Flamingo 11-22-09

Naples to West Palm and south, including the Keys
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Redfishn'Ale
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Flamingo 11-22-09

Post by Redfishn'Ale »

I love daylights savings time!

Hit the water at 5:15 in Flamingo with a few buddies of mine for a nice long day of fishing and trash talking. The weather was beautiful, it was 70 degrees at sunrise and the water felt fairly cool for the first time since last winter.

Immediately upon exiting the marina we were greeted with the sounds of complete pandemonium and 12 inch mullet flying through the air. My first cast with the skitterwalk was engulfed by what looked like a depth charge going off, I held on and fought a mystery fish for a good 45 minutes before finally getting a look at what had been dragging me all around the bay:

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I attempted to retrieve my lure but after a few failed attempts I thought better of it and clipped the leader as close as I could. It was still dark and I was quite a ways from my friends at his point so I paddled back only to find they had been experiencing "mosquito problems" due to one of them casting into the trees and then having to fetch it...the natives swarmed them and didn't let them be till we paddled out further into the bay towards Joe Kemp.

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We were spooking reds left and right and managed to connect with a few, brought two home for dinner between the three of us. Managed a couple of nice snook, one little seatrout (rounded out my slam), and I leadered a small tarpon but he flipped off before I could get a hold of him. The bite died around 9am, we tried to make it work till about noon and then headed back in to the marina...all in all a great day in the bay...when is it not a great day down in the park though?

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Rik
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Post by Rik »

Bugs?
Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley
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mudfish
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Post by mudfish »

That's one serious beer cooler you're totin' Ro. :shock:
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Redfishn'Ale
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Post by Redfishn'Ale »

Rik wrote:Bugs?
we got killed by the first island we fished...45 minutes of hell but not too bad, we were in shorts so I guess we were kind of asking for it.

And the cooler, although laden with beer, was intentionally that big since we were all craving some fish for the larder...I usually catch and release but I had a serious hankering for some blackened redfish all last week, glad to see it come to fruition.
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DoubleM
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Post by DoubleM »

Hah nice mystery fish, looks like a good time minus the bugs
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Post by ChrisR »

Sounds like a great trip.
I did a stinkpot camping trip in the 10K Islands this weekend, and the bugs were not a problem at all.
vivian
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Post by vivian »

OMG! I've had that happen to me (giant shark) but I never was able to get the shark that close because it cut me off...thankfully. Glad to see you are back in action 8)
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