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TALL TAILS FISHINGWeekly Fishing Report |
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Tall Tails Fishing Report |
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Everglades National Park 12-22-05 The Everglades National Park opened the back country ramp at Flamingo last Sunday. The back country ramp accesses Whitewater Bay and its adjacent bays as well as the west coast via Shark River. The front side ramp accessing Florida Bay is still closed. I’m not sure why but have heard a rumor that the park believes the marina must be dredged before they can open the front ramp. If you launch from Flamingo please keep a sharp eye out for debris. The debris is scattered around and some of it is difficult to see until your right on it. The fishing in the back country was pretty good despite a nasty day of wind, clouds and cool temperatures. We fished shallow bays in and around the southeast quarter of Whitewater bay and ended the day with 8-10 snook in the 18-23 inch range and 6 reds in the 20-24 inch range. That’s it for now. Have a Happy Holiday and good fishing. EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK 12/07/05 I FINALLY MADE THE TRIP TO FLAMINGO ACROSS FLORIDA BAY FROM ISLAMORADA. THE PIPE CHANNELS I USED TO NAVIGATE ACROSS WERE INTACT AND DIDN’T TAKE ANY GUESS WORK. MOST OF THE ISLANDS IN FLORIDA BAY AND AROUND FLAMINGO SEEM TO HAVE WEATHERED THE STORMS O.K. SUFFERING ONLY MINOR DAMAGE. THERE IS DEBRIS IN MOST OF THE SHALLOW AREAS AND I SUSPECT IN THE DEEPER SECTIONS AS WELL. MOST OF THE DEBRIS IS TREE BRANCHES AND IN A FEW INSTANCES, ENTIRE TREES. MY ADVICE IS TO VENTURE OVER ON A LOW TIDE SO THE DEBRIS IS EXPOSED AND YOU CAN GET A MENTAL PICTURE OF WERE STUFF IS FOR RUNNING AROUND ON HIGH TIDE. I DID VENTURE OVER TO THE COAST USING LAKE INGRAM. LAKE INGRAM IS PASSABLE BUT SOME CAUTION IS NECESSARY. SOME OF THE PIPE MARKERS ARE MISSING IN THE MIDDLE SECTION AND THE CHANNEL TAKES SOME GUESS WORK. ADDING TO THE DIFFICULTY IS THE DEBRIS IN THE MIDDLE SECTION. YOU’LL HAVE TO HAVE ONE EYE ON THE CHANNEL AND THE OTHER ON THE DEBRIS FIELD. SOME OF THE DEBRIS IS SUBSTANTIAL AND IF STRUCK WILL CAUSE SERIOUS DAMAGE. THE BEACHES LOOK O.K. FOR THE MOST PART; IT DOESN’T LOOK LIKE ANY SIGNIFICANT BEACH EROSION TOOK PLACE ALTHOUGH I’M SURE EROSION OCCURRED. IT WASN’T UNTIL I GOT NORTH OF NORTHWEST CAPE THAT I NOTICED MAJOR STORM DAMAGE. THE MANGROVE FORREST ALONG THE COAST IS DEFOLIATED AND DEBRIS IS SCATTERED FOR SEVERAL HUNDRED YARDS OFF THE SHORE LINE. COASTAL EROSION WAS SUBSTANTIAL IN THIS AREA PARTICULARLY NORTH OF TYLER RIVES AND SOUTH OF THE SOUTH POINT OF BIG SABLE. THE WATER ON THE COAST LOOKED PRETTY GOOD BUT ONCE I VENTURED INTO THE CREEKS THE WATER WAS VERY MURKY WITH LITTLE SIGNS OF ANY GAME FISH. SOME OF YOUR OLD FISHING SPOTS MAY NO LONGER EXIST, HOWEVER, SOME NEW ONES ARE PROBABLY AWAITING YOUR DISCOVERY. AS FOR OUR FISHING DAY, SLOW IS THE WORD. WE DIDN’T CATCH MUCH IN THE WAY OF GLAMOUR FISH IN THE EAST CAPE AREA OR ALONG THE COAST. WE DID FIND PLENTY OF TROUT, JACKS AND LADY FISH IN THE CHANNELS BY FLAMINGO. IF YOU DO MAKE THE TRIP ACROSS REMEMBER THAT THE FLAMINGO MARINA IS CLOSED SO YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO RE-FUEL AND USE THE FACILITIES. I WOULD SUGGEST GOING ON A LOW TIDE SO YOU CAN SEE THE DEBRIS CLEARLY AND GET A NEW MENTAL PICTURE OF WERE THE HAZARDS ARE. HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON AND GOOD FISHING. EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK AND BISCAYNE BAY NATIONAL PARK 11/30/05 FLAMINGO HAS BEEN HAMMERED THIS SEASON BY TWO HURRICANES. HURRICANE KATRINA AND HURRICANE WILMA. THE MAIN ROAD ALL THE WAY DOWN TO FLAMINGO IS STILL CLOSED AS OF 11-30-05. THAT OF COURSE MEANS THAT IF YOU WANT TO FISH THE FLAMINGO AREA YOU HAVE TO LAUNCH FROM THE KEYS AND RIDE ACROSS FLORIDA BAY. THE VISITOR'S CENTER TO THE PARK IS OPEN AND YOU CAN DRIVE DOWN THE MAIN ROAD AS FAR AS MAHOGANY HAMMOCK. THE LATEST WORD FROM THE PARK IS THAT THE RAMPS MAY BE RE-OPENED AFTER THE HOLIDAYS WITH A SLIGHT CHANCE THAT THEY WILL BE OPEN IN LATE DECEMBER. THE FISHING REPORTS FOR THE FLAMINGO AREA HAVE BEEN MODERATE TO POOR. THE HURRICANES COUPLED WITH SOME COLD FRONTS WHICH BROUGHT STRONG WEST WINDS HAVE KEPT THE WATERS TURNED UP AND THE FISHING TOUGH. I HAVE YET TO MAKE THE TRIP ACROSS FLORIDA BAY INSTEAD I HAVE BEEN FISHING BISCAYNE BAY FOR BONEFISH. THE BONEFISHING HAS BEEN FAIR. THERE HAS BEEN PLENTY OF BONES AROUND BUT COOL WATER TEMPS COMBINED WITH ADDITIONAL FISHING PRESSURE CREATED BY FLAMINGO'S CLOSURE HAS MADE THE FISH MORE WEARY THAN NORMAL. THE END OF HURRICANE SEASON IS HERE AND THE FISHING WILL PICK UP AS CONDITIONS STABILIZE AND THE WINTER PATTERNS TAKE ROOT. GOOD LUCK AND GOOD FISHING. SEAHUNTER NEWS. IT IS WITH SOME SADNESS THAT I REPORT THAT