Islamorada flats fishing report, bonefishing, everglades, flamingo and backcountry fishing report

This past week was a wild one! Winter conditions still persist with windy and cold mornings and warm windy afternoons. The wind has been the one consistant thing we have had around here. Yet the wind has been all over the compass, changing directions all through the day and reaking havoc with the backcountry tides! The up side of the week is that snook season has opened at last and stays open until May 1.

The opening of snook season is always a welcome event. We get to catch these fish all year long, but to keep the population of this game fish healthy the harvest of snook is only 5 months each year. Snook are a warm water species and will take both natural and artifical baits. The past few years area guides have been talking about the large numbers of small 18 to 26 inch snook that can be found all around the Flamingo area. This is great news and just indicates that we have a very healthy snook population here in the Keys. The snook is a beatiful fish that is a challenge on light tackle that we use here in the backcountry and they put up great jumps and blazing runs once hooked. The super thing about snook is that they can be found from the bridges on out to the Gulf and up into the heart of the Everglades. Find a guide and give these fighters a try.

March is the season of spring break and with this comes time for family fishing here in the Keys. Kids of all ages along with their parents will be looking for things to do here in paradise. If getting off of the beaten track appeals to you take a good look at going fishing with an area guide. There is so much more to a fishing trip than just fishing. You will see Eco - tours offered and they are fun, short trips around the nearshore waters of the Keys. A fishing trip into the backccountry is the original Eco - tour, we see so much wildlife as we travel through the Everglades National Park. Your guide very knowledgeable in the where, what and whys of all of the wildlife that can be found there. This is prime time for dolphin watching and birding and the guides of Islamorada are a great source of information sitting right there in his boat. Bring a camera and a sense of adventure and you will be blown away at the sights and sounds of the backcountry. We have a listing of some fine guides in the back of this issue of "The Weekly Fisherman" give one a call.

Who ever said something about a "Winter of discontent" was right on the money! Right when it looks like that we are going into a spring pattern another cold front smacks the whole of North America! Oh well we did have a great week of weather last week and this latest cold blast will move on and there is light at the end of the tunnel. The good news is that mullet were starting to show around Flamingo in the channels and on the flooding flats. Along with the mullet come tarpon, big tarpon at that. Snake Bight channel will hold bait and thus tarpon and as of last week the big girls were showing up. We hooked a few on live ladyfish that were drifted behind the boat in hopes of hooking into a big blacktip or spinner shark. There were tarpon caught out to the west as well around the East Cape and Sandy Key Basin area. These are some of the first tarpon to come to town following the first push of mullet and they are the bigger fish, not he little guys that winter here.

As I mentioned above, the spinner and blacktip sharks are pretty thick around the backcountry right now and they are a blast on light tackle. To target these hard running and high jumping beasts use whole live baits, not chunks of bait. Blacktips and spinners are hard chargers and love a whole live jack or ladyfish under a float or hanging from a kite. That's right a kite! More and more guides are fishing live baits under kites in the Gulf and the backcountry waters. The bite on a kite bait is tremendous to say the least. when a big shark homes in on a struggling fish on the surface the strike is more like an explosion on the surface. You won't believe the speed at which a shark will tackle your bait as it splashes on the top of the water. Captains Jim Dalrymple and Mark Johnson have had some tremendous catches of out sized sharks using this method and I saw some fantastic film footage of Captains Tom Roland and Rich Tudor doing the kite thing with sharks on their show "Saltwater Experience" it is a blast! Don't pooh pooh the idea of shark fishing, the bulls, blacktips, spinners and lemon sharks that are common to our waters put on a great fight on 15 to 30 pound gear and these guys will go up to and beyond 300 pounds. Soon enough the tiger sharks will show up in the shallows and that will pucker up your back side when the beast come to the boat!

The Gulf once again takes the cake for just plain fish after fish action. I had my long time clients/buddies in town this past weekend and the weather was perfect for going to the Gulf. We had bait fish at the transom in no time and soon it was game on! All kinds of snappers and spanish mackerel were eating our baits and then it got hairy. Cobia in small groups of 4 to 6 fish began to circle the boat looking for a fight. Chris and Jim hooked into many cobia up to 32 inches on 6 - 10 pound spin tackle and man do those cobia go crazy. Running and jumping all around the boat before finally coming along side for the release. These fish ate live shrimp and pinfish on 1/4 oz Hook Up jigs. The largest that we landed was 20 pounds and I think Jim is still hurting after the thrashing he took catching that fish on light tackle. Capt. Kip Daugherty told me of a 40 pounder that his client caught on 10 pound spin tackle as well. Good times!

