Capt. Barry Hoffman's fishing report
for the Upper Keys and Florida Bay flats and backcountry.
November 28th, 2002

    The cool weather remains in the Florida Keys. As the fish adjust their feeding habits to the warming benefits of a bright sun, they'll eagerly take flies, artificial and live bait. Bonefish can be found traversing shorelines and edges of flats that have warm water falling off a shallow flat. If the wind is up, work windless shorelines or leeward island spots with little current. That'll give the water a chance to warm up, encouraging the bonefish to join the buffet line. If the fishing's slow, the barracuda have been swarming the flats early in the morning. Although not the glamorous background of a bonefish, they provide fast furious strikes, aerial acrobatics and a few good runs. Needlefish imitations or a very flashy Clouser will draw strikes on the long rod. On spin, tube lures, chug plugs worked quickly all the way to the boat will entice them. I'll often get a strike right under the rod tip, as the toothy critters decide last minute to make a meal of a lure. In the backcountry redfishing remains strong. If one is fortunate to get a quiet cool morning, expect redfish, seatrout and snook up on the flats. The warmer the water is, the better the bite. One might have to be patient early if the water is cold the fish have been a bit lethargic. Might have a stiff plug rod handy for the many large shark that cruise the same areas. Top water plugs that splash and rattle will peak the attention of a 50 or 60 pound bull shark. I split my time bonefishing and redfishing this week. Friday I fished with Ray and Elise Hartman.  On a very cloudy day we struggled to find the redfish before they found us. As they will commonly do on a cold morning, they'll bury in the bottom and sit motionless until we're just upon them. We found quite a few but were unable to do much with them without the sun. Hoping for a bit of sun to the East, we ran to another flat in search of bonefish. We did have three shots at bonefish, but the sun was getting too low to help Ray see them.  The fish won that day. Saturday I fished with Richard Bell and Mike Woodmansee. They were part of a large group of skiffs involved in a one day tournament. Their club, the Lighthouse Point Saltwater Sportsman's Association is 100 members strong and all are very involved. Might want to check out www.lhpssa.com   With a very cold windy morning, I immediately ruled out the bonefish, permit and tarpon fishing. I knew how hard it had been lately, and thought we'd concentrate on numbers. After a bit of running around, and trying new spots, I finally found the conditions I needed. In a quiet channel I found 18 redfish willing to take our shrimp tipped jigs. The guys caught a few more trout to get our point total up there. The next day I received a call from the guys that we had won it. The second place boat caught two snook and 45 seatrout. Looking forward to next year guys. Tuesday had me searching for bonefish with John Elsenwood. We fished a half day, leaving later in the day to take advantage of the warmer water temps. John hooked his first bonefish on his very first cast. Wish I could say that happened all the time. After several sustained runs, we took a few shots with John's fancy digital camera and released a chunky 8 pound fish.
 

Practice your casting,  you'll be a much luckier fisherman!
For more information please contact Capt. Barry Hoffman at:
www.flatsguide.com    / guide@flatsguide.com
home 305-852-6918  cell 305-393-2587