CAPTAIN GREG LYNCH HAS MOVED AND IS NO LONGER WITH SEAHUNTER. GREG HAS RELOCATED TO THE LOWER KEYS AND IS GUIDING AGAIN. IF YOU WANT A GREAT FISHING EXPERIENCE IN THE LOWER KEYS GIVE GREG A SHOUT. I HAVE FISHED THE LOWER KEYS WITH GREG FOR YEARS AND AM ALWAYS EXCITED TO GET AN INVITE FROM GREG TO FISH THE LOWER KEYS. PERMIT HEAVEN IS THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO MIND. GREG'S CELL NUMBER IS 305-807-0619. Everglades National Park Capt. Tony Traad August 2005 Everglade National Park in August is hot and buggy, but, if your serious about your fishing and like a lot of action don’t let the bugs and heat stop you because the fishing is great. The bugs are usually only encountered in the early morning or late evening at the dock and once you make your way out onto the water you are usually bug free unless you are brave enough to venture into a creek. As the day progresses the bug activity quickly drops off. Most of the fishing this time of year is out on the open waters or flats of Florida Bay away from the treat of bugs. As for the heat, my typical charter starts early around 6:00 or 6:30 AM and ends at 2:00 or 2:30PM. This gets us on and off the water before the peak heat periods and prior to the thunderstorms which are typical this time of year. The flats in Florida Bay in August provide plenty of sight casting opportunities. Redfish, snook and black drum are the main targets with small to medium tarpon available on the higher stages of the tide. Tarpon will also congregate around the island and mainland points on the lower stages of the tides. Artificial lures work well this time of year and I rarely find a need for live bait in August. The channels hold plenty of trout, jacks and lady fish during the slower periods of the tide. The islands of Florida Bay are always a good option this time of year. A run and gun approach can be used around the hundreds of islands in Florida Bay. Most of these islands usually have a trough around them that the fish use to travel in. If you pick an island that doesn’t seem to have a lot of bait or activity around it, pick up and move to another and keep moving from island to island until you hit an island that has activity. That’s it for now. Good luck and good fishing EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK CAPTAIN TONY TRAAD JUNE 25, 2005 Tarpon season has been a tale of two stories so to speak, very similar to my tarpon tournament experience. The end of April and beginning of May was rather slow, often my clients and I found our selves off chasing other species such as bones, reds and snook. However, the tarpon fishing heated up rather quickly as May neared an end and June was just around the corner. The timing of the back country tarpon peak couldn’t have been better for me as we entered the June tarpon tournaments. I fished the 2005 Don Hawley Invitational Tarpon Tournament with my buddy from New York City, Wilson Langworthy. Wilson has been fishing this tournament for nine years, five of them with me. Prior to this year we had always made a good showing taking second once, third twice and a fourth another time. This year Wilson’s hard work and dedication paid off and he took top honors as the new “Grand Champion” of the 31st annual Don Hawley Invitational Tarpon Tournament. I fished the 2005 Women’s Invitational Tarpon Tournament with my good friend from Miami, Dr. Linda Robinson. Linda and I have been fishing this tournament together since 2000 and have also done very well. In the past five tournaments Linda has been Grand Champion, placed second and third twice. This year Linda again gave a great effort and took second. My sincerest congratulations to both Linda and Wilson both have put forth great effort and dedication over the years and have compiled impressive tournament records, great job by both of you. The last tarpon tournament of the season was the Gold Cup and I fished that tournament with Rand Holstead of Huston, Texas. Last year Rand took top honors for all new anglers; this year was a lot tougher. The weather closed in and provided rain, wind and low light conditions for most of the tournament and as if that didn’t make things hard enough, the tarpon did a disappearing act. We managed to catch two tarpon during the five day tournament which was fewer than some folks and more than others. My thanks to Linda, Wilson, Rand and all my tarpon anglers this season, I enjoyed it immensely. The companionship, banter and ranting make it more than just fishing. Well that’s it, another tarpon season in the books. Have fun and good fishing. Everglades National Park Captain Tony Traad 03/28/05 Weather wise, March has been an interesting month. We have had more west winds than I can remember and the waters have been very dirty in several areas. Most of Whitewater Bay has dirty water with the exception of its northeast