Dade anglers sent the Army Corps of Engineers back to the drawing board, and the agency came back with a plan everyone can live with. Thanks to a cooperative effort between sportsmen, environmental groups and government officials, South Florida’s number one bass fishing spot won't be sacrificed to Everglades Restoration -- at least not immediately. Kim Taplin of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Dewey Worth of the South Florida Water Management District told the bass anglers' group, S.A.F.E.R. (South Florida Anglers for Everglades Restoration) on Tuesday that the popular L-67A and C and L-29 canals will not be filled in as part of the first phase of restoring natural sheet flow from water conservation areas 3A and B to the Shark River Slough.

Those canals support a $7 million fishery. In light of the resource’s unique fishery and economic value, S.A.F.E.R. has lobbied tirelessly to get the Corps to look into the possibility that the canals could be preserved as “long, skinny lakes,” without interfering with the restoration efforts. Instead, water managers have proposed what they call a ''hybrid plan'' involving weirs, culverts and caps.

"We've heard a lot of good news today," S.A.F.E.R. founder Al Ovie told the Miami Herald. “For us to be able to sit at the table and influence the decision is probably a first for sportsmen,” he added.

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