by John Kumiski
Introduction and Equipment Selection
This article gives specific, detailed information to fishermen working out of canoes on where and how to catch fish in Flamingo, Everglades National Park.
First let's discuss tackle needs. Spin fishermen need a 6 1/2 or 7 foot rod with matching reel loaded with 8-12 pound line. Plug casters need something similar. Fly fishers should have an 8- or 9-weight rod with a weight forward floating line and some kind of sinking line as well. Make sure you have adequate backing. You can hook some fish here which may equal your own weight!
Effective lures include the DOA Bait Buster, both shallow running and deep sinking versions, the DOA Shrimp, the Bagley's Finger Mullet (deep sinker) in natural mullet finish for tarpon, soft plastic jerk baits, the 52M and 7M Mirrolure, some kind of popping plug, the Johnson Minnow, gold or silver, 1/4 ounce, and various sizes of leadhead jigs, preferably tipped with shrimp. The DOA TerrorEyz is an extremely effective bait. If you can catch some, live finger mullet make superb tarpon baits.
Fly fishers need some large and small popping bugs (#4-3/0), large and small streamer flies including the Deceiver and seaducer, and some Clouser minnows. Don't forget to include flies with weedguards in your collection. The selection of effective flies is large. Bring your own favorites.
You of course need all of the Coast Guard required equipment for your canoe. In addition, a 10-12 foot push pole will come in very handy for working in shallow areas. Good serviceable poles can be made of closet dowel or aluminum swimming pool poles, but the best poles available come from Moonlighter Marine Products (800-329-POLE). The 14 foot ferruled model is perfect for canoes, breaking apart for convenient stowing on board and for home storage.
Be sure to bring adequate food and water on your day trip, and do not (at your own peril) forget either the sun block or the insect repellant. Use the strongest types available for both.
The Options Out Front
The fastest and easiest trip out of Flamingo requires nothing more than a five-minute paddle. It is the spoil islands and dredge hole between Bradley Key and the walk-in campground in Flamingo. Remember, though, that fishing anywhere out front from a canoe requires lovely weather!
All kinds of fish can be caught in this hole, and the best part is that few people fish it. In the warmer months it holds tarpon, usually smaller ones, but sometimes during early summer the big boys will be there. Jacks are in the hole all winter. Snook, seatrout, redfish, sheepshead, snapper, and drum make their livings here as well.
In order to launch the canoe at the walk-in campground you need a higher tide phase. You can fish the hole at low tide, but will have to launch at the boat ramp at the marina store.
Always look for signs of fish before actually fishing. Tarpon will roll if present. Feeding jacks will often be chasing mullet on the surface. If you see jacks, throw a popper, but if it fails to produce a Bait Buster usually will. Tarpon still like the Bagley Finger Mullet or the DOA Bait Buster. If nothing is showing try a jig tipped with a piece of shrimp. You can never tell what might take this combination.
Now for a specific piece of advice. As the high tide begins to ebb, the current flows from east to west. Once the water gets low enough though, the flats no longer allow the water to move this way. Typically at the tide phase I'm talking about here, the bowl shaped nature of the edge of the dredge hole will be apparent.
At this point, water draining the flat by Bradley Key all comes through a little cut into the west end of the dredge hole. Any fish on that flat must retreat to the dredge hole via this cut. Jacks and snook patrol the mouth of the cut where it dumps into the hole, waiting for bait to wash out. Jerk baits, Bait Busters, popping plugs, or large streamers or popping bugs can all produce well here.
Fishing at either end of the spoil islands or along their shorelines can produce snook, tarpon, crevalle, redfish, and seatrout.
Anytime you see tarpon rolling you can drift and blindcast, or wait and cast directly to the spot the fish just rolled. You'll likely suffer the same amount of frustration either way. The DOA Bait Buster, Bagley's Finger Mullet, or brown/orange streamer fly combinations, are as likely to work as anything will. Be prepared for a spectacular aerial show when you hook up.
