FishingReports2002

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F i s h i n g R e p o r t s

J a n u a r y - D e c e m b e r 2002

JANUARY

Well the cold fronts have become a weekly tradition this past January and look like they might follow into February. It has been a mixed bag of windy days and cold fronts blowing through
from the west and north making the bonefishing very tough. With the sudden drop of five degrees in water temperature the bones retreat to the deeper flats and forage there, rather than suffer
the cold water on the shallower flats. It will take two or three days in succession to bring them back to tailing water. Watch the surface temps and get ready to fish. I have found that the
magic number seems to be 68 degrees until the bonefish will begin to migrate onto the skinny water to feed.

Young tarpon on the other hand can be found in the same cuts and channels during the cold fronts and a well placed shrimp will produce an eruption on the surface that is almost as good as
their larger fellows of spring. These young fish like to school and look for the safest hiding spots from the sharks. Fish the hollows under the mangrove shoreline and keep a sharp eye out for
snook as well. Any little creek mouth flow that is out of the normal hustle and bustle of traffic will hold fish as long as the flow is coming out of the creek and into deeper water.
The flyfishing was still worth trying if you use a fly with weighted eyes and allowed it to fall to at least three feet before starting to strip. I like to use clousers and Borski’s Fur Shrimp for
this due to the upward bent hook design of the fly and it’s sparse tie to help the sink rate. Colors we use are white and light tan, white and chartreuse and white and yellow. These colors
seam to be the best bet for the deep edges of the channel when you see mudding fish.
February will show a few more of these cold fronts and with it the blustery winds of early spring to deal with as well. Try to work a specific flat for bonefish over and over again and you
will see that there is a general set of conditions that will bring schools of fish to the flat. Wind direction, tide flow, tide time of day and of course the position of the moon. All of these factors
dictate whether you will see a few tailers or a few schools of tailers. But most importantly, be patient and enjoy the hunt, even if the score is lopsided. This is called fishing and even the very
best guides will return to the dock at times with a final score of bonefish 8 & anglers nothing, every once and a while.

FEBRUARY

Is this the effects of global warming? Are we seeing a steady rise in temperatures and a warmer, milder winter this year? Down here in South Florida it has been unseasonably warm all
winter and the fish are responding. Talking to Capt. Steve Holmes who guides in the St Augustine area I am told the same scenario exists in the north end of Florida as well. I guess it is
more a case of trends in the weather patterns rather than global warming, but all I know is the fishing conditions are much better because of it.
Miami’s Biscayne Bay has been full of tailing bonefish and should continue to get even better as the month of March approaches. Water temperatures are still in the mid-seventies and the
winds have been maintaining a somewhat easterly direction making for perfect conditions on the bay. Tagging nine bonefish while only fishing for them for five day’s in the past twenty is a
testament to the availability of working fish. The bones have been active all over the bay with the warmer temperatures, from the west bay all around the Chicken Key area south to the
north end of Key Largo. Large schools of fish are up on the flats tailing and feeding. I have been on many nice schools of fish over on the east side of the bay from Cesar’s Creek south to
Angelfish & Broad Creeks as well. With the opening of snook season this February 1st we have targeted linesiders in the bay as well. Look in the creek mouths, canal mouths and channel
entrances during an outgoing tide for the bets shots.
Winter Tarpon is in full swing from the bridges of Miami all the way over the Florida Bay and Flamingo. Whitewater Bay has been a frequent haunt for my anglers while throwing
HighRollers and Bagley’s mullet baits for the Kings. Landing two fish a day has been the average, although you need to jump another five to seven fish to keep the odds this good. Casting
poppers and shallow divers is a lot of fun for these giants, especially when they take a swing at your lure five feet away from the boat. Remember, natural colors in clean water and bright
colors in dirty water has been the measure of success on my boat this season. Throwing a fly has only been done by the die-hard anglers who can stand up to blind casting in a fifteen-knot
wind for a chance of jumping a fish up to 170 pounds. As tuff as it may sound, this has been the tactics that has landed eight fish over a hundred pounds in the last month.
Snook and redfish are all over the backcountry of Flamingo as well as the outside flats into Florida Bay. Cobia and tripletail are on the crab pot buoys and the spanish macks are in full
force. If you are planning a guided trip here in So. Florida there isn’t a better time to go than now. Tight line & quick releases.

