Day 17 fishing – The Florida Everglades – 4/25
The three Amigos are back together again in the Florida Everglades, April 2022. My only prior experience fishing in the Everglades was about seven years ago when my wife and I took a guided fishing trip there. We were looking for tarpon (aka poon) We never found them, but we did manage a few fish and had a good time.
Today was our first day on the water. in the Glades. Mel has a sweet condo in Everglades City and it is right on the edge of the largest National Park in the US. We ran over 50 miles in the boat today and barely covered a small section of the park. It is truly massive. Everglades is the host to a number of game fish species that are suited to fly fishing. The snook and the tarpon take top billing, but there are redfish (red drum), black drum and several others that will take a fly.
Three people in a flats boat is an odd number, so Mel contacted his friend Carl and Carl took Mel in his boat and Reid and I went in Reid’s boat.
Most of the day was spent searching for fish, but we ran the boats for almost an hour before stopping at our first spot. We found fish and took shots. As each of us landed a fish it meant that our partner was up and we traded places on the poling platform.
Today’s catch was all snook. Reid managed the biggest fish and I had a few smaller ones. We used flies tied by Mel and they worked fine. My 9wt Scott Meridian was the rod of choice with a 9′ leader with a 30lb Butt section about 7′ long and 2′ 20lb flouro section, plus 12″ or more of 40lb flouro bite tippet. We were hoping to see tarpon but none materialized.
