# Everglades Fishing Report



## fatman

damn, that's some fine work


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## THE OUTLAW

Hell ya ! 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️


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## iMacattack

nice work sir!


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## fishicaltherapist

Congrats on a FINE & enjoyable trip Viking !!!!


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## dan_giddyup

Living vicariously... thanks for the report and pics!


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## BassFlats

Any video John?


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## Sublime

Heck yeah


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## Viking1

BassFlats said:


> Any video John?


I was able to shoot a lot of video and all the photos that I posted here except for the tent picture are screen grabs of the videos. I could not figure a way to post a video unless I posted it to YouTube or Vimeo. It will take me a week to go through all the video and edit into something I can put on my YouTube channel. If I am missing something and there is a way to post a video to this site let me know and I will do it. I posted a short video to a Facebook site of one of the tarpon jumping 3 times. I also have several videos of tarpon trying to hit me by throwing the jig back at me (this is why I like using single hooks as opposed to plugs with treble hooks)


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## DBStoots

I'm thinking the reds are absent because of changes to the water in the backcountry. We had really rainy late fall, which is kind of unusual. Anybody else thinking the same?


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## Backcountry 16

Very good report.


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## Gaudy

Thanks for sharing Viking. I wish I could be doing the same!


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## lemaymiami

The reds aren’t absent you have to fish where they are... and that changes with different conditions (something I need to remind myself from time to time...).


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## TR.

4 weeks and counting, thanks for getting me even more pumped!


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## DBStoots

lemaymiami said:


> The reds aren’t absent you have to fish where they are... and that changes with different conditions (something I need to remind myself from time to time...).


Bob, sure not finding them in many areas of the ENP and 10K Islands backcountry that would normally hold reds at this time of year. Why do you think that is?


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## Viking1

DBStoots said:


> Bob, sure not finding them in many areas of the ENP and 10K Islands backcountry that would normally hold reds at this time of year. Why do you think that is?


I only get to fish the Everglades about 4 times a year now. Last year when I was down there in February the water temps were cooler. Spots that produced reds the previous years did not produce them this year even during similar tide stages. My guess is that the reds are staging in deeper water that is cooler. Most of the water I was fishing this trip was less than 5 feet and usually under 4 feet. If I really wanted to target reds on this trip I would have fished on the bottom of the deeper cuts. I can catch all the reds I want in NE Florida and I was having too much fun with the tarpon and snook to test the theory out. One other data point for this theory is that a few years ago the air temperature hit 34 F one morning and the water temp was in the 50s and nothing but reds were biting. I am interested to hear what Bob thinks.


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## FlyBy

TR. said:


> 4 weeks and counting, thanks for getting me even more pumped!


3 weeks for me.


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## Ken T

Nice Report!


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## TieOneOnJax

FlyBy said:


> 3 weeks for me.


14 days and 20 hours for me, but who’s counting?


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## TieOneOnJax

Viking1 said:


> Last week I spent 5 days fishing and camping in the Everglades and 10K Islands. After seeing the weather reports for Texas and pretty much the rest of the country I felt blessed to be in Florida with days of 70 to 80 degree weather. The wind was really blowing during the time that I was fishing but this kept the bugs away. This is the first trip to this area in 50 years that I have not had to use bug spray and that includes the bad times around dawn and dusk. Fishing was excellent. The key was to find the cleanest water you could find (relative term given the amount of wind). Water temps varied very little from 78 to 80 degrees. Snook, trout, mangrove snapper, goliath groupers, jacks and lady fish where all active on the front side. Surprisingly this trip I did not catch one redfish where last trip every other fish was a red fish. In the backcountry snook and juvenile tarpon were active. Tarpon where rolling in dirty water but did not eat. Tarpon in clear/tannic water ate readily. Instead of blowing through areas I would motor very slowly looking for rolling fish. I used only artificial bait and the best producer was a 3" white plastic paddle tail on a 1/4 oz chartreuse jig. If you wanted to catch tarpon you used a steady retrieve like a swimming mullet. If you wanted any other fish a jerk-jerk pause retrieve that imitated a shrimp was the ticket.
> 
> Camping was really nice due to the temperatures and no bugs. One night I saw over 2 dozen shooting stars in a 15 minute period.
> View attachment 168138
> View attachment 168140
> View attachment 168141
> View attachment 168142
> View attachment 168143
> View attachment 168144
> View attachment 168145


Great report and great catching! I’m heading down soon and I’d be really excited if I was to do that well. 

What campsite(s) did you stay at? Always thought a beach site would be cool but mooring up at night kinda sketches me out with the tide and weather sometimes conspiring against you without warning.