Keep up with the action from the water with my daily fishing reports on Clear Channel Radio and watch for my show "Reelin' in the Keys" on Mondays and Thursdays at 7pm and Fridays at 8:30 pm on Comcast channel 5.

Take a look at the Captains and Guides listing in this issue and get on the water while you are here.

Cobia - Caught with Captain Matt Bellinger

This past week I had the pleasure and the honor of going fishing with four American men who chose years ago to serve their country. Three were enlisted men, one was an officer, all are heroes. They were part of a group down here in the Keys from the Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C. These men all carried scars and horrific wounds that stop you in your tracks. They referred to the moment that they were wounded in terms like "there I was walking on patrol and I got blown up" or "there was a flash and I was down crawling to my buddy" almost like me saying "then the fish peeled off 200 yards of line". It just happen and they moved on. They spoke of the efforts that they are making to get back into shape to go back to Iraq, but in terms of when they get their running leg adjusted and their stump heals completely. I heard a Staff Sargent from North Carolina who handles bomb sniffing dogs explain to me with total clarity and need, how he will be back on patrol in combat as soon as he gets his wind back and his sprint times down. All this as he was adjusting the spring action on his artificial leg! There was no false bravado here, just everyday American men who have made sacrifices of thei time, their bodies and their futures so the rest of the world not just America may be a better place one day.

We were fishing on the charter boat "Relentless" out of Bud ‘n Mary's Marina at mile marker 80 in Islamorada. Capt. Paul Ross and mate Jimmy Hendricks put on a show! Its no wonder these guys have dominated the sailfish game as of late, they never stop looking for signs of bait, birds and sailfish. We ran up and down the reef-line all day, constantly changing baits and setups as conditions changed through out the day. We caught 3 sails the first day and they caught 6 sails on the second day and won the tournament that was held for them and their buddies. The soldiers were far removed from the hospital halls and the hours of therapy that makes up their days in D.C. They were given a dose of medicine that can only be found out on the water while fishing. The effect of the day's fishing is so effective, yet so simple, you could see the disconnect from the hospital and how their focus narrows down to the moment, the task at hand, the rod, the reel and the fish. When you are concentrating on a running, leaping sailfish on a blue - blue sea, you can't and won't look too much past the task at hand. That is the beauty and power of fishing for anyone who takes a rod and reel up in their hands for a day on the water. The level of commitment these men showed to recovery and moving on is amazing and has humbled me. I have an artificial knee and my other replacement knee is in my future, I will never complain about either joint again. If you come across a soldier or veteran of our armed forces take the time to shake their hand and tell them "Thank You" and keep your opinion of world politics to yourself.

As far as the fishing on the flats and backcountry its red hot in the Gulf and the trout bite around Flamingo is great on either tide. The warm weather has redfish and snook getting back on track. Soft plastic jerk baits were producing large trout and snook on the edges of the channels out west of Flamingo on the incoming tide and the falling tide was prime time for live shrimp work low and slow on the bottom.

Thank you to all of the boat crews and to Mangrove Mike's in Islamorada for taking care of the soldiers from Walter Reed. Also thank you to the Elk's Club for their efforts, the lunches from The Island Grill, and many other people who helped. And thanks to Elizabeth, of this paper, for all her effort she somehow fit into her schedule to make sure these soldiers had fun on the water…and her work as the committee boat and tournament director.

No matter where you live, last week was a cold one! We saw the upper 40's for overnight lows and we had a hard time cracking the 60 degree mark for a high. Out of towners are laughing after reading this but those temps are tough on us thin skinned islanders. The winds that brought these cold days came out of the north and northwestern part of the compass and they blew upwards of 20 mph for some time.

Due to the lay of the island chain here in the Upper Keys those winds with a northern accent don't really affect the nearshore waters of the Atlantic. This makes for some great patch reef fishing for local guides. Bay boats and poling skiffs alike can take full advantage of the calm side of the islands and cash in on the patches. Capt. Fred Ferreira and Capt. John Gargan both fish out of Whale Harbor Marina in Islamorada hit the reefs in very shallow water this past week and they were on fire! They both reported good catches of tasty hogfish, groupers and snappers and the surprise is that they never went deeper than 10 feet of water. John fishes a poling skiff and said that it was very fishable on the Atlantic side, the backside of the Keys or the Bayside was rough and tumble due to the northwest winds. These patches hold a vast selection of fish from speedy mackerels to bottom loving groupers and all it takes is a live well full of shrimp and some chum. You will find all the fresh cut bait you need swimming up in your chum slick in the form of ballyhoo. Chunk these guys up for bait or drift a whole live one behind the boat on some wire for good mackerel action but don't be surprised if a big mutton snapper or grouper blows up on this bait.

