by John Kumiski
Introduction
You'd like to fish the Lostmans River region in Everglades National Park. This is a wonderful goal. Lostmans is one of the more remote areas in the park, and the wide variety of habitat types in a relatively small area can supply some tremendous angling opportunities. You can target snook, redfish, seatrout, snapper, jack crevalle, black drum, blacktip sharks, and sometimes tarpon. You can fish at the mouth of the river, or head up into the back bays and explore their potential. You can fish with live bait, or you can fly fish, or anything in between.
Since Lostmans is about halfway between Chokoloskee and Flamingo and is a good distance from both, you may want to camp there. Sadly, you can no longer camp on the outside on Lostmans Key. The nearest campsite on the Gulf is south of Lostmans at Highland Beach (be sure to time your arrival to coincide with high tide).
You can also camp back inside at the Plate Creek Bay chickee (recommended) or the Lostmans Five campground. Either one puts you in the middle of an incredible wilderness area with lots of wildlife and plenty of fish. Both of these sites are a long paddle from the mouth of Lostmans River, though. Be sure to stop at the ranger station in either Everglades City or Flamingo and pick up a backcountry camping permit before heading off to camp anywhere in the park.
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 Lostmans Key area and find few fish. Head into the backcountry areas then. Also remember the bottom around Lostmans Key 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. It's difficult restocking out here!
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 Lostmans 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 (incorporate rattles into your ties) 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.
Lostmans Key
Let's start with the Lostmans Key/First Lostmans Bay area, from Wood Key south to Highland Beach. When reading this, refer to NOAA chart 11430, Lostmans River to Wiggins Pass, or Top Spot Fishing Chart No. N206, Everglades Park Area (available from Argonaut Publishing Company).
First of all, any of the outside points north of Lostmans River can produce snook, jacks, trout, and redfish. Most of these points have oyster bars extending out from them. You can around fish these bars from a boat, or on the proper tide phases wade on the bar itself.
The oysters shelter various species of crabs. Finger mullet use the bars as shelter. As the tide rises and makes the bar accessible to bigger gamefish, they search for the groceries denied to them on lower water. Popping plugs, floater/diver type plugs, plugs with rattles, or large streamer flies all produce anywhere through this entire area. Make your lure make a commotion! You will usually be blind casting and want your offering to attract the attention of any predators that might be present.
Look for activity from mullet or other types of fish over the bars to see where to concentrate your efforts. Jack crevalle will often pin schools of mullet against the bars and they make a heck of a commotion when they feed.
You may see what appear to be enormous redfish tailing or cruising over these bars, especially directly in front of the Lostmans Ranger Station. If you look carefully, you will see that these are actually black drum. You need bait to catch these brutes. While shrimp (alive or dead) will work, live crabs work best. You can catch crabs by examining (and occasionally smashing) oyster clumps. This is most easily done at dead low tide. Wear gloves, the shells are quite sharp!
When casting to these big drum, toss your offering upcurrent of them, in front of their faces with about a three to four foot lead. They will smell your bait (smell is their primary feeding sense) and will usually take it. Be prepared for a long slugfest type of battle! These fish may reach weights in excess 40 pounds.
You may also see concentrations of sharks in the Lostmans Key region. Live mullet make the best bait, but cut mullet (as in fillets) also work. Small ladyfish are another excellent bait, and not just for sharks. These sharks can easily exceed six feet in length and get well over 100 pounds. Gear up appropriately, and don't forget the wire leaders.
Still north of Lostmans River, the coves between the points also harbor fish. Unless the fish are doing something to make their presence obvious, it's best to search quickly at first. In the coves you are looking to actually see the fish, usually reds but sometimes snook too. Look up tight against the shoreline. Don't get too upset about blowing fish out. Once you figure out the type of habitat they're using, you can concentrate on other nearby similar places. You can also make a mental note of a specific location where some fish were located and return there silently later to try to catch them. This is another good reason to camp near there- intelligence gained early in the trip leads to great catches as the trip wears on.
The bars and holes right in front of the ranger station are excellent places to try when water covers them and a current is running. Both snook and reds lurk in the holes, waiting for unwary baitfish to pass overhead. Don't use lures that sink fast here though- you'll quickly lose them on all the oysters.
You may see a lot of sheepshead tailing over this bar on lower tide phases. You can catch them with small crabs or shrimp if you want to. These fish tend to be small, though. Don't just blow them off- when you see them feeding there are usually reds around in the slightly deeper water near them.