quarter. You have to travel deep into the back country of Hell’s Bay, Lane Bay and other similar areas to find good water. On the west coast of the park the water is similarly dirty with the exception of the area just south of Little Shark River. Florida Bay is about the same as the others and you have to run south or east to find good water. Despite this persistent westerly pattern, the fishing hasn’t been that bad. I have been finding tarpon in the usual haunts (as long as the water doesn’t get stirred up to much), big reds on the flats, plenty of nice trout in the channels and on the deeper flats and some snook in the back country and on the west coast were you can find decent to half way decent water. There is a lot of bait in the back country and on the west coast. Florida Bay also has a lot of bait on its north shore line. On recent trips we have caught a couple dozen redfish that were well over the maximum slot with the exception of two of the reds. We have been jumping and catching tarpon in the 50 to 150lb range. We had one up to the side of the boat on Friday that was 150-160lbs before losing it. Most of my larger trout have been coming from the rivers located in the north part of Whitewater Bay and on the deeper grass flats. There have been plenty of trout, jacks and ladyfish in the channels and you can catch some nice trout in the channels, however, our biggest trout have not been coming out of the channels. Our snook with the exception of a few have been coming out of the creek mouths using live finger mullet. That’s it for now. I will update my report at the end of April. Have a great month of fishing. BISCAYNE BAY AND EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK Capt. Tony Traad 11-05-04 The fishing in Biscayne Bay and Flamingo continues to be very good. The weather has been nice with lower humidity levels helping with the comfort level. The temperatures have been pleasant all day long and even the bugs have started to wane in the Everglades. On a recent trip to Biscayne Bay with Dr. Linda Robinson we went one for three on bonefish and caught a 15 pound permit. The bone that we landed weighed in at 11 pounds. We spent the morning around the Ragged Keys permit hunting and had about a half dozen good shots and blew out a few that we simple didn’t see. We then spent the remainder of the day in South Biscayne Bay bonefishing. We found plenty of bones on the bay side of Old Rhodes Key and they were very cooperative. In fact, they acted more like Bahamas bonefish rather than Biscayne bones. On a recent trip to Flamingo, I fished with my partner from SeaHunter boats, Charlie Schiffer, and the president of Biscayne Rod Company, Eddie Carmen. Every place we went had plenty of bait. However, the farther north we went on the west coast, the less bait we found. Needless to say we turned around and spent more time fishing where the bait was heaviest. In the morning we found plenty of tarpon free jumping just off the coast. We spent about an hour and a half drifting live baits as the tarpon rolled around our boat and baits. We never got hit by anything other than a few bluefish and some nice spanish mackerel. We then went redfishing and caught about six or so reds ranging from a few pounds to about seven pounds. We finished the day live baiting for snook and went three for five with the largest snook weighing 12 pounds. The fishing really has been good and you should try to break away to get out and fish. Bring your cast net, the finger mullet are every where and even the beginner cast netter can net enough bait. The schools I have been seeing are between 20 and several hundred. That’s it for now, have fun fishing. Everglades National Park And Biscayne Bay National Park Captain Tony Traad 10-20-04 Talltailsfishing.com Between all the hurricanes and traveling, it has been a while since I’ve been able to sit down and type out a fishing report. As you can imagine, August and September found Florida under a constant state of hurricane watches and warnings and those months were slow for business. I spent more time putting up and taking down hurricane shutters than I spent on the water. October has been a good month and things seem to be getting back to normal. I traveled to Venice Louisiana for the I.F.A. Redfish Tour thinking that the tropical storm season was over and found myself fishing the two day tournament in the middle of tropical storm Mathew. My partner and I had a tough tournament, the storm blew out all the spots we had scouted and we found ourselves trying to scout new spots in unfamiliar water in the mist of a tropical storm. Needless to say we didn’t do so well. We did manage to catch our four redfish; however, they were small fish and didn’t help us much. We placed 45th out of about 117 registered boats. Congratulations go out to those teams who managed to find