The cold weather dropped the Bay waters down into the low 50's and put the brakes on a good redfish bite around Flamingo. Some guides were able to put together a bite out west at the East Cape Canal by sticking live shrimp down on the bottom and praying for a black drum bite. Drum don't mind the colder waters and if you find one, you probably found them all. In this cold, when you find fish don't leave them to find others. Never leave fish to find fish! The cold water will slow down the trout bite but as soon as you find 60 degree water you will find a good trout bite. Trout go looking for the deepest water they can find and they prefer slow to no current at all as well, so go looking out in the deeper basins with mullet muds or just off color water. Do this and you will find trout. Live shrimp on a 1/4 ounce Hook Up Lure jig head worked under a popping cork or just bouncing the grass will find these fish. I like the 1/4 ounce weight better than a 3/8 ounce jig simply because it will sink slower into the grass and a slower moving bait will appeal to these fish due to the cold. A slow sink rate will keep the bait in the strike zone longer.

If you know a guide that knows the Whitewater Bay area -- that is a treasure to find. This time of the year this area comes to life and is a blast to go out into and explore with a knowledgeable guide. Whitewater is no place to explore on your own if you are not familiar with it. Hire a guide and go have a blast back there in a safe manner. Take a look at our complete list of guides and captains in the back of this issue. Get out on the water and Go Fish! Also check out my TV show on Comcast Channel 5 the Keys Information Station it’s called "Reelin' in the Keys" and it airs Mondays and Thrusdays at 7:00 pm and Fridays at 8:30 pm and let me know what you think, really I am looking for input from you. E-mail me at Matt@Bamboocharters.com or call me at 305-393-0909.

Here it is, Super Bowl Sunday and the first of Feburary and this past month was a roller coaster! Advise to Al Gore, go back to school, global warming my ass! Water temps today in the Florida Bay part of my globe was cold! 53f to 60f ain't what I'd call warm and the fish seem to agree. Warm one day and cold the next has been the trend around here. But some very good action has been going on out there. So let’s take a look at the goings on.

I’ve said it time and time again; sea trout fishing is one of my favorite ways to spend a day out on the water, with or without clients. Some of you are saying "sure trout are no big deal and they are easy to find” just remember that before you call me the next time you need to find the trout bite. Just like any other fish that we pursue, you have to stay current with their where abouts and what is working best to catch them. I run a good bit of family fishing trips and action trips, so I love the sea trout. They will eat just about any offering and they run in huge numbers. Sea trout also put up a great fight when you match your gear to the fish. I prefer a 6 - 7 ft spinning outfit with a 6 - 10 pound action, for the most part you will find most of your trout out in open water, so let the fish run and go with light tackle. To find the bigger trout use mullet look-alikes, pinfish or ladyfish strips to butt heads with the big girls. I said "big girls" because most to the truly big trout will be females and they are looking to put on body mass to ensure a healthy spawn. These beauties will be over 20 inches and can get up to 28 inches arround here. To figure out boy trout from girl trout all you have to do is listen. The males will grunt or drum as you hold them, females do not have this ability. Try to release the females and keep only the males, this will help keep Florida Bay stocked with trout for years to come.

The sea trout bite has fired up over the the past few weeks and it’s safe to say that the bite is on. Finding them is easy, look for mullet muds in the open basins of the Bay. A mullet mud is a patch of muddied up water that will be as small as a VW Bug or as large as a football field. Find one and drift through it throwing popping corks, bucktails, shrimp on a jig or variuos soft plastics. If you hook up, stake out and fan cast all around the boat until the bite stops. Then, pick up and drift until you hook up again; you will keep busy with a very under rated fish that will keep up the smiling. As of this writing I'd call the bite "SUPER" and the fish are running from 14 to 24 inches out there. These trout are thick and it’s easy to catch 50 or more fish on a half day trip per person. I find a 5 inch soft plastic jerk bait on a jig head to be the best way to target the bigguns, you will find your favorite way to go.

