Finding Fish at Chatham Bend, ENP

by John Kumiski

You want to explore and fish the Chatham Bend area of Everglades National Park. This Special Report tells you what you need to know! Tarpon, snook, redfish, seatrout, jack crevalle, sharks, and other species lurk, cruise, splash and roll all through this area, as do many other species. You can fish out front in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Huston and Chatham Rivers, or in the extensive backcountry areas, depending on your inclinations, the weather, and the season. You can also stop and visit the ruins of the homesite of Edgar Watson.

The Chatham Bend region of Florida has a sinister history because of Watson. He allegedly murdered several people on and around his homesite, and he was shot to death by numerous bullets fired from several different guns one evening while in Chokoloskee. For the complete story (or as complete as it's ever likely to get) about Watson, I highly recommend Peter Mathiessen's excellent historical novel, Killing Mr. Watson. If it's not available at your local public library, ask the librarian to obtain it on an inter-library loan. The book will show up in your mail box, and you return it to your library when you finish reading it.

Back to business. As you read this Special Report refer to NOAA chart 11430, Lostmans River to Wiggins Pass, or Top Spot Fishing Chart No. N204, Ten Thousand Islands (available from Argonaut Publishing Company).

Remember when you head off to fish here that the fish exhibit seasonal movements. Snook in particular are more plentiful on the outside during the late spring and summer and move back into the backcountry as the days get short. You may get to the river mouths and find few fish. Head into the backcountry areas then. Also remember the bottom around these river mouths and also in the rivers themselves is liberally strewn with oyster bars which are poorly marked. Use extreme caution when navigating here until you learn your way around.

Tides play an important role in fishing here, too. You'll get the best water movement around the full and new moons, and will usually find more action around the time of the new moon.

Lures and Baits
You don't need a huge selection of lures, but you should bring several of those you do choose. The Outdoor Resort on Chokoloskee carries a few items, but the only place you can really restock is in Naples. Particularly if you're camping, that is not especially convenient.

For conventional tackle users, the following are recommended- DOA Bait Busters, both shallow runners and deep runners, the DOA Shrimp, both three inch and four inch models (these are especially good for sight fishing), and the DOA TerrorEyz in root beer color; 52MRS and 7M versions of the Mirrolure; Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap, saltwater version; Bagley's Finger Mullet, deep runner, natural brown or silver finish; Johnson Minnow, gold, 1/4 ounce; a some floater/diver plugs like the Rapala; some kind of popper- Storm's Chug Bug is a good one; soft plastic jerk or twitch baits such as the Bass Assassin 5" Saltwater Assassin with 5/0 offset worm hooks, and an assortment of jigs and tails, ranging from 1/4 to 1/2 ounce. DOA makes good ones in their CAL line. Bring hooks, sinkers, and leader material of various sizes, too.

You can buy shrimp at Chokoloskee and carry them down. Once you're out in the Chatham Bend area you can castnet mullet. You can also find crabs, an excellent bait for redfish, drum, sheepshead, and tarpon.

I dislike being nebulous, but fly fishers will find all the standard saltwater patterns work. Use large noisy streamers or poppers for casting blindly. Smaller offerings work better when you can actually see your quarry. A size range from size 4 to size 3/0 is appropriate, in both light and dark colors. You should be able to cover the water column from the surface to a depth of around six feet.

The Outside
Like most places in the Everglades (and perhaps even more so than everywhere else!), everywhere around here looks like a great place to fish. Also like everywhere else in the Everglades, searching and hunting skills are an absolute necessity when you fish here. This Special Report can tell you where to look, but it can't guarantee that fish will be there at the same time you are.

We're going to start at Pavilion Key. You can camp at the north end of the key, and it's one of several bases you could choose to set up in this area should you decide on an extended exploration. You can catch both reds and snook of the point at the north end of the key, especially at night. The shoals at the south end of Pavilion Key also produce reds, but you need calm weather conditions for them to show up here.

Snook and reds could also be found anywhere along the shoreline on the inside of this key. When searching for reds (and this is true all through this outside area) a low incoming tide is best. Although the water tends to be murky here, at low tide the water is shallow enough to see the fish. As the water comes in, the fish come in with it. My experience is that most anglers fish harder and with more determination when they're certain the fish are there, and what more could you need to know than actually being able to see them?

Snook fishing tends to be more of a blind casting situation. You want a lure that will make some kind of commotion to attract old bucketmouth's attention. Noisy surface plugs or plugs with rattles are excellent. You can put a plastic worm rattle in the DOA Bait Busters or the soft plastic jerk baits so they produce a little more noise, too.

Directly west of Pavilion Key lie two more islands. Between and around these islands you may find snook, tarpon, or redfish. Work the flats and especially the points carefully.

If you head west again you will come to the Huston Coves. As you first enter the coves, shoreline mangroves will provide shelter for both snook and redfish (again, try to fish the low incoming tide). As you work back into the cove you will find fewer snook, but more sharks. These sharks will hit the same lures that the reds and snook will. The reds may be found with equal frequency down into the cove as they were out near its mouth.

