Cold Fronts and Winter Waters....

Here in Miami, the last three days have been calm and cool-if not just plain cold. The water temperatures have been slowly coming down on a daily basis, but the clear skies have created the kind of persistent sunlight that makes the afternoon shallows the best opportunity aperture for bonefish in Biscayne Bay. To wit, as I write this at 6 a.m. on saturday, the air temperature is 57 degrees. That kind of scenario creates an overnight water chilling that the better part of daytime must undo and warm up for the flats fishing to provide viable and consistent results.

And yesterday's inshore fishing provided nothing unexpected. I made this particular trip with my friend Don Eichin who shares with me the compulsion to be on the water before the sun rises. This may be aesthetically desirable, but self-defeating when bonefishing in SOFLA'S winter waters.

I was glad to be back in my boat, which was sidelined not just for repairs but thoroughly avoided for 2 weeks as the last thing I wanted to do was cope with the holiday crowding in the marinas and waterways.

At first light, we looked for bird activity as well as baitfish signs. Though we found both, the last of the incoming spring tide only gave up a few jacks.

By the time the tide was going out decently, the sun was high enough to start flats fishing. The way I bonefish in Biscayne Bay this time of year is to either run south and pole around the ocean side of Islandia in 5 feet of water looking for bunched bonefish schools or chummimg flats dropoffs. Today's plan involved the latter as Don does not do much poling.


We did have two separate encounters with huge bonefish. One of them spooked at my cast, while the other fish simply swam over a perfectly-placed cast. The other fish we saw were a tiny trio of fish that slipped over the flats edge into the deep before we could get off a decent cast.

Rather than wait for a few more hours of sunshine to thaw out the gray ghost hesitation, I repositioned my skiff over the flats edge and we began jigging the channel deeps.

Don used spin tackle, while I used my plug outfit with an Ambassador reel, Evolution rod, and 1/2 ounce Spro bucktail in the Magic Bus color scheme.

It was clearly Don's day. His first catch was a nice green jack, which is rare for this bay. He also caught a huge and brightly-colored coronet fish. His next significant catch was a 5-pound bonefish. This delighted Don, since this was his second bonefish-but his first on artificial. For my part, I caught a few jacks and snapper, plus a nice mackerel.

Though the results were modest, the day was filled with fun, fellowship, and fair skies.

Jan Maizler
http://www.flatsfishingonline.com/
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