Like I said in the opening, it has been cold, the water has been heating up in the afternoons only to cool off over night. This is true for the shallows of the Bay, the deeper water of the Atlantic will not bounce around as much. This means you can get on the oceanside patches in the morning and then scoot into the backcountry in the afternoon. The patches are in 10 feet of water or better and will hold a great choice of fish. As of late you will find hogfish, snappers, grouper, mackerel and more just offshore. Live shrimp, chum and the same gear you use out back will do the trick, as you go ballyhoo will show up behind the boat. These are great baits and you just need to hair hook them if you can't throw a cast net, chunk them up and you are all baited up.

Take a look at the Captains and Guides listing in this issue to find a great boat to get you out on the water while you are here in the Keys. GO FISH!

Well if you are a "local" this past week was an ugly stretch of winter weather, but if you are from anywhere north of say, West Palm Beach, its been a wonderful week! All one has to do is take a look at the sub 0 temperatures up north and really, its been very nice here. We have had cold weather here, as weather normally goes around here and the north winds have been blowing hard. So the cold water of the Everglades and the very low tides have been a challenge for guides and anglers alike. That being said, the fishing has been pretty damn outstanding for those who said "to Hell with the weather, lets GO FISH!"

This week I was again thankful to have 24 feet of fiberglass boat wrapped around me and my anglers to venture out into the backcountry. With some of the lowest tides of the season upon us out back the fish have been clumped together in the deeper channels. In the cold mornings, those that found deep water, like Capt. Steve Murray were rewarded with some good numbers of reds, black drum, snook and sea trout. Live shrimp on a Hook Up Lures 1/4 - 3/8 ounce jig work VERY SLOWLY across the bottom did the trick. I had very good luck on the first of the incoming tide by working the edges of the flat. My clients would throw their shrimp as far up on the flat from the channel edge and just let the shrimp lay there. It took no time at all to hook up some fat and happy redfish this way, we had several reds over 27 inches fall for this method. And if it worked once, I figured it would work twice, it did and we had a blast bailing big reds on the incoming tide. Capt. Mark Johnson of Tail Spin Charters at Papa Joe's Marina showed a couple of families of four a great day on the water by just working the deeper channels and run outs this week as well. He reported a good mix of reds, black drum and trout as well as some nice snook. Once you find a fish or two in these conditions you just have to stick it out in that area and the fish will be there. You just don't leave fish to find fish! Learn it, live it, love it! Capt. Scott Meyer down in Hawk's Cay, has been staying close to home and catching good numbers of schooling bonefish in deeper water. When that action cooled down he switched guns and went after a good bite of snappers and spanish macks in the deeper channels around Hawk's Cay. Capt. Steve Friedman and his papa, Greg, broke in Steve's new skiff this past weekend while doing a shake down cruise. It was windy and cool out and the barometer was up and down, no big deal, the Friedman boys caught and released a nice tarpon to break the boat in right. All this action in what we call less than "perfect" conditions! Another great reason to hire a fishing guide.

Here is just a brief report of whats going on out in the Gulf. Redfish, sea trout, cobia, permit, pompano, sharks of every kind, groupers, mutton, lane, mangrove, schoolmaster and yellowtail snappers are beating the snot out of all comers who dare to dangle a bait in the chum slick behind a boat. Its just an incredible bite that is going on out there in the Gulf of Mexico. Find 10 to 11 feet of dirty water with some current and you are going to get into some of the best fishing action that you will ever encounter! This is a great fishery and the action will continue for a few more months to come. If hard fighting fish that will keep you busy as long as you keep a bait in the water then make plans to get out in the Gulf.

Take a look at the Captains and Guides listing in this issue of the Weekly Fisherman and get out on the water. GO FISH

This past week was a weird one! Warm weather, full moon, no one in town, I could go on and on. It seems that the best bet for constant action had to be the Gulf of Mexico and the western fringe of the Everglades National Park again. The patch reefs out in front of the island chain have been going strong as well.

A patch reef is a collection of coral rocks and boulders that can be found a short distance from shore on the Atlantic side of the Keys. You will find them in water less than 10 feet on out to 50 feet of depth. There are patches in deeper water as well, but the patches that I am refering to are the nearshore reefs. On days that the wind is honkin out of the north part of the compass the patches can save the day. The tackle we use is the same as the gear we use in the backcountry as well as the bait. Just throw a couple of chum boxes in the boat and a chum bag and its just a short boat ride to the patch reefs here in the Islamorada area. I was going to film an episode of my cable show "Reelin' in the Keys" last week with Catain Chris Barth of "The Hunter" charters out on the deep reef. The wind came up over night and we bailed out to a nearshore patch reef. It was excellent to say the least. We barely had the chum trailing out behind the boat when Capt. Chris and I were both hooked up with snappers. Live shrimp pinned to a Hook Up Lure 1/4 oz jig was all we needed all morning to stay bent up with fish. Three species of snapper, red grouper and cero mackerels were all too happy to make a guest appearence for the camera. The best part is that we were about a long drive of a golf ball off shore distance wise. Captains have a list of these patch reefs that dot the charts up and down the island chain. And they can make for some fast, fun fishing action for everyone on the boat.

