Marine Estuaries
Everglades
Waterspout
There is one morning of Tarpon fishing I will never forget. The horizon had an orange hue to it. There were all sorts of dark clouds forming around us. Our location was Matecumbe Harbor at the time. We were running due east towards Lignumvite Key. On the far side of the harbor is a well known bonefish flat. There are several unmarked cuts in the flat there. On the eastern side of the flat is a well marked channel. To the right is the marked channel to go past Lignumvite Key to get to the bridge whenever running Oceanside.
Our plan was to veir north in Lignumvite Channel towards the flats we planned on fishing. As we came across the bonefish flat we watched a dark nimbo cumulus cloud form into a waterspout. The wind picked up first. We were running so fast in the Action Craft we had to take our hats off. Had we been wearing hats the sudden gusts of wind would have taken them off for sure. The wind gusts were sudden and abrupt. The cloud started spiraling downward. There was no questioning it, this waterspout was going to form. Sometimes a cloud will hint like it is going to turn into a waterspout then fade out like nothing or amount to some serious wind gusting. The clouds were some of the darkest I ever noticed. As we came across Matecumbe Harbor the sun was coming up. It was just getting light out. The next thing we knew it got real dark. The skies were black. The wind was gusting hard, plus it was pouring rain. The rain pelted us bad as we ran even faster than normal to get out of the storm clouds where the tornado was forming. The waterspout was more like a tornado in size. The thing came out of the clouds quick then it meandered west right towards where we were running in the boat.
We turned north towards the Petersen Keys then ran out around those islands to the north turning to run northwest to where we were planning on fishing on the edge of a flat near Barnes. The waterspout went past the island then across the flat into Matecumbe Harbor. It was tough to see since it was raining so hard. We lost sight of the waterspout in the rain, except it must have dissipated as it disappeared into the Gulf.
Believe it or not after the weather event it got real still as the sun came out. We went first thing in the morning so we would be the first boat on the flat. There were tarpon all over the deep area on the edge of the flat that morning. The number of tarpon we sighted was amazing. After our scare with the waterspout we had a good morning. It was the ideal scenario to fly-fish. The tarpon were laid up or rolling. We spooked our share of fish as we polled. I thought we were quiet as a ghost except some fish were responsive when others were almost asleep. Several fish turned on his lure almost taking as we polled along until Chuck hooked one. I noticed it was an awkward fish since its reactions as it jumped were abnormal for a fish that size. We had to put our time in that morning. After landing our one tarpon, we called it a morning then headed back to Lower Matecumbe.