big reds and place well in the tournament. It was not easy fishing and doing well was no small task. October has brought the bait into the Everglades. Lots of bait from pilchards to mullet are being hammered by tarpon and snook out on the beaches and in the East Cape Canal area. Dr. Linda Robinson of Miami took a day off from the emergency room and came fishing with me. We fished the creeks in and around East Cape Canal and caught a few reds and a couple of nice snook. We then fished the mouth of East Cape Canal for tarpon. The tarpon were slamming big 12 inch mullet. We hooked a half dozen or so tarpon but never got one to the boat. We did hook something very big that we never managed to lift off the bottom. I figure it was probably a big jewfish. Ron and Donna Krell of Tallahassee came down for some fishing and we spent our first day fishing in the glades. We cast netted some live bait and drifted off Middle Cape Beach for tarpon. The tarpon were crashing bait all around us. It was the old story of there being too much bait and it took some time for our baits to be found and eaten. We had several fish on and caught one nice tarpon in the 60lb range. After tarpon fishing, we fell back into the creeks and caught some nice redfish and snook The next day Ron, Donna and I changed pace and hit South Biscayne Bay for bones and permit. We found lots of bones in big schools all day long. We caught one and had several break off on mangrove shouts. At the end of the day we headed out to broad creek and found plenty of big permits. We had one on but lost him. The total number of fish actually caught was not impressive but the total number of fish seen was. It’s been a while since I have seen several thousand bones in one day and that’s about what we saw. Dr. Richard Goldberg of North Carolina brought his pal Amery from Paris France fishing and we headed into the glades. We hit the beaches and East Cape Canal area. I found plenty of bait and tarpon again in and around Middle Cape. Amery caught his first tarpon ever weighing between 70 and 80lbs. Amery fought the tarpon for about an hour before boating it. When we returned to our spot, the tarpon action had quit. Although the bait numbers seemed to be about the same as the past week or so, the tarpon numbers appear to have dipped some. Despite the dip in tarpon numbers, there are still plenty around to fish for; it’s just not a ridiculous amount of tarpon. We fell back into the creeks after that and hit several spots catching a red here and a red there until we hit our last spot. That’s when the fishing really got good. In our last spot we caught 16 snook ranging from small to large, about 20 to 25 redfish in the 2 to 6 pound range and several medium sized black drum. All in all, October has been a good month to get out and fish with plenty of bait stirring up action and the tropics are finally quit. Until next time, get out and go fishing. Everglades National Park - 08/30/04 Captain Tony Traad Talltailsfishing.com August has been a great month for redfishing in Florida Bay near Flamingo. Most of the redfish have been in the four to five pound range. We have been finding some nicer fish in the seven to eight pound range and my clients have caught a few in the double digits. Most of the bigger fish have been in the bights east of Flamingo sitting in pot holes. I fished the I.F.A. Ranger Redfish tournament out of Key Largo with my partner Captain Allan Beraquit (www.floridalighttacklecharters.com). The first day of the tournament we caught an eight plus pounder early in the morning and put him in the live well. We were not aloud to call in this tournament which meant that once you decided to put a fish in the live well you could not upgrade. We decided to only keep a seven plus pound red as our second fish and went on to catch some four and five pounders which we threw back. Needless to say we never were able to catch a bigger fish as our second red and later wished we had kept one of the five pounders as we weighed in our eight pound red. Our spirits were a little down as we knew we couldn’t win with only three fish, assuming we caught both reds the second day, and there was a good chance we wouldn’t be able to break the top twenty. Never the less we stuck to our game plan the second day and at our first stop found some big reds. We caught two seven plus pound reds by 9:30 in the morning and headed back to the dock to weigh our fish in not knowing what to expect regarding our final placement in the tournament. When it was all said and done, we managed a nice come back. We did crack the top twenty and actually ended up in 13th place. The baby tarpon fishing around Flamingo this month was fair to poor. The few baby tarpon I found were in the usual places and acted as if they had seen their fair share of harassment. Towards the end of this month the