68th – 74th day of fly fishing, November 6th – 13th, 2025. Everglades City, Florida
It’s been almost a year to the day since my last trip to the ‘Glades. It is truly a special place to fish and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to travel there to fly fish. This trip is only made possible thanks to my fishing pal Mel. He is gracious enough to supply a place to stay, a fabulous skiff to fish from and he not only gets us to the fishing spots but also poles the skiff for long hours each day as we look for fish.
Fishing with Matt
This year, Mel’s son Matt was along as well. What I learned is that Matt is an extremely accomplished flats guide in his own right. In fact he was the captain on our first day out, as Mel had to stay behind and help out a friend. Matt drove the skiff, poled us into position and also made lots of helpful suggestions. He knows the water and the locations to find fish and that is really key.
Above, Matt is at the helm taking us out of Everglades City. The first day wasn’t super productive as we got a late start due to my jet lag and also although we tried a number of spots, we had some difficulty finding fish. I did manage to land a few snooklets (this is a snook that 12″ or under) and also several ladyfish.
Fishing with Mel
The second day was the best day of the trip! We had the full moon the night before. . Matt was out with one of the of the local guides, Steve, on a bushwhacking mission and I was fishing with Mel. Mel was convinced that the big tide swings caused by the full moon were going to create lots of current. One thing that really hit home for me on this trip is that our target species, snook and tarpon, like to hang out in current. In a way, it is like trout in a riffle, waiting for food to come to them. What we expected to find in the current was a lot of baitfish moving and predators targeting the baitfish. So Mel felt that the best current would be found in the back country so that is where we headed first. This meant taking Mel’s smaller skiff, “the Spear” through the mangrove forest.
The Mangrove Tunnel, is literally that, it is way cool and a little creepy, as we do see alligators in the tunnel occasionally. The video above gives some sense of what it is like, but can’t come close to recreating the experience.
On the other side is a mangrove jungle, where the only exit is through the tunnel. Lots of twisty turning channels, some not much wider than the boat. This is why Mel’s boat “the Spear” is such a perfect match for the everglades. It is small, light and can travel in very shallow or “skinny” water. We are looking for channels where the current is flowing and movement in the water that signals a bait school or possibly predators chasing bait. Even when they are back in the mangrove bush, snook make a splashing noise as they are chasing bait.
Today, we found what we were looking for. Lots of bait and predators attacking it. Of course we had no idea how great it would be until we started to fish it. Working the far edge of the channel, I immediately hooked up, landing a snook, larger than the “snooklets” I caught the day before with Matt. Well, the action just continued, and what I learned almost by accident was that there were snook in the middle of the channel too! Not just on the edges.
One key point I need to make here. Mel ties beautiful baitfish patterns on a jig hook. It’s a big, wide gap hook and because it is a jig hook, it almost never gets suck in the mangrove bushes. When you are working those mangrove edges, you have to get right next to the bush and in many cases the goal is to slide your fly under those branches. A side arm cast helps. But the point is, you have to cast deep and often you end up long and in the bush. That fly is so forgiving and easy to dislodge that it encourages you to take that risk, because you know that 9 out of 10 times that fly will flip free and displodge itself. Anyway, I had a favorite color that was working reliably and I actually caught every fish on that day with the same fly!
We had continuous action for a couple of hours and I was able to land my personal best snook!
The fish above taped out at 27.5 inches, only beating my previous best by an inch but hey, it is so much fun landing these bigger fish!
So after catching several snook, we were watching activity in one of the coves and Mel identified it as tarpon! I knew right away, these were bigger fish than the baby tarpon I had caught in the past. So I began working the entire cove and at one point as I paused my fly, I felt the pick-up. A tarpon had grabbed it! I set the hook hard and put side pressure on it to get the best set possible. He jumped like crazy! And an odd thing happened, on one of the jumps, he must have thrown the hook, but it was re-embedded in the back of his head and I was able to land him after about a five minute fight. He taped out at around 30 inches, a PB for the glades!
Many more snook were caught on this day, including several over 20″, but we decided not to photograph all of them, but there are a couple more below. I ended the day at 14 snook total, plus the tarpon. What an incredible day!
To add to the fun we had a reptilian friend watching us the entire time. There are many gators in the glades and crocodiles too, just in far fewer numbers than that gators. If they are awake or moving, they are hard to capture. This one however was napping and therefore very cooperative.
Summarizing days 3-7
We had seven days of fishing on this trip, plus we took one day off. Day two that I covered above was by far my most productive, but the last day, day eight was also excellent! In between, I caught fish every day, on some days, just a few and also like the first day, where they were not very big. So here is a quick summary of days 3-7:
Day 3
The forecast today was for calm winds and so Matt and I decided to head outside and motor south for 20 miles. Mel decided to stay back and work on his bigger skiff, the Hewes. “Outside” in this case means we went out into the gulf. Outside, particularly on a calm day, you might find big tarpon rolling. You might also come across jacks attacking bait balls. We kept our eyes peeled but did not see anything solid enough to make us want to stop and fish. So as we headed back inside, the tide was so low, we were worried about getting stuck. We had to power through really low water.
