Fishing Report – week ending 8/15/2009
As I am writing this NOAA is keeping their eyes on Ana and Bill, the first named storms of the season. It seems that our hurricane season is starting with a number of tropical depressions rolling off Cape Verde. Knock on wood and hope these things will not amount to much.
In the mean time, fishing has remained consistent this week with lots of small glass minnows off the outside points and creeks in the back. DNA Reducers are a great fly when the fish are keyed in on these small baits. I have not seen the schools of the larger green backs that are typical here during the summer.
We are seeing some very large snook coming off the beaches and into the back to fill up on these baits. Small tarpon remain a great target early and late. These fish run 10 to 20 pounds and spend as much time in the air as they do in the water. The Green Lantern has been my favorite lately but late yesterday in low-light conditions, the Natural was producing better – “dark day-dark fly.” Sight fishing for reds on the oyster bars and points remains good, especially south of here.
On another note, it seems the 8 year stalemate between the federal government and state of Florida on the Everglades restoration is over. This is good news for continuing the largest single environmental project in US history, almost $11 billion dollars. One of the first projects to be started is right out our backdoor, a 55,000 acre wetland restoration in the Picayune Strand. Here is a link to their website with details about the agreement and individual projects: www.evergladesplan.org/index.aspx
All the best,
Captain Bill Baldus
