Bights. In Flamingo Everglades National Park, Fl these are a series of natural areas that have a “c” shape formation and are located East of the main park ramp. Captain Bollywood position the boat with the current and wind and began poling in about a foot of water as we all looked for signs of redfish. A few wakes were seeing and so Ed had a first shot at them, he had a first hit as you could hear DAMN! I missed it! We then saw the fish moving fast the opposite direction. After a few more of our cursing words Ed again had another shot and this time DAMN! his line went slack and we noticed the fish cut him off. 15 pound test leaders could get cut off quickly if the fish swallows the whole lure, but you get more bites that way. Well the leader was raised to 20 I believe and so we went on to look for more redfish. In our drift direction there was another skinny water boat poling the flats so the Captain decided to go to another spot. This time he took us closer to the Bight’s mangrove tree lines as he was polling at casting a few shots of his own we spotted a snook that had no interest in being pulled by any ones line, the a few small lemon sharks passed by the boat, and then a redfish that paid no mind to anything we threw at it, even a jack crevalle passed by and had not even looked at out lures, I guess we missed sending them the invitation to come out and play with us.

We had to move and so we moved to another Bight, this time the tide was going out and the water looked a bit better since the wind had died down and we were able to see the current acting up in certain areas signaling for higher grounds. As we got closer and closer we began stalking or targets and this time there were quite a few, we missed a lonely redfish as he said good bye to us and then we fixed ourselves into a scholl that kept on going and coming. We had fresh shrimp imitation lures fresh leaders and so we got closer to the school and closer then it looked like the bell rang and all went running out of class. Ryan threw his cast, I threw my cast, we had a double! The Ed is like DAMN! I missed it! NO,Double Hookup NO, IT’S STILL ON! It now was a hell of a triple hookup! and so we reeled in our target species after a few almost tangles that didn’t happen. We took a few pics and off we went thinking of a new target, this time spotted sea trout were in the mind of the Captain. We got rid of the shrimp imitations and used some Assassin Sea Shad lures. This time the target was easily found as the Captain already had a spot he knew where they would be and we did not have to stalk them nor polling the flats was involved. We simply cast our lines and a few spotted sea trout would gladly and furiously hit our lures, it was one after another non stop action. We had fun until fun was no more, too much repetitive fishing and it gets boring. So we decided to accept the Captain’s recommendation to get out from the inshore waters and go to the inland lake for some snook or tarpons. We went 1 of 3 on the snook and 0 for 3 on the Tarpon, as we were going for those species Ed kept on hooking trout and the Captaion and I got some Lady fish which I kept for later fishing outings. It was a lot of fun fishing with the guys and was nice to do it all on artificial lures only. If you need an affordable Charter to Isla Morada or Flamingo Everglades National Park you can contact Code Red Backcountry Charters at 786-505-4831, Captain Ryan says he guarantees the target fish or you do not have to pay. The full day Charter is only $350 up to two people.

DCIM100GOPRO

Herbert and Ed with Red Drums

Ed with Sea Trout

Spotted Sea Trout

Mangrove Snapper on Artificial  Ed with snook

The Boat    in Flamingo

Jetty Fishing- Snook Madness at Juno Inlet Jetty July 7th 2013

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THE FISHING TRIP: Jetty Snook Fishing
Aboard no boat this was a shore bound tripFighting a snook at Jupiter Inlet Jetty 2
The Spot : Jupiter Inlet Jetty (AKA Juno Inlet)
Weather : 20 knot winds, Fair weather, some rain clouds
Water: Inlet water was rough, canal water started coming in around 9:30 a.m.
Fish catches: Snook
Biggest size Type : Snook around 40″
Techniques : Live and dead bait
Jigs : no jigs, artificial lures used but no success (hawk Flares and Mullet imitation lures)

