Rainy Day Flamingo 06/24/09

10 knot winds my azz! Me and my buddy Ken arrived at the marina in Mingo at 5am sharp, greeted by thunderstorms and rain we passed out in the truck till about 6:30, by then they had mostly disappated and we launched in a light rain and headed towards Christian Point.We weren't too happy about the conditions, the weather report called for a mild day and it was later on, but not when we were out on the water. Those 10-15 knot winds were closer to 20-25 knots, and this was confirmed when we got back to the marina later in the afternoon. The West winds limited us to fishing to backside of islands and that was fine, the fish were stacked on the lee-side anyway and this made fishing very easy...shooting fish in a barrel came to mind.

Both me and Ken tossed big topwaters all day long, the snook were ravenous! This was my buddies first time down there and he was amazed at how aggressive the fish were, 5-6 hits a cast, coming completely out of the water for it...pretty cool stuff. We fished through the rain and even that wouldn't kill the bite, I actually caught the biggest fish of the day in the middle of a downpour!

I can't really remember how many snook we caught, we both lost track at some point in the day, I'd have to say around or just under 2 dozen for me and Ken must have been close behind, he got the only red and I got a tarpon near the marina that actually towed me into the marina, well, that and the tide. I guess that rain cooled down the water a bit and made the bite last all morning long....we had a great outgoing tide too.

All in all another great day down in Flamingo and the best part was that there were no bugs to speak of! I didn't get bit by any bugs at all! And the overcast conditions allowed us to throw topwaters until noon! The only tough part of the day was paddling back from Palm Key to the marina with 20 knot winds in our faces...I needed the workout anyway. On the way out we saw tons of wildlife, crocs, gators, snakes, and bald eagles...everything seemed to be out and about yesterday...makes me wish I was down there today!