Florida Keys Backcountry and Flats Fishing

2013 march
Florida Sport Fishing Charters
Capt. Jim Hale
March 13 2013
786-255-1788

Today we fished a half day in Biscayne Bay just minutes from downtown Miami and catching large Sea Trout up to
23 inches, Mackerel, Bluefish and Jacks most all were caught on white Berkley Gulp soft plastics and 10 pound test spinning gear.
The conditions have been perfect until today! A strong and cool north west wind cranked today making the fishing a little slow
until mid day.
However last week and earlier this week has been excellent and I think it will continue as it warms up this weekend.
Scott Eney (Miami) and Josh Poncianno from Ohio fished Florida Bay and Flamingo this past week with me
on a overcast but calm day.
We started fishing shorelines that were loaded with Redfish using Berkley Gulps and
catching 3 nice Reds and 1 small Snook. A little later we headed west and found Snook cruising shorelines and plenty
tailing Reds. At one time a beautiful Snook estimated at 36 inch comes cruising down a shorline with Scott standing on the casting platformat and on the trigger...Scott makes a beautiful cast and places the bait in front of the Snook and twitches several times ....the Snook inhales the plastic but swimming at the angler, NO DICE!!!!
That just ***** there was no way for Scott to set the hook! By days end we landed 10 more 28 inch Redfish and several 23 inch Trout.

Dan and Dave Lue Fished out of Flamingo on Wednesday with overcast conditions which makes sight fishing a little difficult, both did a great job
with Dan catching 5 Reds one at 30 inches and Dave catching his first Redfish and two huge Trout one at 26 inches.
Dave closed out he day by sight fishing a nice 27 inch Redfish just seconds from the marina.

There are Plenty of fish here on the flats in South Florida, Some are a greater distance from others so the run times varies but with our new Merc optimax 115 it makes the run nicer faster and smoother and provides more time for fishing!

I expect and hope the the winds to settle a bit and temps to increase which will be great for fishing the flats and fishing the Everglades.
Look for Permit to show up in big numbers when fishing Biscayne Bay and soon the Tarpon should start to move in. The flats will remain great for Reds and Snook.

Good luck Capt. Jim Hale