If you're in the hole on a rising tide, you can work the grassflats between the hole and Bradley Key (both sides) for redfish, seatrout, and snook. Stingrays make excellent targets for your casts, as they are frequently accompanied by redfish.
Snake Bight also provides good action including sightfishing for reds. Launch the canoe on the bayside ramp by the marina. As soon as you come out into the bay take a left and head east. You will need good weather and a rising tide to paddle along the shoreline to the bight. This stretch of shoreline can be productive,and you may see reds, especially on rays. After you pass Joe Kemp Key, definitely keep your eyes open for any signs of fish- rolling tarpon, tailing reds, skipping baitfish, etc. Snook are another distinct possibility.
A dredged, marked channel cuts the length of the Bight. On either side are flats covered with a thick layer of seagrass. Reds move up onto the flats on a rising tide, especially in October and November. A canoe equipped with a pushpole is an excellent way to hunt for them. The preferred method is to stand up and pole while sightfishing. In this area it's the rare stingray not followed by hungry reds. Keep your eyes open.
When the tide falls, the fish on the flats east of the main channel move into the finger channels feeding it. Only a small boat can explore these. Look for stingrays, the reds love to hang around them. One can also blindcast up into these channels, too. Good lures include the Johnson Minnow, small jigs, or most flyrod lures. Snook, jacks, and seatrout are other species you'll likely encounter.
Snake Bight is tough to fish on windy days, though. When it is breezy, canoeists can take a short paddle down the Buttonwood Canal to the Bear Lake Canoe Trail head. At this point, a few different options await-
Option #1- launch a canoe into the Buttonwood Canal and head north. Sometimes you'll see tarpon rolling in the canal itself. Good luck catching one here. I've never had any success in this fairly deep water.
When you reach Coot Bay, see which way the wind is blowing. With a wind from the east, northeast, or north you can sightfish in the trough along the edge of Coot Bay for snook and tarpon, and sometimes redfish. Take a right once you enter the bay and work along the shoreline with your pushpole, standing up as you search for fish. The DOA Shrimp or a Seaducer produce well here.
If after 30 or 40 minutes you've yet to see any sign of life, take the hint. Cross Coot Bay and head west along the southern side until you reach a creek mouth. You should also head in this direction with a south or west wind. If you see or catch fish along here, stay in the bay. If you haven't had any luck, paddle up this creek, which leads into Mud Lake.
Mud Lake is one of my favorite places to fish. No motors are allowed, so plenty of solitude awaits. Further, fish love the place. The main targets there are redfish, black drum, and snook.
As you enter the lake, stand up and paddle or pole slowly along the lee shore. Look for redfish and also black drum. The reds will often be pushing wakes or will even have their backs out of the water, especially early in the day. They leave mud trails similar to the contrails left by jet aircraft. Either fish will take a shrimp, and the reds will also take a jig or gold spoon. Small streamers work very well here, too. When you reach the far end of the lake, paddle down the creek into the canal and turn left (east). A paddle of forty minutes or so will take you back to portage to the Buttonwood Canal.
If you want to venture out into the middle of the lake you'll find a bunch of fallen trees out there. Snook lurk among the tangles. Again, surface plugs with plug tackle, or fly tackle with stout leader systems are recommended among these snags.
Another variation to this trip is to launch in Coot Bay Pond and go to Coot Bay that way. You can fish Coot Bay Pond, and fish certainly come in there. You avoid the powerboats going up the Buttonwood Canal this way, but you have to return the same way you went in unless you have the luxury of two cars.
Option #2- Portage your boat into the canoe trail and paddle for about forty minutes. On your right will appear the entrance to Mud Lake. If you paddle another five minutes, the entrance to Bear Lake will appear on your left. Bear Lake has lots of blowdowns, courtesy of Hurricane Donna. Snook and redfish call these snags home. Tarpon to thirty pounds (most are smaller) also live here. Seatrout swim in the open water.
In Bear Lake the east side and north sides have been most productive for me. The water here is so tannin-stained that sight fishing for anything but rolling tarpon is difficult. Use some kind of surface bait to blind cast among the snags. Beefier tackle is strongly suggested here. If you hook a big snook in all those trees you'll never get her out of there anyway.