numbers do seem to be on the rise and I anticipate that September will be a better month for the baby poons. The snook fishing has been pretty good. The snook I have been targeting have been in the pot hole in and around the mullet mud. They have been aggressive with the artificial lures and I have mostly been using bright colored top water lures or white or dark colored soft baits. The lower the water the more nervous the mullet have been. This seems to keep the schools of mullet moving around more and thus keeping the snook ready to pounce. That’s it for now, good luck and good fishing. Everglades National Park And Biscayne Bay Capt. Tony Traad 07-19-04 I have been out of town on vacation, so I didn’t fish the first two weeks of July. Since I have been back I have been doing some bonefishing in Biscayne Bay as well as some redfishing in Florida bay. The redfishing has been good with plenty of fish in the Snake Bight area. I have been fishing this area most of the day and catching between 12 and 20 reds a day. The reds have been on the flat all day with the only difficulty being the higher stages of the tide. The higher tide makes it harder to see the fish in the mullet muds. The bonefishing has been very typical for this time of year. The fish have been tailing early and late in the day and moving to deeper water during the hotter parts of the day. The reds have been hitting on Johnson gold and silver spoons as well as soft baits. We have been throwing shrimp to the bones when the shrimp are big enough and using skimmer jigs tipped with a piece of shrimp when the shrimp are too small. This same method works well for the reds when they are refusing spoons. Good luck and good fishing. Everglades National Park & Upper Florida Keys 06-28-04 July was tarpon tournament time in the Upper Florida Keys. I fished the Don Hawley Invitational Tarpon Tournament with Wilson Langworthy of New York. We had some good days of fishing catching at least one tarpon a day with the exception of one day that we goose egged. In five days of fishing we caught seven tarpon which was good enough to win 2nd runner-up in the 12lb tippet division. I fished the Women’s world Invitational Tarpon Tournament with Dr. Linda Robinson of Miami. In three days of fishing we caught ten tarpon. The ten tarpon won us second place. The winning team also caught ten tarpon and beat us on time, they caught their last tarpon at 12:30 and we caught our last fish at 2:40. I fished the next tournament which was the Gold Cup with a new angler, Rand Holstead of Huston. We caught three tarpon and Rand won top honors for new angler. I would like to thank and congratulate my anglers on a job well done and look forward to next season’s tarpon tournaments. July should still provide plenty of tarpon opportunities particularly early in the day. As the sun gets good, climb up on the shallow flats where you should be able to mix it up with plenty of redfish and snook. Triple tail fishing this time of year is also good and you should look for free floating triple tail as you run from spot to spot. For triple tail, keep a light spinning rod rigged with a small skimmer jig tipped with a piece of shrimp or a hook and a whole shrimp. Good fishing and have fun.
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Everglades Capt. Tony Traad The winds have finally eased and the tarpon fishing has improved. The tarpon fishing the last few weeks has steadily improved as the weather improved. I have been fishing in the Everglades National park as well as Biscayne National Park. As usual we have had a lot more hook ups than fish to the side of the boat; however, I’m not going to complain. I do have a tall tail to tell. Mike Burns of Wisconsin and I were fishing in Florida Bay and found laid up tarpon. Mike made a cast to a group of fish that spooked off his cast. The group of tarpon came right at the boat and came to a stop at the side off the boat. As the fish in the back bunched up on the tails of the lead fish, the tarpon in the very back opted for a drastic escape move. The back tarpon jumped over all the other tarpon and landed on the deck of my skiff. After several minutes of flopping around in the bottom of my boat and four broken rods later, we took a picture of Mike and the fish he boated with out hooking and released the tarpon back into Florida Bay. Surprisingly enough, the tarpon was ready to go after only a half minute or so of being revived. I haven’t been chasing any thing but tarpon; however, I have spoken with a few folks who have said the snook fishing has been great and the redfishing good. Both species should be up on the flats mixed in with the mullet. Good fishing and have fun.
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This Page Was Last Updated - Friday December 23, 2005 |
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