Fishing in the Everglades January

Fishing
#1

Any tips on fishing in the everglades in early January? I’d like to fish while doing a nice 10 day trip through the wilderness.



In past years I did alright to pitiful using soft rubber green worm baits.



Any advice would be very welcomed

#2

You may want to check out
kayakfishingstuff.com, register and post there. Most of those guys fish the East Coast all the way down to the tip of Florida, Another site you may find some information on is:



http://www.jaxkayakfishing.com/ It’s a Jacksonville kayak fishing site, but they too fish all over Florida. Someone on the site has fished the are you want to and will provide information.

#3

Everglades Fishing
I have fished most of Florida Bay from Key Largo up to Flamingo and have never used artificial baits. I do not know if by the Everglades you mean going deep into the glades, (which I have not done)or the edges of the glades out into Florida Bay.

Working the edges of the mangroves, or in between narrow passages through the mangrove islands where there are channels that have a current, or over large areas of grass on the bottom all seem to good areas to fish.

Free spooling live baits works very well in an area where there is a current. I hook shrimp or pilchars on a 12-18 inch, 12 pound flurocarbon leader tied to a swivel. I let the bait move freely in the current near the edges of the mangrove roots. Really works for all types of snappers.

I also use a Rajun Cajun float putting the live baits on a hook hanging from from below the float on a 12-18 inch 12 pound test flurocarbon leader when fishing more open areas where there is a not a lot of current but with grass on the bottom. I do a cast and retrieve. Works really good for sea trout.






#4

If you are doing the wilderness waterway
Trolling is best technique. 1/4 oz jigheads in red like the cottee liv eye are excellent for trolling and don’t snag. Swirl tail grubs in 4" size are great and so are the paddle tail grubs like the saltwater assasins. The colors we use most for the backcountry (wilderness waterway) are smoke and rootbeer. In the gulf the rootbeer, white chartreuse, space guppy work well. Also bring some topwater plugs such as the zara spook puppy in white/red or smoke for early morning fishing and casting to mangrove shorelines.



No need to use live bait or dead bait. In fact, if you do use these and camp the racoons will be very interested in where you keep the bait and will go to extremes to make your life hell at camp :wink:

#5

2 suggestions
Here’s a couple websites to check out …



paddle-fishing.com (which will have lots of Florida anglers that can help out)



… and



http://www.chokoloskeecharters.com/



If you want to make the best of the trip, book Charles and let him take you where the FISH are.






#6

Good advice
I have fished with Capt Wright and he is a good friend as well. Highly recommend his guide service in the Everglades area for paddle fishing. I occasionally hire him to take me to remote areas and I paddle back in when I am pressed for time and can’t do a week long excursion.

#7

Everglades?
If you mean Everglades NP, watch out for the Flamingo Derilicts. They hang out at the Florida section of



http://kfs.infopop.cc/groupee/forums



—WARNING—

If you plan to fish with this loosley knit group of highly skilled Flamingo (and other southern places) fishers, bring your sense of humor!! Proper exercise of your funny bone will prevent soreness!