It is entirely possible to catch four or five different species of fish out of these two lakes in one day, and not see another fisherman the whole time. A trip into this area is highly recommended.
West Lake
West Lake has a boat ramp and outboard motors up to six horsepower are allowed. West Lake is bigger than Bear Lake, and so is best fished with a north or south wind. With the breeze from the east or west, the wind whips right down the lake and little protection will be found. Fish populations are similar to what's found in Coot Bay- reds, snook, and small tarpon up close to the mangroves, and trout in the open water.
A canoe trail runs through West Lake, into Long Lake, down Alligator Creek, and out into Garfield Bight. If time and attitude allow, you may want to explore and fish along part of this route.
Pearl Bay/The Hell's Bay Canoe Trail
For the Hell's Bay trip, drive out of Flamingo toward the park entrance. You will see the sign for the Hell's Bay Canoe Trail in about seven or eight miles. The landing is on the left, or north, side of the road. The narrow, shallow, winding trail initially works its way through dense mangrove forest. After a while it opens up into a series of small bays. The trail is marked the entire way to Hell's Bay by numbered PVC pipes.
Largemouth bass and bream can be caught in the first bays, but as one goes along the salinity increases and redfish, snook, ladyfish, jacks, and sharks will start making up the catch. You may also catch some exotic cichlids, introduced into south Florida waters by aquarists.
You can effectively blindcast to structure back here. The main problem is every place looks like it should hold fish. Concentrate your casts on points, pockets, and passes or creek mouths. Also, by all means stand up and search for signs of fish where you can. This opportunity will happen more and more the closer you get to Pearl Bay.
In about three hours of steady paddling the Pearl Bay chickee is reached. For those with a taste for adventure, the Hell's Bay chickee is about another hour. You can't make it there and back and spend time fishing as well in only one day, though.
Since the entire route is protected by trees, this is an especially good trip to take if time is short and the wind is howling. You can stay in the lee most of the way and not have to deal with waves or strong currents.
The bays are rather shallow, so surface or shallow running plugs will work best. On one memorable solo trip in October several years ago, I caught sixteen snook on streamer flies, all from around one point of land. If the fish are in the backcountry, this area can be very hot! It can also be completely devoid of life. Fishing as always is fishing.
One thing you must realize before you head back here, though, or for that matter anyplace in the Everglades backcountry- it's very much of a hit or miss proposition. You may find loads of fish, or almost none, or anything in between, especially on a day trip. In order to guarantee that you find fish, a several day trip is a much better idea. Talk to rangers, or other fishermen, or the folks at the Marina Store to try to get information before making a final decision on where to go.
There are several freshwater ponds with largemouth bass along the Flamingo Highway between the park entrance and Flamingo. Parotis Pond, Sweet Bay Pond, and Sisal Pond are some of them. I don't fish for bass in the Everglades, so I haven't investigated this opportunity beyond some roadside scouting. I can tell you that fish will be clearly visible if they're present. You'll need a freshwater fishing license. You also need to keep in mind that park bass have consistently tested high in mercury. Don't eat them.
If you don't have a canoe of your own, you can rent one at the Flamingo Marina for around $25/day. For more information about canoe, boat, or hotel/cabin reservations, write Flamingo Lodge, Marina, and Outpost Resort, 1 Flamingo Lodge Highway, Flamingo, FL 33034, or call (813) 695-3101 or (305) 253-2241.
Have fun planning, and enjoy your trip.
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This article was written by John Kumiski of John Kumiski Outdoors and Travel. Contact him at his website www.johnkumiski.com or via email at john@spottedtail.com. Copyright John Kumiski.
John Kumiski 's most recent fishing guidebooks are How and Where to Catch Redfish in the Indian River Lagoon System (Argonaut Publishing Company), and Fishing Florida's Space Coast (Argonaut Publishing Company).
John Kumiski's newest book is Redfish on the Fly- A Comprehensive Guide.
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