More and more guides are discovering the addvantages of guiding their clients from a bay boat. I have been using bay boats in in business now for more than 6 years now. The design of a bay boat allows guides to fish much more comfortably on windy days and give me the flexibility to fish the Gulf, the oceanside reefs and the backcountry flats and basins with parties of up to four adult customers. I love the dry ride and the comfort afforded by my Yellowfin 24 ft bay boat, along with the fact that I can fish the reef in the morning and the flats of the Everglades in the afternoon is priceless.

I reported last week that the Gulf of Mexico was red hot and the story is still the same. Spanish mackerels will make up the bulk of the catch out there, but you really don't know what will show up behind your boat. Capt. Kiwi Hughes of Holiday Isle Resort and Capt. Paul Hunt of World Wide Sportsman Marina both hit the Gulf action over the weekend and had permit, pompano, cobia and more show up for a fight. We use spin gear in the 8 to 12 pound class, but you have to have a 15 to 20 pound outfit ready to go at any time when a beast shows up looking to rumble. Speaking of "beasts", at any time out there in the Gulf you can have a huge blacktip or bull shark pop up and its game time baby! Its time for the big gun here, break out a 20 to 30 pound conventional set up and feed the beast a chunk of spanish mack and get ready to cowboy up and go. Shark fish can range from sight fishing for smaller 10 pound fish to toe to toe, head buttin' gut crunching throw downs with sharks that will go well over 250 pounds. Capt. Jeff Beeler of Bud and Mary's Marina found king fish to 30 pounds in his chum slick over the weekend and when you are pitching baits on a 10 pound spin outfit and a smoker king gets busy on you its a blast.

Give some light tackle fishing a try while you are here in the Keys recovering from the winter beast back home, take a look at our Captain and Guides listing in this issue of the paper and GO FISH!

Happy New Year! And what a kick off to the New Year we have had so far. It was great to see the vast majority of the area guides out on the water working again.

The best action has been out in the Gulf of Mexico, why not, you just don't know from cast to cast what you might reel in. I spent the better part of the holiday week out there just bailing fish. Its easier to list the fish we did not catch, so here it goes. We did not catch tarpon, bonefish, sailfish or dolphin but you name it we caught it out there. It is simple, go out into the Gulf and find 10 to 12 feet of depth. Get some chum going, the frozen type in a mesh bag, then start casting live shrimp out into the growing slick behind the boat. You need a 8 to 10 lb spin outfit with a length of 30 lb leader material. Tie on a long shank jig head and pin a shrimp to it and you are loaded for bear.

In the begining you will hook into snappers and groupers but soon you will play hell trying to get your bait to the bottom because the spanish mackerels will be thicker than fleas on a dogs hide. There is no nibble here from a rabid mackerel, the bite is like getting hit by a truck, then its off to the races as line will get peeled off the spool at high speed. If you start getting bit off add a short lenght of wire and you
will avoid cut offs. Remember that if you plan on keeping snappers, groupers, porgies, hogfish and triggers that you catch out in the Gulf you must catch them using non offset, non stainless steel circle hooks to do so when using natural bait. Any of these caught using a "J" hook and natural bait must be released back into the water.

Those of you who know the Whitewater Bay area know that the Bay is getting going strong. Reds, snook, sea trout and some small tarpon have been getting going. Whitewater Bay is the true "backcountry" and an area to be very careful about when you go out there. Cell phones don't work well, VHF radio is weak out there as well. The twisty turny channels through the creeks and rivers all look alike and one will get lost right now if you are not careful when you are fishing. Hire a
guide to see Whitewater at its best. Till next week - GO FISH, Capt. Matt

Where has the year gone? Without any real change in seasons here in the Keys we tend to use whats "in season" and whats not to measure the year. Snook is closed, Trout is about to open, tarpon are just around the corner. The offshore boys have sailfish for the fall and winter, then dolphin for the spring and fall seasons. So using this system, it will be the New Year soon, as the speckeled trout season is about to open on Jan. 1.