From the pic above, you can see how calm the gulf was this day. I’m really surprised we didn’t see anything rolling or pounding bait. As we headed back inside, not much going on there, just an exceptionally low tide. We fished a number of spots and found nothing, so we headed back north once again ended up in the mangrove tunnel, headed to the spot Mel and I had fished the day before! And, there were still snook in there, although the tarpon had moved on.
I think I caught eight and a few were nice like the one below.
We covered a lot of water this day, 80+ miles in fact, and when we went to fill up the tank at the gas station at the end of the day, we had only about a gallon left.
During the day, my fly line began to shed pieces of the outer sheath. The line was probably four years old with only 20-30 days total on the water. I thought it was really odd that it was falling apart. Anyway, Mel had a 9wt line that would work and we spooled onto my Galvan Torque.
Day 4
Back with Mel today! Matt decided to take a kayak out. We actually decided to go back to the same spot! Back through the mangrove tunnel. The spot was still fishing, but slower than the day before. The gator was back too! Anyway, the action slowed as the tide was changing but I still managed a few nice fish like the one below. The only negative, this was the day I broke my 9 wt Scott Meridian.
Day 5
On Day 5, the weather was cooler and windy, so we decided to seek protection. Mel and I took the spear to an area very close to Everglades City. It is not a location that he regularly fishes, but the two of us had fished it before and not done very well. It was tough fishing this day too. Because I had broken the Meridian, I ended up fishing Mel’s Sage One. An excellent fly rod and the fly line was a newer version of the line Mel had givien me two days before. The adjustment took no time at all and I was making solid casts right away. The day ended with 3 small snook and 5 ladyfish, plus a snapper.
Day 6
Day 6 was a day off. It was windy as a cold front moved through. As the previous highs were in the upper 70’s and low 80’s, today the high was in the upper 50’s, and the morning low was in the upper 30’s. Cold enough to get the iguanas to freeze and fall out of the trees. This actually happened. They aren’t dead, they are just basically passed out until the temps warm up. Anyway, we went to a fly shop in Bonita Springs, 239 Flies and Outfitters. Mel was shopping for fly line for Matt, for their upcoming bonefish trip. It is a beautifully merchandized and well run shop! I was also impressed with their selection of fly tying materials! Be sure to check them out if you are in the area. We also had excellent Mexican food for lunch!
Day 7
Still cool and windy, plus dealing with a really low tide, we stayed close and fished the spot close to Everglades City. We decided that since we weren’t going far, to tow Matt on the kayak with the spear. When you are fly fishing and you are on a small boat like the spear, it is really only possible to have one person fish at a time. That’s why Matt chose the kayak and he also chose to spin cast, which is much easier from a kayak. This day was my slowest day of the trip. I got one ladyfish and one snook. I think the cool weather had a lot to do with the slow fishing. Mel had told me that snook basically stop eating when the water temp drops below 60 degrees and they are actually at risk of dying when the water temp drops to the low 50s. When I arrived, the water temp was 82, on this day it was 60.
The last day of fishing – Day 8
The last day and I was really hyped up about it! The weather was warming, which meant the water was warming too. We decided to revisit the mangrove tunnel once again and basically work that backcountry area all day. When we arrived, the water temp had risen to 64 degrees and so we were encouraged that since it was still early, there would be upside during the day. We went to my favorite spot, which I had nicknamed Mark’s corner. When we arrived, unlike the other times, there was zero current and no baitfish. I made lots of casts there and the fish were clearly absent.
From there, Mel and I went deeper into the backcountry and explored numerous bays, or lakes as we like to call them. We worked edges and corners, we looked in places where Mel had found redfish in the past. I was hoping to get a red on the trip and we did blow out a few but never had a good shot at one. I remember that we took lunch at around noon. I had been fishing for 3 hours plus and had not gotten a bite!
The good news was that the temps were still rising. Now 66 degrees! After lunch we worked the edges of that bay for another hour – nothing. As we were headed back toward the mangrove tunnel, we approached the last lake and Mel said, I have one more spot to try before we head to another area. What I found odd was that there were three boats working that lake, even though we had not seen another boat back there all day. It was now 1:30pm and thankfully the water had reached 69 degrees.
Mel found the edge that he wanted me to fish. As we approached, we saw activity, which looked like snook crashing bait. I was so hopeful and relieved to see that. Mel positioned the boat about 60 + feet off the edge. He had fished this spot before and said there was a trough about 30 feet off shore that often held snook. So for me, this meant 65-70′ casts. This was the thrid day that I had been fishing Mel’s rod and I was nailing casts this long regularly.
The first fish ate by the mangroves, right where the we saw the commotion. It was game-on and I was so relieved! And, the action didn’t stop. A couple more fish from the same spot, then as we worked the shoreline, a few others. And as I was making the those retrieves through the trough, I got a couple closer to the boat. Finally, we made one final pass back where we started and I caught one last fish bringing my total to ten. Only a couple were snooklets.
A couple of the fish are pictured above. Most fell into that 18-20′ range. You can also see the shoreline and how far off of it the boat was! It turned out to be the second best day of the trip and it all happened in the last hour and a half. As the action slowed, Mel and I headed for the barn, very pleased with how this trip played out.
Until next year ……..
It is such a great arrangement that I have with the Amigos, Mel and Reid. Trading trips the way we do works so well in every aspect! It looks like Reid and I will be getting together in the spring and of course we will be fishing again in the northern rockies nest summer. Stay tuned!