MARCH & APRIL
April is coming and May soon to follow. This is the best time to be a Captain here in South Florida. The Tarpon will soon be off Biscayne Bay, (they are already on the outside of
Flamingo) the bones are warming up on the flats, the permit have already shown up on our flats and the list goes on & on.
The Upper Key’s are coming alive with snook as well as permit as of late. I have had great success with a new bait called High Rollers with the snook, redfish and trout this spring. I have
been using a Rip-Roller, which is surface propeller bait and have been having a ball, try them out. You can get them at Don’s Bait on US 1 in Homestead.
I have been fishing Rabbit Key Basin quite often and have found tarpon up to 170, bones on the flats and permit sunning themselves just like it was summer in two to four feet of water.
Check out my web site www.saltwater-flyfisherman.com for the latest pics of the Goliath Grouper (formally known as the Jewfish) caught on ten-pound test P-Line CX premium, and
convinced out of his hole after a twenty-minute battle by Steve Batten. Steve is the Head Coach for the girl’s softball team and Assistant Head Coach of the football team at Felix Varela
High School. Great job Steve. Of course we released the fish after making sure it was in good shape.
There is still a ban on taking the Goliath Grouper in Florida waters, but I have been catching far too many of them to feel a need for a zero bag limit. The same story is true of the gulf
fishery. Fishing the sand holes, potholes and wreaks of the gulf I have experienced the abundant numbers of Goliath’s. While snapper and cobia fishing we have found that a Goliath has
moved in to the wreak and will not allow us to boat more than four to five fish without making our snappers live-bait. Once the grouper has moved out of his hole, you cannot bring up
another fish without him jumping all over it. I think we should have a minimum size and a daily bag limit of at least one of these fish to help ease the pressure a 200-pound fish like this can
make on a small fishing spot.
This past weeks I have fished with Kevin Jenning’s from Dallas Texas for his first bonefish at 12+ pounds, caught in Biscayne Bay on live shrimp, Stephen DiBiagio from Maryland for his
first bonefish and 10+ pounds, Charlie Scandorie from New York for his first out of four that day, redfish on fly in Flamingo at 10 pounds. The real story is the Glen Gallager family. Glen,
while coaching a collage baseball team here in South Florida for the Play-off’s, had a chance to take his family fishing. Glen, his wife Gwen, and his two sons, Austin and Cameron, fished
with me in Flamingo and his youngest son, Cameron at age 9, caught a 40+ pound Sawfish on ten-pound test line P-Line. I had a shock tippet of 25lb. Seaguar Fluorocarbon on, but only
about 12 inches long, and he still got this fish to the boat. Great job Cam!!!
With the weather being warmer than normal for this time of the year, expect to find the spring quarries here and in full regalia sooner than the calendar dictates. The Tarpon will usually be
in Flamingo’s Whitewater Bay till the April run to the Keys, but this year the bite has been on & off to say the least. The slightest bit of cold front that comes thru gets them in the eating
mood, and then they disappear. Look for the bones to start moving to the south on the outside of Biscayne Bay and the permit showing up on their usual haunts. The bones will also start
to form schools with up to 20 fish pushing a big visible head wake to shoot at. Tight lines & quick releases.

APRIL & MAY

Well May is here and June, just around the corner. I have said to many of my anglers and at seminars in the past, “the fish don’t go by the calendars.” The tarpon don’t know that it is May,
and it is time to start the run south, the snook haven’t seen the news to know that it is time to come out of the backcountry and infiltrate the flats.
The Poinciana in my yard is starting to bloom at least three to four weeks early this year due to the warmer air temps and afternoon rains mother nature has been serving up. The tree, just
like the habitual fish are responding to the conditions, as should we as anglers.
Outside and inside Biscayne Bay the permit are in full force, the tarpon are running in large schools on their way south for the Keys party and the bonefish are schooling up as if it were late
May.
Brian Dolne and his dad Chris came down from Indiana to catch their first bonefish on our Biscayne Bay flats in April, and what a first fish it was for the 13 year old. Weighting in at 11+
pounds, Brian bested his dad’s catch by over three pounds, but Chris didn’t mind having an eight pounder as his first saying “as long as there are many more to come”. A quarter size crab
convinced the big bone to eat on the Cutter Bank Flat on an outgoing tide and made the a great day of Barracuda, sharks and bonefish.
The Upper Keys are seeing their fair share of the big three as well. Fishing Islamorada every chance I can get, we have seen Permit on the inside of the Downtown Flat, all the way into
Rabbit Key Basin along with the bonefish and tarpon. Just west of The World Wide Sportsman docks we found laid up tarpon along the edges of the flats just waiting for the boat traffic to
slow down later in the day to feed on our carefully placed flies. Many of the Keys guides will fish into the sunset hours to have the advantage of reduced pressure and increased feeding of
almost all the species we hunt.
GEAR CHECK
The designer of the Grasshopper Lure that I have told you about in previous print has done it again. Dave Kaiser has designed yet another jig type of bait that I am testing out this month of
May and will fill you in as soon as we can refine the lure. “It was a lure I used to fish with thirty years ago” say’s Dave, ”I kept thinking if I could only change it this, and make this longer,
it would work much better”. Well, he did, and we are catching trout and redfish with regularity. Add a few more colors, and I think we have got it. I will fill you in next month.
Tight lines & quick releases.