As I said, the trout season for harvest opens on Jan. 1 and that is great timing, as the bigger 15 to 20 inch fish are showing up in good numbers out back. The slot limit on these fish is 15 - 20 inches and you are allowed one fish over 20 inches. The bag limit is 4 per person per day. Just remember that a trout over 20 inches is most likely a huge female and full of eggs so let this big girl go on and keep the family name going.

We have been finding some rather large trout by casting GULP! jerk shads and GULP! shrimp to channel edges and run outs on the last half of the low tide. Of course live shrimp will take plenty of trout but plastics or bucktails will take just as many. As a matter of fact, a Hook Up Lure white bucktail will draw a strike and if you miss the fish you will still have a lure that will draw another strike. Unlike a soft
bodied shrimp, the bucktail is glued and tied to the jig head and can be used for days on end. A soft platic or bucktail can be cast under a popping cork and makes a deadly combo.

Snook and redfish action has been fast and furious! With super low tides out in the Flamingo area they have been easy pickings. I had one of the greatest Christmas gifts ever given to me this week. I was able to take young Will Jackson out for a day of fishing on Christmas day. Will is a high school junior now and I've known Will and
his family for a few years now. They came to me on a "Dream Factory" trip, Will was recovering from a deadly brain tumor and his dream was to come to the Keys for a fishing trip. Like "Make a Wish", the "Dream Factory" puts together trips like this for kids in these special situations. Will now has a clean bill of health and is enjoying life. Christmas morning we loaded the boat with Will, his brother Davis and pop Rick, they were down on a boys trip. We head out to Flamingo for the day and we started out with some trout action, then we went looking for snook and reds. Davis had a lucky horse shoe in his back pocket and taught everyone how to catch some big redfish! It was great to see the guys fishing and cutting up and you could see that the dark cloud of worry for Will's health was gone and it was just a great day for Dad to kick back with his boys and have fun. Thank you Will and thank you "Dream Factory". If you are looking to help a great charity this season
just google up Dream Factory.

This past week it seems as if there has been a struggle between our two seasons: summer and winter. There is not a huge difference between the two really. Mostly it seems to be a wind issue, direction and speed of the wind that is or a temperature thing. Winter seems to have won the battle this past week. The winds have been up in the high teens to the mid twenties and the air temps have swung from the high seventies down to the south side of the sixties. So what does this do to the fishing you ask?

September is here and so begins our three month snook season. First reports point towards another great snook catch is to be had out there. More and more guides are reporting great catches of bonefish very close to downtown Islamorada, big fish and good numbers of bones are being found tailing and mudding up a storm. Out in the waters of the Everglades National Park reds and snook are being found up in the real skinny water and eating plastics like big dogs.

The first reports coming in about the start of snook season have been good. Some are reporting great catches of these great fighting fish just inside of the new minimum length of 28 inches and plenty of fish right inside of the 28 to 33 inch slot limit. This time of the year you will find plenty of small sub 24 inch fish out there. These fish will be found in huge gatherings and will take most any offerings that pass their way. The bigger slot fish are not that much more picky in their eating habits. You just might not find these fish stacked like cord wood, but you will find go numbers of them. The bigger fish seem to be found up in the skinny stuff right now and usually in close to mullet schools. As the tide drops, guides move off the flat and work the edges. Mullet look a likes such as Zara Spooks and 5 to 6 inch jerk baits let you cover some ground and are easy to work for most any fisherman.

Reds really come to the dinner table from here til late November ( only taking the REDBONE weekend off some times) you will find puppy drum, sub 18 inch fish, on up to some real toads, well over the 27 inch maximum length. Capt. Kerry Wingo and Chris Jones told me of some true bigguns that they have been targeting as of late. They are eating live baits, shrimp and soft plastic baits as well. Capt. Larry Syndor actually complained of too many reds on a late afternoon trip last week! Larry was looking to score a few snook to finish out a backcountry slam or two for some clients and the red bite was just plain way too hot to give a snook a chance at a bait. Damn bad luck Larry!

Capt. Chuck Shafshaw and Mike Cosma reported to me for my radio reports that they have been keying on a great bonefish bite lately. We see bones all year long here but at times they can be tight lipped on our offerings. The fact that we are talking bones here is the reason that I can tell you only this. . . some fish are being found on the bay side flats and some on the ocean side flats and the tide was . . . well that’s just too much info. As a matter of fact the bandanna brigade will tar and feather me if I type any more info on the ghost of the flats.

Check out my live radio reports on SUN 103.1 fm daily at 8:10 – noon – 4:40 and take a look at www.BambooCharters.com