Everglades Fishing – Captain Ned Small

A new front is upon us, maybe it will shake things up a little and get the fish moving. We’re not seeing much bait in the water on the outside islands but there a re lots of glass minnows assembling in the backcountry. April is a transition month, whitebaits should appear along the beaches and the snook bite should light up any day. There are red’s on the flats down south if you can get the wind to cooperate and tarpon remain our first choice for fly rodding. Here’s one Jeff Wyman got this morning in a backcountry lake near Lostman’s.

A shore breeze is finally developing raising hopes for a new push of fish (tarpon). We’ve been hunting sleepers for the past few days, in the Islands out front. There are fish to be had, if your willing to put in the time and effort, we’ve been getting six or eight clean shots at sleepers each day plus whatever rollers we encounter. There are some big fish around but they’re spread out and there’s a lot of poling go through to get a shot at one. Here’s Alan Small with a sleeper he caught yesterday in Desperation Cove.

Fair weather is with us again bringing relief to the relentless winds. The water is clearing rapidly with the northeast wind and sight fishing opportunities are stacking up. The moon is waning into the new phase and the tide is low in the middle of the morning giving us lots of time in the shallows. It’s time to go sight fishing! Dr. Dan Newman and I fished south all the way to Lostman’s River today, sight shooting red’s and snook all the way. We struggled a little with the last gusty winds from this past front but we found fish in every spot we checked. Dan put it all together, sighting both red’s and snook in extremely shallow water. Here’s a picture of Dan with one of the red’s he caught from a secret spot near Lostman’s. We’ll be hunting sleepers again before the week is out.

Lots of bright sunshine, calm winds and tarpon. Tom Hartman sighted numerous sleepers today and got some good casts to them finally hooking one Giant for an epic battle that lasted through six jumps. He had this fish firmly hooked and was just settling down for the “down and dirty” when the connection of the fly line to the backing failed (tied by Orvis) and we lost the fish and the entire line. It was a heartbreaker because Tom got this fish hooked deeply,  had her through the most critical part of the battle, and we both felt we had a good chance of landing this one, 120 pounds.

Tuesday Rick Garcia and I went south through the backcountry. We fished our way toward the headwaters of Lostman’s, stopping for an hour or two of tarpon hunting in one of the Big Bays. We ended the run in a remote lagoon, sight shooting both redfish and snook. Rick put it all together on the red’s and snook, and came within striking distance of several nice tarpon. Here’s a picture of Rick with a nice snook from Rosalind Bay.

Days of strong northwest winds have pushed the tarpon out but the change is upon us. Light southerly winds predicted for the next few days, coupled with the full moon should have them back in here any minute. Jeff Wyman and Dr. Pete Millet and I fished Lostman’s yesterday. We were hoping for tarpon but had to settle for a dozen snooks. We found a backcountry lagoon near the headwaters that was full of big snooks. Big, as in 15 to 20 pounds. They kind of took us by surprise, layed up in the sunshine on the wrong side of the boat and we were unable to hook one. We are watching the conditions for another go at them.