Successful Fishing for Reds & Snook in the Everglades

There can actually be too much of a good thing, and the Everglades is a classic example when it comes to finding fish. Just about everything looks good—thousands of acres of mangrove shoreline, endless winding rivers and creeks, white sand beaches and sweeping grass flats are all part of this vast ecosystem stretching across Florida’s southern tip. Oddly enough, though, there are a lot of areas where fish are scarce, or are available only seasonally, or on particular tide phases.

The best bet by far is to hire a seasoned guide and have them give you a tour, pointing out likely habitat and showing you what to look for, until you start to get a feel for it. But it’s definitely possible to bring your flats skiff, center console or even a bass boat to one of the put-in points and get into some very good fishing on your own at the right time.

Chart Study

The first thing you’ll want to do, before even making the trip, is to devote some serious hours to studying the charts of the Glades, either paper or on your GPS, or both. The problem is that there are way too many places to go and not enough time to go to them in a weekend—or a week for that matter. Additionally, make absolutely certain the tracking feature on your GPS is fully functional so that you can lay down a trail of electronic breadcrumbs to guide you back to the ramp after you’ve made a few dozen turns and twists in and out of the creeks. It is very easy for both newbies and now and then old salts to get turned around if they can’t see exactly where they are via the satellite positioning system.

There are quite a few markers installed on the channels that the NPS wants you to follow through shallow areas so that you’re not plowing up the habitat (or getting grounded and needing rescue) but there are also many areas you’ll want to visit with no markers whatever.

Some Good Locations

Most anglers fishing ENP put in at Flamingo ramp. From there, you can run west down the beach to Ponce de Leon Bay, where the Shark River, Harney River, Broad River and numerous unnamed creeks flow into the open water. You can catch a whole lot of fish sticking to this area alone, without ever probing far up into the back country where you might get lost or grounded. You won’t have the water all to yourself as you might in the outback, but there are more than enough fish for everybody.

Other well-known and very fishy areas are Whitewater Bay, good for winter fishing, and Snake Bight, to the east. In general, you go west and north for snook and reds, east and south for trout, tarpon and maybe bonefish. In winter, the snook and reds tend to go up the rivers, sometimes miles up them, while in spring, summer and early fall they’ll be down at the mouths.

Time It Right

The easy way to connect is to time your visit for the three days on either side of a new or full moon. This will bring the strongest tides and the best bite. The easy way to find fish is to set up at the mouth of one of the deep creeks dumping into the larger rivers on falling tide and let the fish come to you.

As soon as the flow gets strong, you’ll see fish start to pop if you’re in a likely spot—snook, tarpon and reds all gang up in these outflows, and they’re often accompanied by more than an adequate number of bull sharks and alligators that have no fear of boats or humans—be careful. Follow the strongest flow of the tide, and move upriver or down to stay on the best water movement. The tides can be as 3 to as much as 4 feet between high and low on the strong moon tides so there’s significant water flowing—watch for it and score.

Baits & Lures

The for-sure way to connect in these spots is to pitch live finger mullet or sardines into the flow and let the tide swing them out to where the fish are popping—the excitement is that you’re next bite might be anything from a 2-pound mangrove snapper to an 80-pound tarpon if it’s not a redfish or a snook or maybe even a “juvenile” Goliath grouper of 50 pounds or so. The Goliaths grow up in these creeks before heading out to offshore wrecks and ledges as adults that can weigh hundreds of pounds.

Among artificials, it’s hard to beat a ¼ to 3/8 ounce jig with a 4” DOA CAL or other similar soft plastic tail. A lot of Glades aficionados add a sliver of fresh cut shrimp to the hook of these lures, and replace it anytime it gets nipped off—the scent adds to the bite in these often tannin-stained waters.

Wade the River Mouths

Another tactic that’s very effective—but not for the weak of heart—is to wade the flats and bars that make up where some of these rivers meet the open water of the bay. Redfish and snook hang around these shoal areas where they can trap bait coming out with the flow, and if you toss a Zara Spook or a DOA Shrimp to them, you won’t be long in getting hooked up. Again, it’s a falling water thing—when the flow stops, the fish leave.

The caveat, once again, is that both the bull sharks and the gators sometimes come down into these areas, too. I’ve never been seriously threatened, but it definitely makes your heart go pitty pat to see an 8’ bull shark go by close enough to touch with your rod tip.(Wear flats booties with hard soles—there’s lots of shell and coral to cut your feet. And shuffle; there are sometimes sting rays.)

There’s somewhat of a tendency on your first visits to the ‘Glades to expect fish jumping in the boat, but as with anywhere else, there are a lot of places where they ain’t. The fish move around, and they do get a fair amount of pressure from all the good anglers that drive out to the park from Miami as well as guide boats that run over from the upper keys. But if you keep moving and work the tides, you’ll soon find a spot where the fish cooperate on any given day.

If you get tired of hunting reds and snook, you can run offshore a half mile to where you see clearer water and seagrass and catch plenty of trout and usually Spanish mackerel as well to add a bit of icing to the cake. You can spend years learning the waters here, rarely fishing the same place twice, and still barely scratch the surface. But if you stick to the larger flows and visit on strong outgoing tides you’ll usually have good action. Just don’t forget to lay down that GPS track to get yourself back to the ramp.

Dealing with the Bugs

You may think you have dealt with biting bugs before, but trust me, unless you have been staked out on the Alaskan tundra in August, you have never seen anything like the mosquitoes and no-see-ums in the Glades. On a still, hot morning they come out of the mangroves so thick that they literally blacken your arms and fill your nostrils if you are not lubed up with 100-percent DEET repellents.

Breeze keeps them down somewhat, and staying closer to the open water is also better, though often that’s not where the best fishing is located.

Forget enviro-friendly repellents—when the bugs are this thick, they make no impact whatever. Light long pants and long sleeved shirts help a lot. So does a bug-stopper type hat with cloth flaps that hang down over your neck—looks goofy but it works. If you can’t stand some bug bites, best to wait until winter to try your luck; November through early March is usually not bad.

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