On the north side of Lostmans Key you can use an incoming tide to fish along the bar extending out into the Gulf, then work the edges of the mangroves, then work the little flat between the main key and the small unnamed island on the bayside. Especially on a strong incoming tide, bait collects on this little flat and jacks and snook will patrol this area.
If any tarpon are to be found in this entire area, they'll usually be in the channel on the north side of the key or in the entrance to little creek across from the north end of Lostmans Key, just to the bayside of the ranger station. Look for rolling fish. Bagley's Finger Mullet is the best tarpon plug available. I like the deep sinking model. The DOA Bait Buster is another very effective lure, and has the advantage of having only one hook. Try both the deep running and the shallow running versions.
As you continue up the north side of First Bay, there's a point about halfway to the mouth of Lostmans River. You may find snook or redfish or both here. On low incoming tide you can search the flats on both the east and west sides of the bay. Both reds and snook will be seen here. Trout fisherman are advised to drift with the wind, casting jigs until fish are located.
If you stop for lunch on the south side of Lostmans Key, you can fish directly from the beach. This is best done on an incoming tide. I usually bring a sandspike and soak a finger mullet while I take care of other chores.
The shoreline on the south side of the entrance to the bay is a superior place to fish. You can, on an outgoing tide, drift with the current behind the islands and cast over the oyster bars, again hoping for snook and redfish. The large oyster bar extending out from shore opposite Lostmans Key is a superb fish producer. Again, the larger fish lie in the holes in the bar and ambush baitfish coming over.
The little "cove" just south of this bar produces a lot of redfish. You can sightfish them on low incoming tide, working quietly between the bar and the beach. Don't be surprised to see a snook or two in here, either.
The points at the mouth of Little Creek can produce snook and reds, and Little Creek itself sometimes loads up with reds. You can sightfish them in here, but you MUST be very quiet. They like to sit on the bar that extends out from the crotch of the "Y", where the creek splits into two branches. You'll also see them on the flat along the north shoreline of the creek.
You can continue working your way south along the shoreline past little creek. It's mangroves and oyster bars with some small patches of beach, which eventually turns into a long stretch of beach called Highland Beach. This entire shoreline can produce both redfish and snook, and they can be sightfished when conditions are right. To fish along Highland Beach you need to fish near the top of the tide. At low water this area can be a giant, exposed mudflat.
If you want seatrout, you can often catch them by blindcasting in three or four feet of water out in the Gulf in front of Lostmans Key. Jigs tipped with shrimp are probably the most effective lures for this. Lacking the shrimp, jigs with rattles or sinking plugs which make noise are second best. Drift with the wind or current and blind cast until you locate some fish, or decide that none are forthcoming.
The Backcountry
Lostmans River itself is not a particularly good place to fish, unless you want mangrove snapper. These are best fished along deep undercut banks along the river, using shrimp or small baitfish for bait. Use the smallest hooks and sinkers you can get away with and the lightest leaders that are practical. Snapper are notoriously leader shy.
Likewise, Second Bay is usually not very productive, except during the month of March. Then you can find big tarpon laying up on the west shoreline of the bay if weather and water conditions are right.
If you want to fish the backcountry, continue up Lostmans River until you get to the Wilderness Waterway markers. Between markers 53 and 55 there is a break in the islands, and a bay extends off to the west. The points, passes, and creek mouths in this area can be productive. The northern shorelines can also produce fish, especially when a cold north wind blows.
You need to search this area fairly rapidly until you start finding fish. Again, don't worry about blowing out fish if it helps you figure out where they're hiding. Once you know this, fish similar areas. Work your way up into some of the creeks. Lostmans Creek Number Three is a good one to explore.
You may want to continue along the Wilderness Waterway past Onion Key and into Two Island Bay and beyond. Work the mouths of every single creek you come to. You need to make accurate casts, as the snook will usually be right up along the roots and will not move far to take a bait.
The south shoreline of Two Island Bay where the creek enters can be good. Plate Creek Bay and Dad's Bay are other good places. You may want to run up Lostmans Five Creek. Snook and tarpon can be caught along with largemouth bass up in here as it gets into the winter months.
Fishing up here really is a search mission. The area is large, and the fish (primarily snook) could be anywhere. It takes time, but you must search in order to find the fish. Hunting skills are at a premium. Chart reading skills and a compass are obviously very helpful, too! Write down anything you learn on your chart so you can use it next time you fish here. Building your experience base on your first trips will pay big dividends on subsequent forays.
Conclusion
The Lostmans River area is one of the finest places to fish in North America. Use the suggestions in this Special Report and your own skills as an angler, and you should have a wonderful trip. Good Luck!
********************************************************************
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 2007 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.
File LKENP
|
