# Chokoloskee Trip



## flyclimber (May 22, 2016)

Made the long haul from Jacksonville to the Glades for a couple days of fishing! We left JAX around 2:30 AM to avoid traffic. 

Me and the GF made it in around 10 AM and headed to the back country. Being the first time I had even seen the water we mostly putted around and hit one small lake. Had a really good shot to a over-slot Snook with no eat. The only fish of that day was a mini snook on the fly, pounding some mangroves. We did see more but couldn't connect. Not to mention at 4:30 we were almost carried away by mosquitos and no-see-ums. 

After a very rough nights sleep in the only motel we could find that had a room, we decided to go back to Chokoloskee with dead shrimp. On the way back from Naples, we hit one of the ditches and I hooked and landed my first Gar (Alligator) on fly! I was secretly hoping it was baby tarpon, but no luck. Once we were on the water, we headed to the gulf but didn't go very far from the channel due to intermittent engine issues. (Turns out I needed to replace the fuel/water separator filter). The gulf was almost a glass pane, very flat and beautiful. We found a flat that had some very snobby sheepshead, didn't even want the stinky shrimp we offered. After hitting two more coves working our way back in to the marina with denials from two different nurse sharks. We hit one more flat in the midst of oyster bars to catch 4-5 fish of all different species. Ladyfish, whiting, trout, catfish. Tried getting back to the back country but didn't end up finding anything. 

I loved running the back country in the HB and maybe next time I will be able to go deeper and explore a really cool resource. Hopefully finding some more fish!


Thanks to @Backcountry 16 and @lemaymiami for helpful insight. PICS to follow!


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## Backcountry 16 (Mar 15, 2016)

Glad to help let me know next time and I'll meet you down there. Exploring is almost as fun as catching. And it's an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as Captain Lemay as he's way more knowledgeable than me.


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## Rookiemistake (Jan 30, 2013)

Nice man how long was the trip down Im from jax and been wondering how the traffic would be


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## ol' superskiff (Oct 22, 2015)

I was down there this weekend also, we camped in the back country on the rogers river bay chickee. Met some guys in the am who were leaving and had camped there the night before. Nice group from Tampa in some gheenoes. 

Lots of small snook on the fly, and good times a plenty. Glad you could experience it for your self. Looking back I think (like backcountry said) exploring is maybe the best part. Keep pushing in a little further each time. I've been going down there a long time and I'm still pushing.


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## flyclimber (May 22, 2016)

Some pics.


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## flyclimber (May 22, 2016)

Rookiemistake said:


> Nice man how long was the trip down Im from jax and been wondering how the traffic would be


I wanna say it took us about 6.5-7 hours but our truck only got about 200 miles to the tank. 16 MPG and 65 MPH isn't the most efficient, but the trailer axles were cool to the touch and the truck just chugged along. 

We ended up doing about 1300 miles between our whole vacation. Two trips from Gainesville to Ozello, one more to Ceder Key. Chokoloskee to West Palm and back to JAX.


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## Padre (Jul 29, 2016)

We are headed there for 5 days on the 20th. Looking forward. This is an annual trip for us panhandle boys.


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## BassFlats (Nov 26, 2018)

Thanks for the report . We went to Choko the day after Christmas and when we got there at 11am all the boats in the basin were sitting on the bottom due to low tide and a high east wind. We fished Thursday morning with not much luck. Another crew fished Saturday, with much better conditions, and tore the tripletails up.
Timing is everything .


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## gheenoeclassic (Jan 13, 2019)

There's been a ton of rat reds around 10k islands. Hanging around oyster bars when the tides moving. I assume it's the same for choko.


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