JUNE

June is “Grand Slam Month”
June is the best time to slam on the flats. The Tarpon are all over the inside and outside flats, Permit are here in great numbers and the bonefish are starting to school in their summer
patterns. Now is the best time to go for the big three and receive the coveted award from the IGFA. All you have to do is record your catches on film and have the paperwork from IGFA to
apply for the certificate that is a beautiful addition to anyone’s trophy wall. I will be doing another episode of Addictive Fishing this June, and will let you know when the airtime will be as
soon as I know. Wouldn’t be cool if we could slam on the show? Hopefully the winds of May will not follow me into June.
I want to talk a minute about light lining for big fish. This seams to be the craze of late to catch a huge fish on the lightest line possible, well this has its drawbacks. I have caught tarpon on a
G.Loomis seven-foot rod made for 8-15 pound test and a Shimano Stella 4000 with 12-pound test P-Line CX Premium and the fight that followed lasted up to two hours. This is a
tremendous strain on the fish. Without taking the fish out of the water for a photo, it still took a half hour to revive the fish enough to have a safe release. From know on I will only target
large tarpon with a minimum of 15 pound test. I think this is best for the fish as well as the angler. I think it is a win-win situation going to a heavier line. The fish has a better chance for
survival, the angler has more control of the fish during the fight, and the line doesn’t end up with as much twist after the fight.
When it comes to bonefishing the same is true. Last week we caught an 11-pound bone on eight-pound P-Line and fought the fish for twenty minutes before landing. Again, without taking
the fish out of the water for photos, we tried to revive the fish for almost an hour before it died. This broke my heart. I contacted Mike Larkin from the University of Miami Bonefish
Research Project to have the fish examined and hopefully not have this great quarry’s life lost in vain. I felt by using a lighter line we would have a better chance for hook-ups on the weary
bonefish but in the twelve years I have been guiding, this is the first bone I have killed. That same day upon returning home I re-spooled all of my bonefishing rods with ten-pound line.
Using the P-Line is a major advantage over other lines due to the fluorocarbon coating and it’s ability to conceal itself in the water.
With the winds of May hopefully behind us we look forward to those quiet, sun filled morning’s on our flats here in Biscayne Bay, bonefish up & tailing on the low-incoming tides, permit
in schools on the outside creek points looking for crabs and tarpon daisy chaining down the coastal flats. There are a lot of smaller resident tarpon throughout the creeks and channels of our
bay as well, just waiting for a well placed shrimp from one of my anglers to shoot skyward and show his stuff.
I hope you all are practicing catch & release whenever you can to help stop the government from imposing NO-Fish Zones in our Biscayne Bay. Please send in your opinion to the National
Park Service concerning the unwarranted proposed restrictions. I am of the opinion no-fish zones should be a last resort to a problem, not a first step, and feel they are NOT
ACCEPTABLE. Please make your opinion known to possibly sway the parks sediment. You can pick up a copy of the questioner from Dalton’s Marine in Homestead, they have incurred
the cost of having copies made to distribute to the public.
One of the way’s that would help stop our depleting fish stocks would be enforcement of the laws, limits and slot sizes already in effect. The Park Service has a system in place to monitor
the catches of anglers in the Everglades, why not Biscayne Bay? I personally have seen redfish carcasses floating by the cleaning table at Homestead Bayfront Park and at Black Point
Marina at least 33” long. WHY? No law enforcement! Every day I see fishermen at Bayfront Park over by the cannon taking 5, 6, and 7” snapper and putting them in their buckets, I see
mutton snapper carcasses floating by the docks way under the 16” slot limit from the cleaning table. There must be a step-up in presence of law enforcement personal at our docks and
cleaning tables. It seams to me this would stop a lot of fish kill all by itself without telling me I can’t go fishing in MY Biscayne Bay….. or, I can’t buy shrimp because the shrimpers
cannot fish the Bay anymore. Please let your voice be heard, remember, many of our people have died to keep the freedom to do just that.
Tight lines & quick releases…

