For most people, the Florida Everglades always conjure images of dense swamp land. Mosquito infested stagnant waters, full of alligators and snakes. For me, I have images of abundant wild life and great fishing. I picture shorelines unscathed by condos and development. Fishing areas lightly pressured or at least less pressured than my home waters of Tampa Bay.
Jason Stock (Jmsnooky) and I took a little road trip to Chokoloskee, Florida. Choosing to concentrate more on the fishing I opted not to do the camping. We stayed at the Parkway Motel & Marina right on the water. The wasn't fancy but had everything we needed.
We left Tampa 5am, after a stop for gas we were there by 8:30am. After checking in and putting the boat in the water we were on our way in 30 minute. With the cold front that just blew in,it was cold and gusting 20mph winds. There was no water to be found this morning. Neither of us was familiar with the water says so we decided to run the ocean side. Needless to say we got a bit wet this cold morning.
We fumble around a bit and even almost got grounded on sand bar. The everglades everything looks fishy so decided to concentrate on areas where the fish might go when it's cold, creeks and creek mouths. This strategy paid off well.
The creeks were lined with sea birds and alligators up on the mud banks. You felt like you stepped back in time. The creek waters were murky and you really couldn't see the bottom. There were plenty of life however. I could see bait fish moving about , the occasional blue crab would float by and the sweet sound of snooks busting bait all around us.
Once we found the creeks the bite was good. I used my rod to check dept every now and then. For the most part we were only in about 2-3' of water. Using jigs was out of the question as the fallen trees and murky waters made for constant snags. The lure of choice by far was the Mirror lure "Mirro Minnow". The shallow water suspending plug. We alos caught them on the Swimming Image but the Mirro Minnow was the clear winner today. We ended up boating 15 snooks in 2 hours of fishing before we decided to call it day about 2:30pm to make the run back and get some food and rest for the next day.
The next morning we were on the water ways by 6:30am. Making the long run back into glades our expectations were high. We fished the creak mouth like we did the day before. We saw a couple small tarpon roll and got a few snooks but the bite was a bit slow. The temperature had risen a bit so after about 15 fish we decided to do more exploring after a short lunch break.
Our 1st spot yielded dividends right way. We got 3 hook ups and landed 2 snook in the 1st 30 ft. or shore line. Jason sight casted a nice snook which we got on video. Turning the corner we started seeing puffs in the mud. Thinking they were mullet I paid no attention. Then we saw them, hundreds and hundreds of snooks in schools like mullet.
We sight casted snook after snook after snook. Like most people that fish Tampa Bay, I've had snook bites like this on live bait before but never on artificials. (The deeper water gave us the chance to use the Yo Zuri Pins minnow in the small and medium size.) We ended up with about 40 snooks and actually left them biting to do more exploring.
We caught a couple more snooks in the new area. However going into the mangroves to retrieve the lure I hit my trolling motor on rock coming in too fast and ended up ripping the mount off. This kinda cut our day short about 2pm. On the way in we made a stop and Jason got 2 more snook while I push poled the banks.
We ended the day with a nice dinner a local restaurant the locals called "Captain's Table". We both chow down on the special of 8oz prime ribe, all you can eat salad and shrimp. We both agree we could spend months here in the Everglades and couldn't see it all. We also agree this place needs to be revisited. For everyone's sake, let's hope this alligator and mosquito infested swamp land stays this way for quite a long long time.
First class pics and reporting ApolloBeachSam. Your camera work is exceptional! The subjects captured even better. I love the facial of the Snooks...those beady upturned eyes are built for breaking the surface pillaging bait. Thanks for posting. Stay away from those Gators...they look a little grumpy.
HOLWACHAGOT
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