I wanted to squeeze some fishing this weekend and decided to make it count so I wanted to go to Juno Pier for some snook catch and release. Rory an old fishing friend told me that the fish were not close to the beach the day before and that the inlet had been better so my wife and I decided to go to the Jupiter South Jetty. The plan was to leave at midnight for our 3 hour drive and get to Blue Heron Bridge for some bait catching and then to Loxahatchee river for some mullet. Blue heron only had small pilchards, spanish sardines, and tiny threadfin herring. Well sometimes you have to get what nature offers and so we went to the river but not a ripple in the water so no mullet to be caught. Oh well I had to go with plans of only using crabs and what ever bait I could get my hands on. I got there around 4 a.m and were greeted by some guys that were taking super morning swims and drinking a few beers. They told us “man, there ain’t nothing out there but catfish people have been using shrimp and only catching catfish and anyways the waves are coming over the jetty, almost all of it”. I thanked them for their advise and continued to unload and on our way we were. The entire jetty was wet, perhaps the rain clouds blew some heavy wind and did have a few waves come over the jetty, but that had gone past. We set up and out the crabs went. I looked for left over shrimp and clams and found a few, so I tried to secure bait with that. Around 6 a.m. came the first hit, I was hoping for a permit since it hit a crab but instead it was an almost blind pissed off snook that gave me a nice little encouraging fight. Later on a fisherman arrived at the jetty and setup camp under my rods that were on my fishing cart and lines were in the water. I paid no attention as he started to cast in between my lines, he got a nice pompano and so I thought the day would be better than expected. Then came the rest of regulars whom also setup camp under my lines. I paid no mind they were avid at casting and positioning the lines accordingly to not intrude my lines that were in the water, but looks like the first guy kind of got offended that the others setup camp right next to him and so he moved. Well,  after that pompano out came a whole bunch of palometas, mojarras, and croackers. I checked my lines and recasted or placed a new crab on my hooks. Waited and waited and BARABAMMMM!!!!! My rod is bent like it was elastic, I picked it up and had a nice fight that took me to carefully hopping on the rocks and after gaining line loosing line gaining line I was finally able to see what it was, a nice size permit. I was relieved to see it floating upside down a sign that the fight was over and then PLUP! WTF HAPPNED? I see the fish floating away with the tide. I reel in my line and what do I see? Another case of a broken hook! Yeap! Another broken hook loosing a nice fish. Kicked my self for not getting rid of those darn hooks and I swear they will be gone this week. No more cheap hooks. I had thrown away many of them but kept a few, no more. They are going in the garbage, no more fleabay hooks! Only from known sources from now on. After that we took an opportunity for a nice sunrise photo opt.

The morning vrew of Juno Inlet Jetty  Another broken hook

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Snook at Jupiter Inlet Jetty at night-Herbert Hans  Hans and Lilly Forever

As the morning came to light the Charter and party boats pass by the inlet on their way to a rough day of fishing.

Black Dog on the way out  Blue Heron on the way out

I lost two snooks to the rocks so I upped my leader to 60 pound test, that seemed to do the trick as I did not loose any more to the rocks. So off a big fellow went out to fetch me a another snook.

Rig I was using  Croacker

That big fellow swam for two hours until it got hit but the snook were just playing with it it, they would pick it up and would drop it. So out a smaller croacker went to the water, this time at 9 a.m. it got swallowed by a snook. Thanks to a kind kid that came to me and said “here mister,  catch a big snook”

Snook Jupiter Inlet

Ten Minutes had passed and my rod bends again, another nice snook, as my wife went to get my casting net I caught and released two more snooks.

Snook at Juno Inlet Jetty

Then the rest of people decided to join the fun, Fausto a nice gentleman that gave me a few croackers he caught with a cast net also joined and got a few nice snooks

Fausto's snook Juno Inlet Jetty

At 10:05 a.m came up another one of my snooks, got some pics since my wife came back and released it was.

Cudaman's Snook at Juno Inlet Jetty

At 10:26 Fausto got another one along with a crowd rant for holding the snook the way he did, but he released it quickly.

Fausto's snook 3 Juno Inlet Jetty

I kept on hooking up and releasing more then Rory passed by to say high and toss a few lures in the water. I had ran out of bait so I asked Fausto once again for a small croacker as I sent the dead croacker others were instantly hooking up with live ones. I knew I had to wait and just twich the rod every now and then to make it look somewhat live and at 10:30 a.m  out a beauty of a snook momma just made me dance hoping from rock to rock like a teenager skipping stones, she came close to a nice gap of rocks and then she would just go out again, doing so 3 or 4 times but she gave up and decided it was time to come up. As I was picking her up and unhooking her she slipped out of my hands and fell in the water but between rocks and she could not get out so I had to hop to the rocks down below to retrieve her, my wife took a quick picture from far away and off to the water momma snook went. She swam so fast that as soon as she hit the water there was no sign of her.

Fighting a snook at Jupiter Inlet Jetty  Snook jumping Juno Inlet Jetty

Herbert's Snook at Juno Inlet Jetty

It was a great day of catch and release (except the bait off course) at the Jupiter Inlet South Jetty (AKA Juno Inlet Jetty). My fingers are torn to pieces literally and my whole body hurts like I have been to the gym for hours on end. Those rocks sure made me pay a toll for not being young or better said way out of shape, but I say it again “I will start on Monday”. It was nice to see and chat with Rory, hope he makes it out again  to have some fun fishing.