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

July 14, 2013 by cudamanadventures

THE FISHING TRIP: Flats Fishing
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

This 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, 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.

Reward Won Bait and Vertical Jigging 2-24-2012

February 24, 2012 by cudamanadventures

THE FISHING TRIP: February 24TH, 2012
Aboard the “REWARD WON” with Captain Wayne
The Spot :Offshore Key Biscayne, Florida
Weather: sunny, 5 to 10 knot winds then to 15 knots later in the afternoon
Seas: Calm in the morning and around 2 to 4 in the afternoon
Water: Clear in the morning and less visibility in the afternoon
Fish catches: Small Amberjack, small Almaco Jack, Mutton snapper, trigger fish, a kingfish, and bonitos in the mix
Biggest size : Type : Amberjack around 7 lbs
Technique: Jigging and fishing with live and chunk white bait and speedos
Jigs :100-300 gram; pink worked the most on this trip.

This trip was a last minute one for me as the weather cleared up for Saturday fishing. The weather has been crazy around South Florida lately. Weak cold fronts and then as hot as summer time. This seems to have shut down most of the fishing. We had the VHF running all along the trip and heard other boat’s catches and most were the same “Pretty slow day today”. Then the wind picked up just a tad bit and a report of a Blue Marling and a couple of Sailfish with some AJ’s on the mix were heard. We started jigging with only bumps and missed fish, looks like the fish wanted slower jigging this day. A small AJ was caught on jigs, then on bait a small snowy came up and was released followed by a double hitter of muttons, and a trigger fish. As the day went on a tilefish, another mutton, and a king mackerel were landed. I did not see who caught them since I was loading up on spedoos for a coming trip. The mate put out a kite to see if would change our odds but unfortunately there was nothing interested on those live baits. On the last try we hit about 4 wrecks with jig quick no catch move fast to another and had no luck. Maybe next time. The captain tried hard again for us and were back at the dock at 4:30 in the afternoon.

Her are a few pics that I took:

Reward Won Vertical Jigging Trip- Last Trip of 2011

December 30, 2011 by cudamanadventures

THE FISHING TRIP: DECEMBER 17TH, 2011
Aboard the “REWARD WON” with Captain Wayne
The Spot : Offshore Miami and Biscayne, Florida
weather : cloudy, no wind

On the way out

Seas: Flat Calm!
Water: Clear all day
Fish catches : Amberjack, ALmaco Jacks, Groupers, small Blackfin Tuna, with bonitos in the mix
Biggest size : Type : Almacojacks around 15 to 20 lbs, Red Grouper around 10lbs, small scamp and snowy
Technique : Jigging
Jigs :100-300 gram, Hammered Diamond jigs. red/white, blue, silver, pink, green, and glow worked the most.

I got to the docks a little late as the boat engine was on I though “Oh NOOOOOOO, they are leaving without me!” But they were just warming up the boat. The trip starded slowly as we were in the shallower water, the fish were not there but the captain as always found the fish , this time in over 300 feet of water. We saw some beginners today turn good jiggers and birthday boy Peter’s first offshore catch was priceless. And now, the rest of the story:

Hurricane of the Kelley Fleet in Haulover Beach, FL 4-23-11

April 23, 2011 by cudamanadventures

THE FISHING TRIP: April 23rd, 2011
Aboard the “Hurricane” with Captain
The Spot :Offshore Haulover, Florida
Weather: sunny, it was blowing hard
Seas: 5 to 7 foot seas
Water: mixed
Fish catches: Kingfish, amber jacks, bonitos
Biggest size : Type : King Fish, take a guess
Technique: Jigging and fishing kingfish jigs and whole fresh ballyhoo
Jigs :100-150 gram butter knife jig (home made); chartrusse was the color for bonitas

Had the itch to fish this morning so I decided to go to Haulover and check for any open spots on any of the boats, I needed room since I was going to jig. The Huricane had a nice spot available so I took it. I had the whole bow to my self since the seas were about 5 to 7 foot and all the tourist started a puking contest and were basically just hanging over the side were you cannot fish since the day time trips are all drift fishing.

In the way out someone caught a fish trolling, I thought it may be a dolphin so I got my bait chunk rod and headed to the stern with a ballyhoo plug. Nothing jumped, ended being a big bone head so I headed back to the bow. A few stops and jigging didn’t yield anything but a bonita. About 10 minutes before leaving time Mr. Smokie pass by saying hi to me and sang a nice song zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzznnnnnnnn So I said Aha! Nice song come on over I want to invite you to dinner, but Mr. Smokie refused and decided to sing again and again, but this time at a slower beat zzzznnnnnnnn…Well it got tired of making music and accepted my invitation to dinner. It wasn’t a super duper Smoker but Smokie was good.

The total catch for the boat was minimal. There were 2 small amberjacks, 3 bonitas, and 3 kings (I think no more than that). I got a bonita on a knife jig and a king on a red and white jig/ballyhoo combo. On the other boats they had some nice size AJ’s since they drifted closer to the wrecks and also some nice kings. They did catch more than us, but we were only about 6 to 8 people actually fishing. Here are some pics for you all to enjoy.