JULY

The rainy season has come in like a lion with almost constant showers on our flats. The beginning of June saw a monsoon of bad weather keeping our water temperature in the upper
seventies to the lower eighties. This has been good for the tarpon run and the bonefish are enjoying the cooler water as well. The permit has been showing up in fairly good numbers with
the majority o them on our outside flats from Stiltsville south to Garden Cove.
The tarpon run has slowed as of late with the barometer rising and falling like it was on a roller coaster. With the southern run just about over we should start to see the northern run start as
the fish return from the Keys and go north for the summer. This year I have seen the smaller, sparsely tied flies produce a better bite than last year. The Sparky is a fly I have been getting
at Biscayne Bay Fly Shop, and have had the most consistent luck with. This is tied on a 2/0 hook with a tail of craft fur vertically striped Borski Style, and just a light palmer of hackle and
ice chenille for a collar. Colors have been all naturals, tan & olive, tan & green and tan & brown.

If permit is your targeted species for the summer like most of us flatsmen, get ready, for the game is afoot. Contrary to popular belief, the permit will eat a well-placed shrimp almost as
eagerly as a crab. While bonefishing the outside flats of Elliot Key we have had shots at permit without having the time to change baits from shrimp to a crab. The ensuing casts with
shrimp have produced a very good hook-up ratio. The distance to lead a permit is greater than the bonefish due to their fantastic eyesight. On moving fish, I tell my anglers to stay six to
eight foot in front of them and just like tarpon, directly in there path. If you are stripping your fly or live bait for that matter, dead away from your target it is almost impossible for the fish
to see your leader, this is a big advantage. It also imitates the natural action of live bait fleeing the approaching danger. I tell a lot of anglers we don’t have “attack shrimp” here in South
Florida, when they overcast the fish and draw the bait back towards him. This will almost always have an end result of a huge swirl and a head wake blasting off the flat.
The early morning and late evening snook bite is on in the bay with some very large fish being taken all along the bridges of the north bay, out to Star Island. I have been throwing the High
Roller, Rip Roller & chrome Rattle Traps for my spinning anglers, while on fly the larger the better. A bulky white or full flashabou fly has been working on fish up to twenty pounds. Fish
the structure along the lighted docks and seawalls for the best action, but hang on.
I’m sure you have seen Blair Wiggins from Addictive Fishing using the Cape Fear rods and Fin-Nor reels filled with Power-Pro line up to thirty pound test on his show, well this is the
type of fishing that demands that type of tackle. Strong powerful rods with low stretch lines are the combination that is needed to land most of these fish in the pilings and posts that make
up the structure the snook inhabit. The sensitivity of Power-Pro gives you a better hook set and the low stretch allows you to drag them out of a sure cut off around a barnacle encrusted
piling.
Tight lines & quick releases…

