Summer like Winter

I'm not so sure that this is winter now here in the Everglades. Knock on wood but there haven't been any extended cold fronts with only having a couple times with a day or two of colder weather and then it's back to 70 and 80 degree days. I'm loving it and I am on the water almost everyday.

Native watercraft TV has started posting some video shorts with all the endorced Native guides in Florida. Last week the video was of me showing a skip casting technique and is kind of comical as I hooked up with a snook kind of catching me off guard. You can see that at: Rich Jones Skip Casting 

Without trying to repeat myself the kayak fishing has stayed pretty consistant and good. Trout ,Reds and Snook in the bay and Snook and some Tarpon in the back country.

There are a lot of Redfish around the area right now with most ranging from around 18 to 22 inches. Mixed in is a larger fish every now and then such as this nice 28" one shown above that I just caught in the bay.

Above is a nice size Sea Trout caught also in the bay around 23". There are many around from 16 to 18 inches average. Some pods have larger fish 18 to 20" and mixed in are a few larger fish over 20"

Snook are around in the bay and backcountry although it has has been more of a hunting game. Finding them and then also finding them when they are feeding has been a little bit of a challenge some days. But then again, that's snook fishing around here.

This is Steve Copps from Virginia making a nice cast fly fishing along the Mangroves

Everglades Winter Wonderland

This has been a very mild winter compared to the last couple in the Everglades area. There have been a few fronts come through the area which have created some windy and cooler days but the waters this year have stayed relatively warmer. Inshore fishing has stayed very good with a lot of redfish around on the flats and there are still many snook around in the bays and barrier islands who haven't bothered to migrate yet to the back country. Trout fishing has been sporadic and although I haven't really targeted them except for when doing charters there have been some good days and some bad days, but still always catching a few. The one thing that's great about the trout being caught is they are now mostly larger sized fish averaging around 18".

I've stayed very busy over the last couple of weeks between doing charters and my normal fishing and exploring I do around the area. Also I spent a couple of exciting and nice days with Woody Callaway and the gang from Native Watercraft. my kayak sponsor doing an interview, filming and some fishing with them.

Charters have gone very well recently with everyone on all the trips having a great time and catching some nice fish ! If your thinking of doing some kayak fishing here in the Everglades now is a great time, mild weather, no bugs and plenty of fish around !

Everglades Winter Fishing (Sort of)

Well we are definitely into our winter fishing patterns here in the Everglades (sort of). There have been some nice warm days but there have been a couple of cold fronts that have come through the area to drop the water temperature considerably. What this means simply, more trout are moving in from the gulf and there are now many of these fish in the inshore areas along with Redfish. Most of the Red's caught lately in the area are smaller fish (18" to 22" average) with a larger fish caught here and there.

I think I've fished everyday over the last two weeks trying to get a hold of what the fish are doing. With the conditions constantly changing it can be hard to predict where the fish may be. When I read reports by some of the better known guides in the area (Rock Stars) writing or talking about the recent conditions I can only laugh because I know it's all  B.S. I will only be straight up and talk about how things really are. Anyway, back to conditions. I've been busy with kayak fishing charters and on all my off days I have been concentrating on fishing many of the back waters with the spinning and also the fly rod. As with normal winter patterns many snook and younger tarpon will migrate up into the backcountry areas to spend the winter for the warmer water and abundance of baitfish available to feed on. Well so far this year there definitely are more fish back up there but not as many as I would see normally and I'm still catching some nice size fish still in the bay where normally it's more of a rarity to catch a larger snook in the bay this time of year. 

Even though it could be a little tougher to find the fish now I would stick to my normal fishing habits, especially in the bay and there is almost a definite on finding trout, also reds and maybe a larger snook. Other fish around are flounder and pompano. 

For the birdwatchers, I've been seeing so many different birds especially in some of the backcountry areas. Other than the more typical herons, egrets and other local birds, Short Tail hawks, Bald Eagles and Perrigan Falcons to name a few. 

Holiday Fishing in The Everglades

Happy New Year to everyone! It's been an awesome week, some great weather along with some very good fishing. I was hoping the nicer weather would continue but as nature would have it there is another cold front coming through tonight with possibly freezing temperatures for the next couple of days. Let's hope the weatherman is wrong. Anyway, I'm sure it won't be long before it warms up again.

I pretty much fished every day last week, one day by myself and the rest with clients. Below are a few photos of the results. The week was dominated by catching Redfish and they seemed to be where ever we fished, in and around Chokoloskee bay. Again there are also many Sea Trout around and a few fish were quite large. Snook are here but they are starting to thin out and head towards their winter homes. I hooked up with a very large snook in the bay only to get cut off but a few other snook were caught. Other fish caught this week were Flounder, jacks and ladyfish.  