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## lemaymiami

My best guess about redfish movements is simply this.... We're having a very mild winter - with none of the extended periods of cold weather (and the cold water temps that come with that kind of weather) so the fish are in transition much earlier than normal (In other words they're somewhere in the middle of "waybackupinside" and out on the coast. Out of Chokoloskee I'd be hunting the middle bays - out of Flamingo I'd be looking at Oyster Bay and creek mouths... On the outside way up in Snake Bight and other shallow areas guides I know have been having a ball day after day on both snook and redfish up in shallow poling waters where my skiff won't go... (when the wind isn't muddying up the waters...).

Hope this helps... I'll be there tomorrow myself - in the interior mostly..... Folks I know have had banner tarpon days recently both in Whitewater and other bays as well as a few rivers....


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## Viking1

TieOneOnJax said:


> Great report and great catching! I’m heading down soon and I’d be really excited if I was to do that well.
> 
> What campsite(s) did you stay at? Always thought a beach site would be cool but mooring up at night kinda sketches me out with the tide and weather sometimes conspiring against you without warning.


Instead of telling you the specific site that I camped at this time let me share the process that I go through to select a campsite. First I start with Google Maps satellite view. Then I look for islands that have a white rim on them, that indicates a sand beach. I don't know why but usually when I camp in the area the wind comes off the Gulf from the NW, W or SW. I select several sites based on wind conditions where the island will give protection to my boat based on the wind conditions. On Google Maps satellite view you can click on your potential campsite and a pop-up box will appear that will have the GPS numbers that you can load into your unit for navigation. The day that I leave I select the campsite based on wind direction. If you have never camped in the Everglades let me give you some advice based on hard learned personal experiences: 1. Set up your camp on the sand away from shade trees and brush. Bugs love shade and bushes. Also by being in the clear you will have more air flow (wind) which will also keep the bugs away. 2. Use plastic storage containers or dry bags for food, cloths and anything else you do not want to get wet. Waves may not be that bad but a strong wind can blow a lot of water into a skiff. 3. There are racoons and other varmints, protect your food and water. 4. Bring a Thermal Cell, mosquito spray and Original Formula Skin So Soft for the no-see-ums. 5. Be aware of tides and print out the tide chart if you don't have it on your GPS unit. Most of the spots I go to do not have cell reception so most tide apps will not work. Try to plan your arrival and departure on a rising tide. Nothing is worse than trying to leave your island on Sunday to go home and not having enough water to float your boat. 6. Bring two anchors, one for the bow and one for the stern. This will keep your boat from blowing up on the beach if the wind direction changes.

Be sure you know where you are camping. In the 10K Island area you do not need a permit to camp. In Everglades National Park you need to get a permit from the Everglades City or Flamingo Ranger Station. A friend of mine got a $500 fine for not having a proper camping permit in ENP. To operate a boat in ENP you also need to pass their boater safety course and carry your ENP Boater Permit with you. Also if you are in ENP you need to have a daily or annual pass.

Hope you have a great trip and catch a lot of fish.


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## Ricky Wolbert

Viking1 said:


> Last week I spent 5 days fishing and camping in the Everglades and 10K Islands. After seeing the weather reports for Texas and pretty much the rest of the country I felt blessed to be in Florida with days of 70 to 80 degree weather. The wind was really blowing during the time that I was fishing but this kept the bugs away. This is the first trip to this area in 50 years that I have not had to use bug spray and that includes the bad times around dawn and dusk. Fishing was excellent. The key was to find the cleanest water you could find (relative term given the amount of wind). Water temps varied very little from 78 to 80 degrees. Snook, trout, mangrove snapper, goliath groupers, jacks and lady fish where all active on the front side. Surprisingly this trip I did not catch one redfish where last trip every other fish was a red fish. In the backcountry snook and juvenile tarpon were active. Tarpon where rolling in dirty water but did not eat. Tarpon in clear/tannic water ate readily. Instead of blowing through areas I would motor very slowly looking for rolling fish. I used only artificial bait and the best producer was a 3" white plastic paddle tail on a 1/4 oz chartreuse jig. If you wanted to catch tarpon you used a steady retrieve like a swimming mullet. If you wanted any other fish a jerk-jerk pause retrieve that imitated a shrimp was the ticket.
> 
> Camping was really nice due to the temperatures and no bugs. One night I saw over 2 dozen shooting stars in a 15 minute period.
> View attachment 168138
> View attachment 168140
> View attachment 168141
> View attachment 168142
> View attachment 168143
> View attachment 168144
> View attachment 168145


5 days must have been awesome, good for you..nice shots also.