AUGUST

Summer is almost gone with the dog days of August here. The fishing has been very good this season in Biscayne Bay. Permit have been overrunning the flats inside and outside of the bay
with some very large fish being caught. Targeting permit on spin is a real treat; I start off at the bait shop. Rather than getting five-dozen shrimp and a couple of crabs like I do most of the
rest of the year, I order two-dozen crabs and a dozen shrimp. The first dozen of crabs should be the size of a quarter for the large bones and smaller permit, and the second dozen should be
the size of a silver dollar. The larger crabs will give you longer casts for the tailing fish and the fish over fifteen pounds will eat them up like M&M’s.
I will have two anglers set up with two different size crabs for most of the day. This gives me the option of throwing at a large fish from a distance or a school of smaller fish up close.
Chuck Cash and his fishing buddy Tracy found out that even a smaller permit would take the larger crab. Below is the evidence, a double hook-up on permit is a very exciting event. They
were only eight pounds apiece, but what a hoot.
Both Chuck & Tracy caught larger fish that day. Tracy with his eighteen pounder wearing the Gator hat, and Chuck found this fourteen-pound fish with a small crab and a great cast. These
guys were very happy anglers that day. What made this day even better was when the school of bonefish came through; Chuck made the perfect cast and came up with a nice eight-pound
fish.
Fishing with Patrick Abrunzo from the Abrunzo Golf Institute in Boca, and his associate Mark “Buck” Cangiano, Director of golf at the Ocean Breeze Golf Club, we were about to have a
real good day. The water temperature was 88.5 degrees most of the day until the afternoon rains set in. After the rains blew over and got us soaked we found the water temperature fell to 81
degrees and the bonefish loved it. Within a half hour we started seeing large schools coming up on the flats and tailing away with reckless abandon. As you can see, we took full advantage of
the situation.
The first fish caught was Buck’s first bone at 8.5 pounds on a small crab. After the photo we pushed back into the feeding frenzy and attempted the unlikely “double hook-up” maneuver.
With a little coaching and a five gallon bucket of patience, we scored this double bone with Pats fish at 9.5 pounds on the left and Buck on the right with a 9 pound fish. A double is a rare
event due to the wariness of the bonefish. To have two fish take a bait at the same time, from the same school and fight them to photo has only happened to me five times as a guide fishing
over ten years. But when the conditions are just right and the anglers follow my instructions you can have a great photo and a great story to tell of a four-bone day.

Gear Check
The gear we were using for those two days “On the Flats” with Capt. Dave was the Cape Fear ADV140-70S sticks. These rods are seven-foot, medium action rods made for 6-14 pound
test lines, matched with the Finn-Nor Mega-Lite 3000 reel filled with 10-pound test Power-Pro Braid line. The Owner 1/0 & 2/0 circle hooks worked perfectly with all of the hooks lodged
firmly in the corner of the mouth textbook style. The mono leader I will always run from the braid to the hook was 36 inches of P-Line Fluorocarbon leader material in 15-pound test. The
lighter the leader the better for the big eyed permit, but when you get into the fish 25 pounds plus and with the combination of large sea fans in the area I will go to a 20 pound Power-Pro rig
with 36” of 20 pound leader to increase the chances of a photo finish. Tight lines & quick releases.

SEPTEMBER

With all of the hurricanes around the fishing has been tough. Windy conditions make for a tactical approach to fishing the flats of Biscayne Bay, or even Flamingo for that matter. Wind
direction is as critical as tides when making an approach to a flat. Keep in mind that bonefish as well as redfish have pretty good hearing and become spooky when in shallow situations.
Always shut down long before you hit shallow water on your approach to a perspective flat. I will give at least a two hundred yard cushion when coming off plane in an area that I want to
fish. Idling in a hundred yards is ok, but keep in mind the noise you make will put the fish on alert if nothing else. This slow approach also gives you a chance to observe the flat and prepare
you anglers for the hunt.
I have seen too many fisherman run too close to a flat and then wonder why there are no fish on it, or why the fish are so spooky when they do see fish. Have you ever approached a flat
that has another boat on it and have the person polling start waving his arms? Most of the flatsmen you see on a flat will do a down sun/wind drift. Drifting with the wind and with the sun
at his back makes the visibility in front of the boat the best for sight fishing. DO NOT enter a flat downwind of someone who is already on there, you will be cutting off his drift and hence
the arm waving. Take up a position up-wind of him and start your drift to one side or the other. This will give him his room and also give you a chance to intercept fish that got by him.
Most of the time, if you watch him close, he will point out fish to his angler or even to you as he makes his way down the flat.
Fishing with a long time friend Ron Sprague from the Tampa area on my new Maverick HPX we found fish in Biscayne Bay in places I haven’t been able to fish with
my old twenty footer.

