Fishing in Florida Bay and Ten Thousand Islands

In addition to great fishing, the southern end of Florida’s mainland offers anglers an opportunity to experience Florida the way it was before hordes of people and condos arrived. This is true wilderness, and more than one angler has spent the night after getting lost in the maze of mangrove islands scattered throughout the vast area.

Much of Florida Bay is contained within the 1.5-million-acre Everglades National Park, which was created in 1947. Access is via boat from the Keys, but a favorite jumping-off point is Flamingo, an isolated outpost at the tip of the mainland. In addition to boat ramps, Flamingo has a marina with food, fuel, bait, tackle, rental boats, canoes, and a motel. Once you leave the dock, you’re on your own. You have a choice of fishing out front in Florida Bay or heading north into what is known as the backcountry.

The backcountry features a tangle of mangrove islands separated by rivers, creeks, and rivulets. Anglers who venture here must remember the precise route they took if they plan to return to the dock the same day.

To successfully fish the backcountry, one must think of Florida Bay as a shallow body of water that simply floods and drains. When the water is high, fish forage for shrimp and crabs on the flats. When the level is low, they are forced to feed in deeper water, such as channels. At the edge of a channel intersecting the flats, predators ambush smaller fish carried from the shallows by the falling tide. That’s where anglers can ambush the predators—primarily snook, seatrout, baby tarpon, and redfish, but also croaker, jack crevalle, ladyfish, mangrove snapper, catfish, and pinfish. The best fishing is during the spring and fall, when temperatures are tolerable for both fish and anglers. Spinning rods spooled with 8- to 20-pound line, and 8-weight fly-rod outfits, can handle just about everything an angler will encounter.

Whitewater Bay, near Flamingo, is one of the largest backcountry bodies of water. It has sea trout, redfish, jacks, snook, and tarpon. The fish typically aren’t as large as those found in Florida Bay, but in the Whitewater area, Lake Ingraham, East Cape Canal, and other sheltered waters offer good fishing and protection from wind, even when it’s blowing 15 to 20 mph.

Everglades National Park possesses several no-motor areas, such as the West Lake and Bear Lake canoe trails, where only hand-propelled vessels are allowed. Few anglers have the desire or stamina to paddle a canoe or row a boat into the remote in-terior of the park, which results in excellent fishing for seatrout, snook, redfish, black drum, snapper, jacks, and baby tarpon. Go far enough north and you can catch snook and largemouth bass on consecutive casts.

Given the challenges of navigating the interior of the park, it’s no surprise that most anglers who depart from Flamingo fish out front around the channels, grassflats, and mangrove islands in Florida Bay.

Seatrout inhabit the grassbeds, where the standard tactic is to fish a live shrimp under a foam bobber, known as a popping cork. The bobber suspends the shrimp just over the grass and is jerked hard to gain a trout’s attention. Flies and jigs also catch trout.

Redfish are commonly found on the flats near the islands in Florida Bay as well as in Snake Bight and Garfield Bight, two popular spots east of Flamingo. Fishing is typically best during a rising or falling tide, early or late in the day.

Although redfish can be caught by a variety of methods, the most exciting way is to creep up on tailing fish on the flats and cast with a fly rod or a light spinning rod. Redfish favor weedless spoons as well as jigs and live shrimp and mullet.

Snook frequent the same areas but prefer the mangrove shorelines, where they can ambush baitfish swept past by the tides. Flies, topwater plugs, jigs, live pilchards, mullet, and shrimp are all favorites of these hard-fighting fish. Tarpon, which can be seen rolling on the surface in channels and around mangrove islands, will hit the same offerings.

The large tripod markers that border Everglades National Park are helpful reference points on a run to the Flamingo area. During the fall and winter they also provide a focal point for schools of cobia ranging from 30 to 80 pounds. A brief stop at each marker is sufficient to discern whether cobia are present. If the cobia are home, hook a live grunt on a light or medium plug rod and troll it slowly past the marker.

Moving around the southwest tip of Florida, anglers encounter several rivers—Shark, Lostmans, Chatham, and Lopez—that offer good angling for snook, redfish, seatrout, and tarpon, especially at the mouths.

The Ten Thousand Islands are at the western end of Everglades National Park and are just as remote. Access is best from Everglades City and Chokoloskee Island, with the option of fishing the backcountry, the mangrove islands out front, or the Gulf of Mexico.

Most people primarily fish the rivers and bays of the backcountry for snook and redfish. Fishing around the islands out front produces snook, reds, seatrout, and Spanish mackerel, and sheepshead are commonly caught in the channels. The wrecks and artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico hold snook, cobia, and permit.

Pavilion Key and Rabbit Key, south of Chokoloskee, are among the more popular islands. Armed with flies, plugs, and live bait, one can work around the oyster bars for redfish, over the grassflats for seatrout, and along the shorelines for snook. From either island, it’s a short hop to the gulf, where some anglers have created their own artificial reefs to attract fish. Anglers must watch their sonar closely, because the location of those reefs is seldom divulged.