As you come out of the more western cove (closest to the Huston River mouth) a large oyster bar extends out from the point. This is a superb area for both snook and reds. You can fish from the boat or get out and wade if the water's not too deep.

The entire shoreline between here and the next oyster bar at the Huston River mouth itself can be quite productive. There's even a small sandy area where you can sightfish, although the fish found here are usually smaller sharks. On the west side of the river mouth several oyster bars and mangrove roots provide excellent cover for snook. Jack crevalle will patrol the drop off. I've even caught Spanish mackerel here while wading. It is a fishy area!

In the deep water of the river mouth you may well see tarpon rolling. If you want to try for them try the Bagley's Finger Mullet. This will probably an exercise in patience, but you'll never get one if you don't try.

The north shoreline of Storter Bay is another fine place for both snook and reds. The snook will tend to be found on the points. Actually, any point or oyster bar anywhere in this entire area may well give up a fish or two. You need to look, and cast.

Between the Huston River mouth and the Chatham River mouth is an island. On the gulf side a large oyster bar and several smaller ones extend out. Again, all these bars and the coves between them are good places to prospect.

In the mouth of the Chatham River (where it's narrowed down just before it enters the Gulf) you may see tarpon rolling.

To the east of the Chatham River mouth there are two coves. The first one is usually a waste of time. The second can be excellent, from the point separating it from the first all the way out to where the shoreline rounds the corner and heads off to the east again. This cove is essentially a shallow flat and in it you can sightfish sharks, reds, and snook. You will find an unattached oyster bar in the cove. Reds love this place. Also, since this cove is shallow it's a good place to fish on higher tides.

Once you come out of this cove, head out to Mormon Key (weather allowing). You can camp on Mormon Key, and it again makes an excellent base of operations. Both snook and reds can be caught around this key. Search the grass flats between Mormon Key and the key to the east on a low rising tide for reds.

The Rivers and the Backcountry
In spite of the fact that the outside provides superb fish habitat and is often very productive, nothing is guaranteed. Especially during the winter months, you could get out there and find nothing. Or you might be blown out because of strong winds. So you need an alternate plan. Fortunately, the rivers and the backcountry provide for this.

Both rivers are loaded with oyster and shell bars and islands, making for hazardous navigation, especially close to the Gulf end. These obstructions also act as fish attractors, and provide angling opportunities when weather or sea conditions outside prevent effective prospecting. If you've already searched outside and found little or nothing, a short move into the river is unlikely to produce either. Since once you get far enough up the rivers to lose the bars and oysters these waterways are fairly sterile*, you need to go all the way back up into the backcountry.

Huston Bay and Last Huston Bay do not provide as much angling as you might expect. Between markers 103 and 105 you'll find sometimes reds and snook around the bars and along the south shoreline of the bay, or on the north end of the island to the northwest of marker 103. But for the best shot at some fish, go northeast of marker 103, around the point (look here for snook) and into the shallow back bay behind the islands on the east side of Huston Bay.

You will probably find a dense growth of an aquatic plant here, which will foul your outboard- shallow draft boats only! You will also find seatrout, snook, redfish, and sharks. You will find three coves on your left after you round the point out of Last Huston Bay. Skip the first and second, and get to the largest one, the third, which is shaped roughly like a giant horseshoe.

Along the shoreline of this cove is a trough. In this trough you will find snook, redfish and sharks if the fish are in the backcountry. You may also find these animals on the flat of the cove, but that depends on the water depth and also on the thickness of the weeds. Surface lures will work well for snook and sharks. Something that goes down a bit will be better for reds. The DOA Bait Buster shallow runner is an excellent choice. Hair bugs or large streamers produce for fly fishers.

Once you get to the far end of the cove you can turn around and go out the way you came in, or continue along the same shoreline until you get to a small creek. You can use this creek to return to Huston Bay, and from there back to wherever you're going. Or you could head up Northwater Creek and explore even further back. If you choose to do the latter, please let me know what it's like. I've never been up there myself!

*There are plenty of snapper in the deeper holes along these two rivers.

The Watson Place
While you're in the area you really should stop by the Watson Place for a visit
and perhaps a picnic. The Park Service maintains a campsite here, but I don't recommend camping there. Even if you don't get the creepy feeling I did when I camped there, in the evening the mosquitoes and no-see-ums are horrible and the raccoons are possibly an even bigger nuisance than they are elsewhere in the park.

Although you might find it hard to believe, Watson had a farm here, and raised about 20 acres of sugar cane with which he made rum. The kettle and the ruins of the chimney are still there. There's a fine poinciana tree on the river bank, and wild persimmons and bananas still grow in the back. As you swelter under the sun and fight off the hordes of bugs, think about how tough Watson and other early settlers of this region had to be to endure the hardships which living here must have posed. It's hard to imagine men with that kind of mettle nowadays!

Conclusion

This article has shared with you the secrets of fishing the Chatham Bend area of Everglades National Park. I highly recommend spending several days exploring and appreciating this wild region, and sincerely hope you have a wonderful 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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Copyright © John Kumiski. 2007