Here is a shot of Ron and his largest bonefish ever at 11.5 pounds. We also got out in Flamingo and caught snook, reds and trout the day before. The fish don’t know a hurricane is close until
the barometer starts to fall. Even with the wind blowing as it did there are little tricks to boat handling that help.
Allowing your boat to broach (drifting down wind with the boat sideways to the wind) will slow down the speed of your drift. This helps you to see the fish without running over them and
at the slower speeds you can also stop the boat for a shot without making a lot of noise and commotion. My new Mirage HPX allows me to pole up-wind to a tailing bonefish or redfish
without making a sound, yes even in a 20 knot blow, this is something new for me and my anglers love it. Having a power-Pole is also a distinct advantage; I can drop the Power-Pole and
stop the boat while still having my push pole in my hand to position my bow for the perfect angle for a presentation of a fly or a better angle to present a shrimp or crab to a fish. Little
advantages like these make a big difference when the conditions are against you.
Gear Check
My Maverick Mirage HPX is the newest advantage I have against the wary bonefish. I opted for the Vee rather than the Tunnel due to having to cross Biscayne Bay almost every day. The
ride it offers is something I can’t tell you about, you have to experience it for yourself to believe. We were throwing High Rollers (Rip-Rollers) at the snook as well as the new Mad Man
Saltwater Shrimp with great results with Cape Fear rods in the 6-12 pound class with Power-Pro 10 pound test lines. P-Line Fluorocarbon leaders of 30 pound test were a must due the
snook activity in the area blowing up schools of mullet along the drop-off of a flat into the channels.
Tight lines & quick releases.

OCTOBER

October has seen the infiltration of the bonefish returning to the Biscayne Bay area in force. With the water staying warm, an 82-degree average, the bones are feeling fall slowly coming on,
and with that warm water and the lack of a strong cold front the permit are staying around as well. I have been seeing schools of LARGE bonefish all over the bay and they have been eating
on fly as well as bait.
Fishing the Redfish Tour Event in Sarasota with my alternate angler Larry Maurer, owner of Thermal Concepts of Ft. Lauderdale, we did very well. This was the first time fishing that area
and I was amazed how many snook there are in the area, and how eager they were to assault surface baits like a High Roller-Rip Roller. We scored 22 snook during our two day pre-fish and
over a hundred trout, of course this is a redfish tournament right !!! Well we saw quite a few reds while we were slaying snook and in the spots we wanted to see them. Come tournament
day we were not surprised to find our spots void of redfish that morning. Luckily we found a school of large redfish and had to land fourteen fish to get our two under or at 27 inches for our
9th place finish with 14.58 pounds. Larry also won the raffles first place prize of a Minn-Kota Bow-Mount Trolling Motor. Not bad for his first tournament.

November should see a strong cold front or two and this will drive to jump start the fishing from Biscayne Bay all the way to the Everglades. As the water-cools off from the summers heat,
the bait runs start and all of the Flamingo species revitalize as well as the Bay’s bonefish population. Their favorite water temperatures are from 76 to 78 degrees. At 80 to 82 degrees the
fish begin to start schooling and the largest fish of the season will be seen as the water cools down to the magic numbers.
Some of our most famous tournaments will be happening this November & December. Please support these tournaments if you possibly can, they are both for a great cause and will give
you a chance to rub elbows with the very best anglers & guides we have here in South Florida.

The Mercury Cheeca Redbone Celebrity Classic will be held Nov. 8, 9 & 10 at the famous Cheeca Lodge in Islamorada. Contact Susan Ellis for info. @ 305-664-2002

The Boy Scout Backbone Celebrity Classic will be held Dec. 3rd thru the 5th. At the famous Ocean Reef Club on Key Largo. Contact Jeff Harkavy @ 954-561-8326
Gear Check
The big bone was caught on a simple clouser minnow in tan & white. An eight weight Old Florida rod with a Old Florida SA 5 reel was the rig. I have been using these Old Florida combo’s
for a while and have found them to be the very best value on the market. If you want to spend more money on you next fly rod & reel …. Buy TWO. The Redfish Tour gear was my Cape
Fear rods in 8 to 15 pound class with the Finn-Nor Mega-Lites in the 4000 size loaded with the NEW 15 pound Power-Pro line. We were throwing mostly Mad-Man Saltwater Baits with a
few High Rollers and we even went to the old trusty Johnson’s Gold Spoons. Tight lines & quick releases.

NOVEMBER

Here we go folks, the winter fishing is in full swing. The recent November cold fronts have done the trick in bringing the winter bite to a full term. Flamingo’s gulf edges are full of Mac’s,
cobia, tripletail and snapper and the flats around the inside are teaming with large trout, redfish and snook. December will bring the backcountry of the Everglades alive. Whitewater Bay
will soon be seeing the winter tarpon run and fishing the creek mouths on the northeastern shores are already producing redfish, and snook as well as a great snapper bite. The New
MadMan Saltwater Series of plastic baits are responsible for these redfish and snapper we caught in the backcountry. The shrimp pattern in clear with a chartreuse tail did the trick.