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## georgiadrifter

Solid advice right there!👍🏻



Viking1 said:


> Instead of telling you the specific site that I camped at this time let me share the process that I go through to select a campsite. First I start with Google Maps satellite view. Then I look for islands that have a white rim on them, that indicates a sand beach. I don't know why but usually when I camp in the area the wind comes off the Gulf from the NW, W or SW. I select several sites based on wind conditions where the island will give protection to my boat based on the wind conditions. On Google Maps satellite view you can click on your potential campsite and a pop-up box will appear that will have the GPS numbers that you can load into your unit for navigation. The day that I leave I select the campsite based on wind direction. If you have never camped in the Everglades let me give you some advice based on hard learned personal experiences: 1. Set up your camp on the sand away from shade trees and brush. Bugs love shade and bushes. Also by being in the clear you will have more air flow (wind) which will also keep the bugs away. 2. Use plastic storage containers or dry bags for food, cloths and anything else you do not want to get wet. Waves may not be that bad but a strong wind can blow a lot of water into a skiff. 3. There are racoons and other varmints, protect your food and water. 4. Bring a Thermal Cell, mosquito spray and Original Formula Skin So Soft for the no-see-ums. 5. Be aware of tides and print out the tide chart if you don't have it on your GPS unit. Most of the spots I go to do not have cell reception so most tide apps will not work. Try to plan your arrival and departure on a rising tide. Nothing is worse than trying to leave your island on Sunday to go home and not having enough water to float your boat. 6. Bring two anchors, one for the bow and one for the stern. This will keep your boat from blowing up on the beach if the wind direction changes.
> 
> Be sure you know where you are camping. In the 10K Island area you do not need a permit to camp. In Everglades National Park you need to get a permit from the Everglades City or Flamingo Ranger Station. A friend of mine got a $500 fine for not having a proper camping permit in ENP. To operate a boat in ENP you also need to pass their boater safety course and carry your ENP Boater Permit with you. Also if you are in ENP you need to have a daily or annual pass.
> 
> Hope you have a great trip and catch a lot of fish.


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## TieOneOnJax

Viking1 said:


> Instead of telling you the specific site that I camped at this time let me share the process that I go through to select a campsite. First I start with Google Maps satellite view. Then I look for islands that have a white rim on them, that indicates a sand beach. I don't know why but usually when I camp in the area the wind comes off the Gulf from the NW, W or SW. I select several sites based on wind conditions where the island will give protection to my boat based on the wind conditions. On Google Maps satellite view you can click on your potential campsite and a pop-up box will appear that will have the GPS numbers that you can load into your unit for navigation. The day that I leave I select the campsite based on wind direction. If you have never camped in the Everglades let me give you some advice based on hard learned personal experiences: 1. Set up your camp on the sand away from shade trees and brush. Bugs love shade and bushes. Also by being in the clear you will have more air flow (wind) which will also keep the bugs away. 2. Use plastic storage containers or dry bags for food, cloths and anything else you do not want to get wet. Waves may not be that bad but a strong wind can blow a lot of water into a skiff. 3. There are racoons and other varmints, protect your food and water. 4. Bring a Thermal Cell, mosquito spray and Original Formula Skin So Soft for the no-see-ums. 5. Be aware of tides and print out the tide chart if you don't have it on your GPS unit. Most of the spots I go to do not have cell reception so most tide apps will not work. Try to plan your arrival and departure on a rising tide. Nothing is worse than trying to leave your island on Sunday to go home and not having enough water to float your boat. 6. Bring two anchors, one for the bow and one for the stern. This will keep your boat from blowing up on the beach if the wind direction changes.
> 
> Be sure you know where you are camping. In the 10K Island area you do not need a permit to camp. In Everglades National Park you need to get a permit from the Everglades City or Flamingo Ranger Station. A friend of mine got a $500 fine for not having a proper camping permit in ENP. To operate a boat in ENP you also need to pass their boater safety course and carry your ENP Boater Permit with you. Also if you are in ENP you need to have a daily or annual pass.
> 
> Hope you have a great trip and catch a lot of fish.


Thanks a bunch. Lots of good advice in there. I’ve made this trip a handful of times and learned some of what you said the hard way. I’ve always either stayed at ground sites or on a chickee because there are too many horror stories about stuff like this happening:








(not my photo, I believe I saw this on another members post years back).

This year we’re staying At Lostmens5. It’s nice that the park has finally started letting you book sites in advance, saves me from having to have 5 different trips planned depending on what sites are open when you show up to launch. I stayed there a few years back and it was pretty warm so we got some serious bug exposure. Thank god we had three thermacells and a dozen or so cans of Off Deepwoods (in my opinion, the absolute best stuff).