The one day I did get out by myself I headed up into the back country to look for snook with the longrod. I took my new TFO 8wt BVK rod and reel setup to play with. I had fun catching mostly smaller fish along with a few in the upper twenties. I hate to say it but here I again hooked up with a lot larger snook who decided not to play fair and broke me off.

Here's Adam Dewar with a nice trout he caught on a top water plug, around 26" and fat!

Here's Will Gillespie with a nice Pompano!

Wills wife had fun with the ladyfish

Adams 14 year old son Alex with one of the nice reds he caught

Adam with one of his nice reds

White Pelicans hanging out in Chokoloskee bay

Winter Begins in the Everglades

According to the calender it's winter now. About my only hint was catching a few snook up in a couple of my backcountry areas that were still lighter in color meaning they had recently migrated to these areas from cleaner open waters. So, the winter migration has begun. I haven't seen any of the juvenile tarpon I would normally see in these areas which I find to be a bit unusual but I'll just give it that I've been in the wrong place at the wrong time or they just haven't started their migration yet. There have been a couple of cold fronts come through making it a bit cooler for a couple of days but it hasn't been enough to cool the waters that much. The water temperatures are still in the seventies.

Fishing the last week or so has been pretty good and the species of the week is the snook. I caught a few nice fish, a few pushing 30" and a few over, one around 34". Pretty much wherever I fished there were also many smaller snook.

My redfish catch this past week was down but I attribute that to spending most of my time in the backcountry where they are not very common. While fishing the bay I did catch a couple around 22". 

A guarantee catch in the bay is the trout. They were in all the usual places and the majority caught were 17 to over twenty inches. Flounder, Jacks, snapper and ladyfish are also around. 

Amazing Everglades

I was on the water four times this past week. Twice kayak fishing and twice paddling through parts of the Turner River in Big Cypress Preserve.

Being just about winter we are beginning to have some cold fronts come through the area. Had a little rain one day and temperatures in the 70's, It's really nothing to complain about I know compared to many other parts of the country and it's actually a nice break from this past summers temps that averaged in the upper eighties.

I fished two different areas this week, one morning up in the back country and one day in Chokoloskee bay. I wanted to check out and see how the water levels were in the back and they are still fairly high making it still a little difficult to fish many of the areas. I fished this area on one of the colder mornings (in the 50's) and very windy. I managed to catch a few nice snook but didn't see or hook up with any Tarpon.

Kayak fishing Chokoloskee bay was another winter kind of fishing day. Three of us went out and fished till midday. It was a full moon negative outgoing tide and it rained on us most of the time. Everyone caught a few decent fish but had we stayed to fish the incoming tide it would probably  have been much more successful. We caught reds, snook and some trout along with ladyfish and jacks.

When the opportunity comes up to paddle in Big Cypress Preserve on the Turner River it's hard for me turn it down. I had the opportunity twice this week. The water levels are good right now as later during the winter months this area could (almost) dry up making it difficult to access and right now mosquitoes are almost non existent. This is one amazing place and there is no other like it anywhere. It's different each time going in here so you never know what you will see with all the different fauna, birds and other wildlife of the Everglades.

Here's a few photos from this week paddling on the Turner River.

Surprising Everglades

It's been a fun and interesting week although the winds again made some of it a bit challenging. I've heard it from some locals and other guides who will tell you about the fishing in the Everglades that when you think you have it all figured out then everything changes and you have to start over. Well, this was kind of one of those weeks. Where I would normally find my fish there were none and places I wouldn't expect them to be is where they were. Anyway, I still caught a few nice fish during the week.

Mostly fishing in the bay, I caught a few nice redfish, got spanked by a large snook but caught a few others in the upper 20's and most all the trout this week were at least 18" with a couple around 22". Also caught a couple of flounder.  

 

 

This photo above of a shallow (low tide) muddy pond I spotted while exploring an area to stay out of the wind. I saw this place through a small opening in the mangroves off from a river near the bay. The pond while nothing much to look at but I spotted fish movement in there, not mullet but a couple of redfish foraging in the mud and about ten feet in front of me. Of course, I made my way in dragging my kayak over the oysters and through the opening. There was no way of getting in there without making noise and spooking the fish and did I mention the noseeums were horrendous. Once in I waited awhile for things to calm down and lo and behold the redfish swam back to just a short ways in front of me. I made a couple of short casts and finally, score! Redfish on! I caught two fish this same way and after that I caught another one at the far end of the pond, all fish were around 24". A couple of surprise catches today!

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This is Chris coming from South Carolina who fished with me one day this past week with his father shown with a nice Redfish that he caught.



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