As the water in Biscayne Bay cools down you will see the bonefish begin to congregate in larger and larger schools. This is a great advantage to an angler due to the competition factor.
When presenting bait or a fly to a school of feeding fish you have a much greater chance of a hook-up. The fish are not as spooky in a school of a dozen or more and will move across a flat
in a formation like combat aircraft leaving a very noticeable head wake.

A water temp of 72 to 78 degrees is the optimum range for the bonefish, but he will feed in much cooler water, as this 11.5-pound Cutter Bank fish will attest. Jessie Karen and his dad
Harvey fished with me with the water temperature around 68 degrees and we did very well. Harvey caught his largest bone ever and had his first two bonefish day.
   Permit are still around with the majority of them on the smaller side and in definite schooling patterns. Look for them around the western banks of Biscayne Bay due to the warmer
water temperatures that are found there. The darker grass flats will hold the heat from the sun longer. Watch your surface water temperatures very closely during these winter months. If
you can find a flat that has a two to three degree temperature rise you will find bonefish and permit on it for sure.
   I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but I want to address a couple of problems I have been seeing on our Biscayne Bay flats as of late. One is the constant running (on plane) over the
grass flats. I have a Maverick HPX, and can with my trim tabs down and my Mercury 90 trimmed up, I can run in 8 inches of water without cutting the grass at all. BUT I DON’T DO
IT!!! Most of the flats boats in the 18-foot class can run in 12 to 14 inches of water but you should take the time to go around a flat as you are heading for your next spot. Our flats here
have bonefish constantly moving on and off of them throughout the tide flows as they feed. This is why a guide will fish a flat that someone has just moved off of, if he moves off slowly.
Poling to the edge of the flat and idling till you have at least two feet of water or more is the best way to ensure that the fish have not been spooked. Taking the time to move off a flat will
also ensure that you will not dig a wheel hole when you jump on plane. We all have seen these holes on our flats as well as the long wheel ditches going all the way across, these scars will
take years to recover.
   The other thing I have been seeing is the crowding of a flat. I have had a boat come down from plane two hundred yards away on my down-wind side. Most of us will do down wind
drifts as we hunt the flats if the sun angle is to our backs, and by coming in at the down-wind side of me as I drift is cutting off my fish. Andy Thompson taught me the lesson of shutting
down long before the area I want to fish as not to spook out the flat. I will come off plane and start to pole at least one hundred yards before I get to the spot I want to fish as not spook
any possible fish that might be there. Tide flow, wind direction and sun angle will dictate how to approach and the direction of drift of a boat on a flat. Consider these three things when
approach a flat that has another boat on it.
   Larger hull vessels should be aware of the flats anglers as well. When you see a flats boat in the distance it is easy to see if there is a person poling the boat. If there is someone poling,
HE IS IN SHALLOW WATER …… DO NOT APPROACH. This is the best indicator that there is a flat in the area, other than the watercolor change. The south end of Biscayne Bay is
full of flats and small channels; most of them are ok to navigate with a flats boat but not a 20-foot deep Vee hull. Please check out your chart to find your safest course.
Hoping you all have Happy Holliday’s, and a safe day on the water.

DECEMBER

Windy, windy, windy. Why won’t the weather services just tell the truth. I have read 5 to 10 knot winds over and over but when I get on the water it is a whole different story. I guess they
mean the aggregate of 5 to 10 knots, give or take 5 to 10!
Here we are in 2003 and the January forecast is looking about the same. Cold fronts with a strong to moderate wind make for an interesting day on the water. Don’t call off a day’s fishing
because of a 15 to 20 knot wind. Just remember it is just as hard for the bonefish to see you, as it is to see him. This is an advantage to the angler.

This is a 13 + pound Bonefish caught in 3 to 5 feet of water with a 20-knot wind blowing. It can be done if you know what to look for.