My GPS gives me tides but I’ve also got little laminated cards with the tides at the three closest stations.We kind of picked the dates based on the tides we preferred so we’ve hopefully got that covered.

We’ve got 6 guys on 3 skiffs and we’re all pretty excited. Lots of stalking Capt. Lemaymiami’s posts and too many hours “researching” on YouTube. All three skiffs have handheld VHF’s. I know you can’t get the park on one but we can at least get each other if something goes wrong.

Should be a blast. Now I just need to spend a full day at the vice to fill a box and we’ll be ready to rock.


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## lemaymiami

A quick heads up on the redfish situation... Yesterday the backcountry fly tournament, after the first day of fishing... only three guides failed to post a qualifying redfish on fly... I guess Florida Bay's got all the reds - and many of them at the 27" limit... The first day's results were posted on Instagram last night... 
Me, I'm off the water today but will be in the backcountry again tomorrow..


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## DBStoots

We found 'em in the backcountry out of Chokoloskee yesterday, but still snook to red ratio probably close to 10:1.


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## FlyBy

DBStoots said:


> We found 'em in the backcountry out of Chokoloskee yesterday, but still snook to red ratio probably close to 10:1.
> 
> View attachment 168722
> 
> 
> View attachment 168723


I'll take that. We got plenty of reds here but no snook.


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## Viking1

Here is a link to the video for the trip:


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## rovster

Cool video 👍


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## tailchaser16

Nice video. However, snook do not have a tender mouth at all, tighten the drag and get her in ASAP. I have lost many to sharks especially in the warmer months!


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## Viking1

tailchaser16 said:


> Nice video. However, snook do not have a tender mouth at all, tighten the drag and get her in ASAP. I have lost many to sharks especially in the warmer months!


I beg to differ. It depends on where you hook the fish and the size of the hook that you are using. A heavy drag can pull a hook on a snook. I do agree with you that getting the fish in as fast as possible, especially during hot weather is important if you plan to release a healthy fish.


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## tailchaser16

Not going to argue with you, but, you are wrong. I have hooked big girls with 8 inch mullet and 7/0 hooks. Drags so tight you need to tighten em down with your pliers to keep snook from getting you in the cover. Never ripped a snooks mouth.
Additionally, I have hooked slots and over slots on 5/0 worm hooks, 1/4 oz jig heads with 3/0 hooks and Mirrodines with size 2 trebles, again never ripped a snook’s mouth and I’ve been doing for over 30 years.

watch this video, especially starting at 5:32 where the snook gets lifted.


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## Viking1

tailchaser16 said:


> Not going to argue with you, but, you are wrong. I have hooked big girls with 8 inch mullet and 7/0 hooks. Drags so tight you need to tighten em down with your pliers to keep snook from getting you in the cover. Never ripped a snooks mouth.
> Additionally, I have hooked slots and over slots on 5/0 worm hooks, 1/4 oz jig heads with 3/0 hooks and Mirrodines with size 2 trebles, again never ripped a snook’s mouth and I’ve been doing for over 30 years.
> 
> watch this video, especially starting at 5:32 where the snook gets lifted.


To quote Ronald Reagan "I'm not going to hold your youth and inexperience against you." In the video you posted the man is fishing with a boat rod and what looks like a size 4/0 Penn Senator bait reel and a size 8/0 hook from a bridge. I am fishing from a skiff with light tackle. He is also using lady fish as bait not artificials. Natural baits are usually taken deeper into the mouth by the fish where there are harder spots to hold a hook, artificials usually end up in the upper lip or side of the mouth of a snook. In my video I am fishing in a channel next to mangroves and also casting under the mangroves using a 7' medium action Star rod with a Penn Battle II 2500 that has 10lb Power Pro. I exclusively use artificial baits. On this trip I am mostly using a standard 1/4 oz jig and a 1/10 oz jig that has a size 1 hook (Ned rig). I am making hundreds of casts in a day so using a boat rod is not an option. As I said in my original post how much drag you apply depends on the size hook you are using along the limits of your tackle, currents and all the other variables. In my opinion (and you are welcome to yours) too much drag with a standard jig hook, treble hooks on a hard bait or any small hook will be more likely to pull out of a snooks mouth.


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## Kirc

Absolutely great time to be there. Now until the rains start up are just one of the best times (middle >upper 10K), you should be able to hook up on everything; Snook, Reds, Trout, Tarpon showing up including Permit and Cobia.
As far as the HPX filled with sand,.....seriously sux. Big winter moons coupled with days and days of that nasty NE wind you can end up with tides moving 5 ft of water in areas there,...bad things can happen.


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