Sportsman's Adventures Tips - 2005

Fishing In The Fall

As fall approaches and the water temperatures start to cool, you can count on more hours of great bonefishing on the Atlantic coast. All the floating grass is a great habitat for crabs and shrimp, so the permit fishing should also be real good.

In Flamingo, you can take advantage of the Fall mullet migration. With that, snook fishing should pick up around the river mouth and along the beaches. The cobia will start showing up around the markers and the migration of Spanish mackerel following the bait should happen in the month.

What Do You Do In Biscayne Bay's Hot Summer Months?

Typically the morning water temperatures are in the mid 80s during this time of year, so what you’d want to do is fish for the bonefish. Here is where you have them feeding, tailing and muddy situations. As the sun rises and the temperatures in the flats begin to heat up, the bonefish push off into 4’ to 6’ of water where the temperatures are a lot cooler than in 1 ½’. The places you might look as the water begins to heat up are deeper edges, lake basins, or channel edges where there’s a significant amount of current, which keeps the water cooler. If you’re having a hard time finding bones at that time, then you might want to go permit fishing because the permit, like the redfish at Flamingo, don’t seem to mind the heat. Plus, its much easier to see permit with the high vis the sun provides. Ideal tides to do this would be incoming in the morning because the sun and the current are behind you and outgoing in the afternoon for the same reason – the sun and current going in same direction. Great vis with the current. Remember that bonefish and permit like to feed into the current so for high percentages, pole with the current if you have the visibility.

Flexibility In Your Plans

Whenever you're going to go fishing, sometimes its good to have a game plan, but not one that's set in stone. Have an idea of what you want to fish for, but also have a back-up plan because the weather can change your game plan. Say you're planning on fishing this weekend in Flamingo, if the wind blew west because of approaching cold front, or a storm coming in off the Atlantic, then you would have to fish in the keys or Biscayne Bay or on the East coast on the flats because it would be protected. West wind off Flamingo is the kiss of death. And it doesn't necessarily mean just west. It could be southwest west or northwest. So, its important to be flexible in your plans. Catch em up!

What Do You Do With Hot Water In Flamingo?

Typically what you want to do is to do your snook fishing or junior tarpon fishing during the morning hours while the water temperature is still cool. After about 10:00 a.m., you would want to go redfishing for two reasons. One, because the sun is high, allowing you to see the fish better; and tow, it doesn’t seem that the redfish mind the hot water as bad. Typically, the most ideal conditions for the summertime reds are slick, calm water until about 2:00 p.m. when the afternoon thunderstorms build up. And at that time, its probably time to go home because the water temperatures can get into the 90’s. So, to increase your odds on catching multiple species, fish early for tarpon and snook, then use the sun for your tailing redfish later on.

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