Last month we spoke about water temperatures and the effect it has on the bonefish feeding patterns. I have been seeing water temps in the lower sixties and even down into the upper
fifties. These temperatures make bonefishing very difficult, but not impossible. Have you ever heard of the term “deep water bonefishing”? When the surface water temperatures are in the
upper fifties to the lower sixties bonefish will tend to stay in water three to six feet deep due to the more stable temperatures. Spotting fish at this depth is a real challenge. I concentrate on
looking for mud’s put up by feeding fish, as well as ray mud’s. As a bonefish feeds he will have his head down in the grass routing out shrimp and small crabs creating small puff muds.
These muds will appear as very little spot muds and will dissipate very fast in any current situation. As a fish moves into the current he will put up a few of these puffs and let you know
his direction and how many fish by the amount of puffs.
Snook season is closed till the end of January and for a very good reason. The gathering of the largest fish I have ever seen over the past two weeks has been happening here in Biscayne Bay
as well as in Flamingo waters. The winter migration of snook finds the masses moving into the creek mouths, under the mangrove overhangs and into the backcountry of Flamingo. These
fish are looking for more stable water temperatures just like the bonefish.

Just look at me in this shot, I have two shirts and a polar fleece vest on trying to keep warm. I guess I am getting acclimated after fourteen years here in So. Florida. The air temp this day
was 62 degrees and I was freezing. But the snook were feeding in the backcountry of Flamingo. We landed six snook this day with the largest being over twenty pounds. Just slow down
you’re presentations just like you would if you were bass fishing in cold water and you will find the fish. They gotta-eat man!!!!!
The Ranger/Mercury Professional Redfish Tour will kick off its 2003 season this Jan. 11th & 12th in Titusville. Capt. Dave Baskin and myself make up the “High Rollers Professional
Redfish Tour Pro-Team” We will be fishing all six events this year being sponsored by some our very best companies, High-Rollers, MadMan Lures, TIB Bank, Mercury, Power-Pro Lines,
Cape-Fear Rods, G.Loomis, Shimano, Power-Pole & Stiffy Push Poles. All of the very best will be there looking for that first place victory. This year all of the six events will be two-day
competitions for a first prize of a Ranger Boat with Mercury Outboard, Ranger Trail Trailer and a Minn-Kota Trolling Motor, a value of $30,000.00 plus $5000.00 cash. The field is limited
to 100 teams (there are waiting lists for all six events) and there will be prize money given all the way down to 25th spot. Look for updates in next month’s column for the results.

Gear Check.
Even with the wind being up we have been able to fly fish with the help of the Pro Trim Line Tamer. This stripping bucket takes away almost all of the aggravation when trying to cast in a
wind and is a much-needed tool on my bow when there is a 15 or 20-knot wind blowing. We have been using the Old Florida Super Arbor fly reels with Old Florida’s new IM6 Graphite
Fly Rods with much the delight of my anglers. These outfits are of the highest quality you can find out there on the market period. If you feel that you need to spend more money on a rod
and reel ….Buy Two. I have just started using the new Crank-Roller from High Roller with very good results as seen in the snook shot above. This bait wags ever so slowly with a slow
retrieve and reaches depths of up to six feet. This is the pattern we found to work on big backcountry snook in cool water conditions and I am dying to try it on the Whitewater Bay Tarpon
come this February.
Tight lines and quick releases ………….

Captain Dave Sutton is sponsored by Chevrolet, Panga, Evinrude, Sea-Power, Palmas Puro Cigars, Costa Del Mar Eyewear, Power-Pro lines, Odyssey Batteries, SOL
Sunscreen, Calusa Nets, Hydro-Glow Fishing Lights, Salt Water Assassin, Rapala, Frogg-Toggs, High Rollers, Lipper Tool, Pro-Fish, Lowrance Electronics, Van Staal,
Fetha-Styx Fly Rods and is the Florida Ambassador to Lewmar Ltd. He fishes Biscayne Bay, The Upper Keys and the Everglades National Park. Captain Dave fishes a
Maverick Mirage HPX-V, and a new Panga 27LX from Panga.com; he is on the Quantum Pro-Team, and on the Pro-Staff of, Power-Pole, Stiffy Push Poles and many others.
The skipper would like to hear your fishing stories and reports for inclusion on the Chevy Florida Fishing Reports, his website and print, or to book a trip, call him at
305-248-6126 or e-mail him at djsutton@bellsouth.net.
His websites are:
WWW.SALTWATER-FLYFISHERMAN.COM
WWW.ONTHEFLATSCHARTERS.COM