Everglades backcountry and Boca Grande Feb. 4-14, 2k9

[flyfishsalt]

Over the last couple weeks the fishing has been very difficult. It was super cold and the wind has been very strong. Water temps got down to 59.8 in Pine Island Sound (brrr). It all started to turn around about a week ago but has been getting better slowly. The Reds that are on the flats will tail on the right tide, but the wind is making that a non option when it blows. In the middle of the day we have found reds on the large sand bars in Charlotte Harbor and have been able to feed them 1 out of 10. In addition there are massive Snook starting to move out of the back and I am hoping to get some of them to hand this weekend.

South in the Everglades where I have also been doing multiple day trips it is a totally different scene. Fishing in the backcountry for Snook, Reds, and baby Tarpon was the plan. We headed south and found tons of bait in the warm water (68.7) and found the Snook popping on the surface in the middle of the afternoon. We fished for them with my 7 weight with a floating line and a hand full of topwater gurglers. It was a great way to spend the day and we landed several small Snook and one baby Tarpon. In addition on a two day overnight we had shots at Tarpon 60-100 lbs. laying up on shallow muddy bays.

[lemaymiami]

That chickee looks like the one up near Sweetwater... great report, glad you're finding them...

I've had a few nights this past four weeks when the water temps were as low as 54 degrees in Biscayne. The backcountry is calling...

[flyfishsalt]

Yea it sure is Captain Lemay. I often times camp just south of E-city when headed south on the first day and we do not get off early in the am. I feel each different backcountry campsite has a unique and special feeling about them. I have stayed on Sweetwater a few times and there is a friendly aligator that hangs around the chickee. I don't know if someone fed him at some point or if the spirit of old man Watson has passed into him, but he will stay right next to the chickee each time I have camped there. It is wild because you forget he is there. I have walked out in the middle of the night to take a pee and looked down into the water and there he is, just a couple feet below. I personally think he likes people and loves to get close enough to be apart of the action, hear the conversations at night, and hang out with campers when they are around. In the overall sceme of things he probably only sees people a few days a week during the busy season and can go a month without seeing anyone in the summer and fall.

[lemaymiami]

In another month that area will turn on with very big (very difficult) snook in clear skinny bays. Whenever I work that area I'm looking for lots of 'gators. Seems I don't see the snook in that area unless the 'gators are there too...

A word of warning about "friendly" gators... I once saw a big bull gator take a great blue heron that was standing on top of a seawall. The wall was every bit of four feet tall and the gator was in the water.... I heard a loud squawk and turned in time to see the gator sliding back down the wall with bird sticking out of his mouth... Those chickees are barely three feet off of the water... Anytime there's a 'gator that's bold enough to come near you he's trouble. They only do that when someone has been feeding them.