Inshore Fishing Report for the keys and Flamingo Capt. Jim Hale www.floridasportfishingcharters.com 786-255-1788 Jan 25 2013
On the flats there are huge South Fla. Reds in the 7 to 18 pound range and a gulp jerk bait or Zoom Fluke is the way to go. Friday Doug Spitz from New York fished a half day in afternoon, caught 6 Reds on the flats the largest at 15 pounds that ate a gulp. The Reds are tailing and pushing wakes up on the flats, We saw several that made the 15 pounder look small and these fish are eating everything we throw at them so this is easy as it gets! On a cold day Ralph and David Mesa along with Christopher Plasencia of Ft. Lauderdale fished the creeks along the gulf North of Ponce and caught unlimited amount of Trout Sheepshead, Black Drum with several nice Redfish in the mix. We went through 14 dozen shrimp in 6 hours on chartreuse jig heads tipped with shrimp. Terry Bradford fished 4 hours with me on Saturday and caught 23 Redfish on the flats using Gulps and Mirror Lure soft plastics. All the Reds were in 2 ft of water and mudding in small schools. Ryan McFarland fished Sunday and had action everywhere we went including a nice 5 pound Snook several nice Redfish that were mudding, Bluefish,Trout, Spanish Mackerel a Triple Tail at Flamingo.
Miami the Tarpon are here as well, in the evenings we are catching and jumping smaller fish around 20 pounds close to Gov Cut. Normal nights are 3 to 4 Tarpon. There are also Bigger Poons close by and are eating shrimp when we can get to them. Everyday either sight fishing the flats or drowning shrimp in the creeks the fishing has been awesome!
The outlook : The fishing will remain excellent at Flamingo with the sun keeping the flats warm. The Tarpon should migrate good this year if the temps remain low. This time last year it was warmer and our Tarpon season was not as good but hopefully with the temps a little cooler it will bring them close to shore this year.
