58th – 62nd days of fly fishing – November 16-20, 2024 – Fishing the Everglades with Mel
Mel and I reconnected in November this year, sans Reid(Dos Amigos this time instead of Tres Amigos), who was unable to come along due to a previous travel commitment. Mel missed out on our June trip to Teton Valley in June as he was having a health matter taken care of, so for that trip it was just Reid and me. The Everglades trips happen when the weather is right (in this case, post hurricane season) and more importantly, when the tides are right. Big tide changes are good, as they create current. A strong minus tide brings the predator fish out of the mangroves. Mel put the timing of this trip together and it just happened to be at a time when Reid had other travel commitments. We will catch you next time Reid!
Friday afternoon, my flight arrived at Southwest Florida International in Fort Myers, which is only an hour or so from Everglades City. Mel drove up to get me and there was great anticipation about this trip. Mel had a new flats boat to show off, a Spear! Small and light, easy to maneuver and capable of getting into and out of tight places in the backcountry. We fished the Spear every day except the last, when the winds were high and we wanted to use the trolling motor instead of the push pole. The Spear has not been outfitted with a trolling motor yet.
Five Days of Fly Fishing!!!
First off, if I hadn’t said it before, Mel’s condo is the bomb! It’s a really nice unit on the top floor with high ceilings, fresh paint and relatively new furnishings making it nit only nice but very comfortable. Mel completely made the place new when he purchased it about four years ago. He has a two car garage, make that a two boat garage, as he still has his Hewes Redfisher in there, in addition to the new Spear. The property also has its own boat ramp, the ultimate in convenience!
Rather than make this post long and boring by recapping each day, I will instead point out some of the highlights of the trip. We fished for five days straight, Saturday through Wednesday, and I made enough casts to have a sore arm by the end of the trip.
Highlights
The Backcountry
These highlights are in no particular order, but getting my first and then second tarpon puts it clearly near the top! The Spear proved itself to be very capable of getting into and out of, extremely tight spaces. In a nutshell, the backcountry holds a lot of fish! It’s also where the tarpon hang out, at least the juveniles. There are snook too, but not as many really big ones. You can also find mangrove snapper and redfish.
Mangrove Tunnel – getting to the backcountry involves going through a mangrove tunnel that is about a half a mile long. The spear navigated the tight parts of the mangrove tunnel well, narrow spots and tight turns. Mel said his tiller steering really made it a lot easier to make those turns. Anyway, it was cool! I have a video below that shows a short section of the tunnel. It gives you an idea but can’t come close to conveying the actual experience.
Third trip to the Glades, first tarpon
In January of this year I was fortunate enough to land my first tarpon ever, off the back of a sailing catamaran. It was a thrilling experience and the fish was in the 40lb range, so an intense fight. The story can be found here.
This trip was different. You had to find tarpon, they did not find you as they did at the boat, being attracted to our blue downlight. No, on this trip all the tarpon were found in the backcountry. Mel said the tarpon were around, but weren’t rolling in the bays as they typically do, becasue the water temp was low and the as a relut the water held more oxygen. More oxygen in the air means the tarpon don’t need to come up and gulp air. So while I was there, they did not.
Anyway, we ultimately found tarpon in the backcountry. These were the little baby tarpon 13-15″ long perhaps. Still a lot of fun to catch! Pictures of the fish are below:
The Spot
This was a big win for me personally, but it also was big for Mel. Let me explain. I was poling the Spear in the backcountry for Mel who was on the casting deck. We came to a fork in the waterway and Mel knew the path to the right was a dead end. But I asked if we could head that way anyway, as I had a hunch. The stretch was narrow at first and then opened up. Mel worked the water as we headed back. Then it opened up into a small cove, but in order to make room for a backcast, we had to hug the mangroves on the left to open up casting space on the right. Mel put a cast deep into cove, where we were seeing lots of fish activity. Mel was rewarded with tarpon eat and this fish was good sized! Mel laid on a heavy set and stripped hard, but the fish went airborne and threw the hook. We got a good look and this fish was perhaps 30+ inches and we guessed weight around 20lbs.
There were more tarpon in this pool and Mel, being the selfless gentleman that he is, he put me up on the platform for a few shots. I did eat an eat and managed to land my second baby tarpon of the trip. But it seemed at that point, the larger fish had scattered.
The Oyster Beds
There were two memorable Oyster beds. As it so happens we fished both our last day on the water which was Wednesday. It was windy that day and threatening rain. As poling would be challenging, we decided to take the Hewes Redfisher out. The Redfisher is s solid platform for bad weather days. It has a bow mounted trolling motor and Mel can sit on the casting platform and fish while controlling the speed and direction of the motor. Let’s just say he’s a good multitasker because he did quite well that day! We struggled to find fish in the morning while the tide was still falling and we were looking for good fishy spots that we also in the lee, aka out of the wind!
We managed to begin working the first set of oyster beds in the afternoon as the tide had changed and was now incoming. On the first pass, I landed a nice trout and Mel got a nice snook. So we made the decision to cover the water again, and again we picked up a few more fish, I got a small mangrove snapper and a few ladyfish, Mel got several eats and landed a smaller snook. So, as the old saying goes, “Don’t leave fish to find fish”, we didn’t! We had lunch, hung out and let the spot rest awhile before hitting it again. Fish are attracted to these oyster beds. There is good current generated by the tide changes and food like baitfish, shrimp, etc. So after lunch, we worked these beds three more times!
Each pass created new opportunities. For instance, on our last two passes, some black drum moved in. Mel took a few shots, but couldn’t get them interested. On the final pass, Mel has a big eat and got a good hookset. We we in a state of dismay when the fish surfaced and it looked nothing like anything else we had seen all trip. Mel recognized it immediately as a Goliath grouper (See pic below). Mel was thrilled to land and hold this beautiful fish. For him the first ever that he’s caught on the fly! Adding a new species to your lifetime catch list is always exciting!
It was now after 3pm and the incoming tide was streaming in! There was another oyster bed, that I had bugged Mel about previously. I had fished it on our last trip and a lot of action there. Mel was basically done at that point and decided to take me there as it wasn’t that far and the incoming tide created the right conditions for this spot. I knew right from the start where I wanted to be based upon my last trip two years ago. And yes, the fish were reliably there, but we are talking trout and ladyfish, not big snook. I was OK with that. It was the end of the trip and I just wanted numbers, I wasn’t so concerned about size. Sadly, my 7wt was out of commission as I had busted the line on it a couple days earlier. It was the right rod for these small fish, but now worries, I had planned to make the most out of my last couple of hours.
Mel was great!, maneuvering all over the bed as I began catching fishright off the bat! I put on a fly that was my favorite of the trip, a streamer that was green, white and sparkly and it had already had several fish brought to the boat. That green and white combo is perfect for trout and ladyfish. I got two mangrove snapper, two trout and about ten ladyfish to the boat in under two hours. What’s crazy is all were caught on the sme fly! At that point it was 5pm and the action on the oyster bar had slowed considerably, so we decided to call it a trip!
Mel. with his Goliath Grouper above
Sunrises and Sunsets
Every morning we were treated to he most beautiful sunrises! We caught a couple of sunsets too, but often we were off the water by the time the sun set.
It’s a Wrap!
Everglades, part III with Mel is a wrap! We had a fantastic time fishing and just hanging out! Looking forward to summer of 2025 when we get the Amigos back together in Victor, for our next Teton Valley adventure!
Awesome Mark, Sounds like now you’re a “ Compleate Angler”
Thanks John! 😀