A Florida Fishing Adventure: April 6-12, 2002

Last January my friend Steve and I began planning a trip to Florida to fish the Everglades to have some early season fishing before the Merrimack River area action began.  My friend Harold Tanner, a veteran Florida fishing guide, agreed to trailer his boat down from Crystal River where he lives and guides for fishermen in that area. He has fished the Everglades for years, and having lived in Homestead for a year or so, knows the Whitewater Bay area quite well. We figured on catching some snook and possibly some juvenile tarpon. There are also sea trout and jack cravalle in the waters plus numerous alligators and a few crocodiles. We planned to stay in Flamingo and rent a pontoon houseboat for a few days. With that we could go out to a good distant area, towing Harold’s 19-foot Carolina Skiff, and fish the more remote areas of  the bay.

After an uneventful flight from Boston to Tampa, we met Harold in the parking lot of a nearby hotel so that he could avoid the security hassle of having a pickup truck and trailing boat in vicinity of the airport terminal. We had stood in line outside of the terminal in Boston for curbside baggage check in, figuring we would avoid the crowd inside. We waited along with many others with similar ideas in a cold winter-like Boston morning. But, that was all in the past as we loaded our bags and fishing tackle into Harold’s truck in Tampa . It was warm and sunny and we had high expectations of enjoying good fishing in the Everglades.

Our 300 mile or so drive to Flamingo was long but we were enjoying talk about fishing and plans for the days ahead. We arrived in the late afternoon, checked into our cottage, and unloaded food we bought in Homestead along with all our clothes and fishing gear. Both Steve and I planned to use fly rods most of the time with backup light spinning tackle. Harold brought several of his fine custom rods that he makes and sells to ardent fishermen.

Our first day of fishing was slow. The wind had come up so we were forced to switch to spinning gear. We caught a few small fish including a gafftosail catfish. That night the wind continued blowing and was strong in the morning. Our fishing was difficult as we tried to find sheltered areas. Whitewater Bay had two to three foot waves as we headed back to Flamingo. Harold’s skiff is unforgiving in such conditions. We were pounded and took spray enough to get a good soaking but at least it was warm air and water.

That night we were wondering what to do because the weather forecast was for 20 to 30 knot winds to continue for several days. In Harold’s experience these windy conditions could last three to six days. After some discussion we decided to cancel our pontoon boat rental, check out of the cottage, and travel Harold’s home fishing area, Crystal River. Crystal River is on the Gulf Coast about one and one half hours drive north of Tampa. At least we would be away from the wind. We opted to get up very early, around 5 AM, and head out in order to get there in the afternoon. Harold’s truck had been making some strange noise so we stopped at a Chevy dealer in Homestead to get it checked. It turned out to be a waste of time since they wouldn’t have even be able to check it until sometime that afternoon. We decided to continue our drive and take our chances, hoping we wouldn’t break down along alligator alley (U.S. 41). As we were on our way again, in the outskirts of Homestead, Steve heard a loud noise from the rear. Harold pulled off of the road onto the shoulder. The problem was a blow out of one of the boat trailer tires. Harold had a spare but it turned out not to fit the trailer properly, rubbing against the frame. Steve and I agreed to stay with the trailer and boat while Harold went back into town to get a new tire. It appeared that the “fish gods” were against us.

We did get a new tire and proceeded to drive to Crystal River without any further problems but it was about 8:30 pm when we checked into our motel. Well the wind was down and weather was nice so would be able to get three days of fishing. The target fish were sea trout and redfish. Although Steve and I wanted to fly fish we accepted Harold’s suggestion to get some shrimp to use for bait if the wind came up or the artificials did not produce. A new technique, actually revival of a similar old technique, for fishing live shrimp is to use a float to keep the shrimp off of the bottom so it can drift with the tide. These floats are brightly colored in chartreuse or fluorescent orange, and some have small weights to increase casting distance. They also have beads that rattle when the float is moved. The ones we used are called Cajun Thunder.

The first morning I caught a nice sea trout on a shrimp. Steve caught one on a fly. It was a bright flashy bunker type fly. We saw many redfish but they were spooked as we tried to get close enough to use our fly rods. We were fishing in one to three feet of water most of the time. Harold had converted his outboard from prop driven to a jet drive. Kits are available for such conversions. In the area we fished it was clear that the jet drive could get you places where a standard outboard motor could not go, not to mention saving the trouble and expense of broken props or busted lower unit. We caught four keeper trout that first day.

The next day was slow but  I tangled with a big redfish that hit along a grassy shore line and proceeded to break off on his initial run. It was afterwards that Harold checked my line. He broke it fairly easily. I was surprised until I found that the extra spool I had put on the reel, in haste back home, had only eight pound test. Damn! Why do I have to relearn things like checking your gear? The remainder of that day we caught a few small reds and trout.

Later in the morning Steve hooked, what turned out to be, our prize redfish. He got it with a shrimp on light spinning gear. He was forced to do the boat walk around as the red fought hard for five or six minutes. Harold provided advice and worked the pole to keep the boat away from threatening oyster bars. I was taking photos and dodging Steve as he worked the fish. It made the day, and since we still had some hours to fish we were upbeat about the possibility of more big reds. 

We didn’t get any, but Steve latched on to a really nice sea trout. It measured almost 28 inches and Harold said it was the largest that had been brought to his boat. It turned out to be our last fish because a nasty weather front closed in on us and we retreated to the boat launch. But we still had something to look forward to. Harold had invited us to his home for dinner, a meal centered on our catch of sea trout and redfish, deep fried, with hush puppies and homemade coleslaw. It was delicious! The” fish gods” did smile at us after all.