Got out for a full day with Dan today it was nice weather still on the chilly side but light north breeze this morning that laid out flat by the afternoon. We had pretty high water first thing back in the everglades this morning and it was already starting to fall. Fishing was a little tough back there I thought it would be much better with the temperatures on the upswing after getting cold a few days ago. But it was really just a slow pick of fish but luckily enough for one guy. After jumping around a few times early we found a few black drum, we caught about 4 and a few snappers in one spot. After that we hit a few of the smaller creeks once the bugs died down. Nothing in the first stop, then a little snook and decent redfish off the next spot. After that we tried a few more areas, and nothing much but some schoolmaster snappers and a few catfish! Eventually we caught one more nice redfish and that was about it for back there. We made our way into the gulf to catch the end of the tide for the mackerels. Found a couple small tripletail on the way and caught them for fun. The mackerels bit pretty well it took a little bit to get them going, but we probably caught 8 or so including a couple on fly to finish the day up. So all in all not red hot but enough good fish especially for one angler! Hopefully it’ll get a little better I think i’m snook fishing tomorrow, may be tough duty but we’ll see.
Fishing Reports
1/31/17 End of January Florida Everglades Fishing Report
Got out with my dad and Stephen one of our employees at Bud n Marys today for some fun fishing. We dipped out early to try and get on some good spots for black drum in the everglades. Some of these spots are fished heavily on the right days so you gotta beat the crowds to get to them sometimes. Unfortunately today there wasn’t much happening there, we caught 1 little drum and a few catfish there and that was it. So we worked our way back into some other smaller creeks and ended up having a pretty good day. Stephen caught his largest snook to date on a live shrimp, it was up inside a little creek on the falling tide. I think it was so cold that the snook didn’t fight like he normally would have, and he could’ve likely broken us off in the structure as it was thick! A nice fish of 11 lbs or so. After that we caught another little snook there and then moved on. The next creek over we worked our way through, fishing most of the drains and good looking branches, and most areas produced at least a fish or two, and some we caught several in. It was fun fishing not a red hot bite every cast, but enough to keep you interested if you had patience. At the end of the tide we got into a short lived snook rally and caught 4 off a branch and then lost a nice big 1. We also had a tarpon come up and follow a small snook, boil and flash on him like he was gonna eat him, and then turn away. Pretty cool to see! After that we caught a few more redfish and black drum to finish the day, as well as an eel which was a surprise to see way up in the creeks. All in all a great day, I’m not booked tomorrow or Friday if anybody is looking to go, lemme know!
1/28/17 Fishing Islamorada in January
Got out with the Thompson crew some of my regulars down from the Connecticut area. They’ve always been lucky enough to catch really good fishing it seems the last several years. It cooled off a bit last night though the water was still fairly warm and lots of muddy areas still though its getting better. Winds were kicking 15-20 mph out of the north. We got out to the mackerel grounds early and had good action there. Plenty of spanish mackerel on shrimp and jigs, as well as some snappers, blue runners, and even a small gag grouper. After a couple hours of that we headed back towards the cape, not too bad of a run as we were able to go right into the sea and eventually get up near the banks for the rest of it. The cape was very busy being the weekend which is why I didn’t want to bank on the trip back there. We were able to sneak into a couple areas and caught a handful of snook, 5 or so, and a small goliath grouper. Not too bad! After that we decided to try and catch some big stuff for the last hour. The sharks were pretty active since the water was still above 70, and we also caught a larger goliath grouper about 75 lbs, and 3 lemon sharks. All in all a good day for sure, looks like we are getting some rain tomorrow and it’s suppose to be in the 50s the next 3 nights, so glad I am off tomorrow. Monday/Tuesday I’m available though will likely be taking my dad fishing one of those days… We may just have the conditions for some epic backcountry fishing for snook/reds/drum…
1/27/16 January Islamorada Fishing in the Florida Keys Report
Had a good day today it slicked off and was flat calm all day long! At least the water is still cool so it didn’t feel too hot. We pounded the spanish mackerel this morning, must’ve caught 30 or so in about 1.5 hours! It was just about every cast… After that we looked for tripletails for a little bit, but didn’t see any and decided to head inshore to fish for some bigger stuff. We checked out a couple channels looking for possible tarpon as I had heard there were a few around the day before. We didn’t see much but once I set up on the trolling motor to anchor us in place, we started marking a few on the bottom machine. After about 30 minutes we saw one roll and that confirmed it – tarpon were here! We caught two decent sized sawfish off the bottom, up to about 200 lbs each. We caught several lemon sharks up to about 100 lbs, and a few smaller blacktip sharks. After moving around and getting in front of some rolling tarpon, we got our tarpon bite and landed a nice 75 lb fish. It was a great spring-like day for the end of january! We tried an area for some trout afterwards, but all we found was catfish! The water out on the edge of the gulf looked much better then the previous couple days after that hard 45 mph blow we had early in the week. Back at it tomorrow.
1/26/17 January Backcountry Fishing Islamorada Florida
Got out with Joe and his dad today and we went and hit the gulf early. It was a little breezy out of the south on the ride out, but about 2 miles from the spot the wind suddenly laid off to nothing making for a nice morning! We had good mackerel action right off the bat and we caught plenty of them for the next couple hours. We also got a few blue runners, ladyfish, and other various things. We had a live blue runner out there for a little bit on wire line, and something crashed him hard but unfortunately cut us off way above the swivel. Later on we tried another wreck further out but the water was much muddier out there. Even though it was flat calm and should’ve been nice water, it was still very stirred up from the tremendous wind we had a few days ago. We caught a few more mackerels and jacks there, but no cobias or anything like that. We ran to the cape to try some areas for snook and redfish. The tide was coming in there and carrying the muddy water with it… we tried 4 spots and only had a couple bites in one, but unfortunately we pulled a couple snook off and that was it. I saw a few guys I know and they said the fishing was a little better early on first thing in the morning, but had shut off for them at that point too. We saw plenty of small tarpon crashing finger mullets, and tried to mess with them but no luck. We decided to put the big rods out off the beach and caught several lemon sharks up to 120 lbs. We also landed a nice tripletail of 5 lbs or so, kept him for dinner! Lastly we had something but pull us around for about 10 minutes but then swam into some rocks/structure which I had never seen before… but anyways I marked it so maybe I found myself a new hole! All in all not too bad of a day, out again tomorrow it looks like it’ll still be nice. Suppose to cool off this weekend, but now the wind forecast is much less, so maybe it’ll get cold and not blow crazy and the everglades fishing will turn back on!
