Tamiami Trail Fishing

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Furor On The Faka Union: Tales Of Big Snook, Irma, And Wildfires

It’s barely 50 degrees—frigid for South Florida–as I load up my yak and push off at 8:00 a.m. for a day of snook fishing on the Faka Union River, one of my favorite Everglades upcountry waters.

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Riding a falling tide, I glide through a tight mangrove tunnel for 30 minutes and finally emerge into the first shallow lake.  Belying the weatherman’s prediction of calm winds, there’s a stiff breeze blowing out of the north, and my usual honey hole, where I caught a couple of dozen snook only a few weeks ago, fails to produce.  I valiantly try to take a video, but almost get blown off the water.  I pedal on dejectedly.  I manage a few smaller snook in the next lake and connecting creek but it’s beginning to look like an ecotour rather than the epic fishing day I had hoped for.

Then I hit what I call snook flats, a nondescript stretch offshore of a mangrove-studded shoreline further downstream that produced a couple of 25” plus snook back in February.  It may be my last hope.  This trip the snook seemed to be ignoring my usual redoubtable white Gulp curlytail, so I switch to a gold DOA paddletail.  The old veteran anglers down here swear gold is the ticket for big snook.

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The Dynamic Duo–White Gulp Curlytail and Gold DOA Paddletail With 1/8th Oz Jig Head

I pitch a long cast out in front of the kayak and start to crank it back.  Something big swirls and my rod nearly jumps from my hands….a big snook erupts from the surface and a furious fight is on.

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Go East, Young Man–The East River Near Everglades City, FL

January 2017

For my latest adventure on the East River in 2022, see https://hooknfly.com/2022/03/03/chasing-the-beasts-of-the-east-river-near-everglades-city-fl/

Caution:  In September 2017 Hurricane Irma changed the landscape of the East River, dramatically in places.  The Fakahatchee State Park has done a good job of clearing many of the downed mangrove trees in the river stretches connecting Lakes #3, 4, and 5, but the going is tougher than ever with more brush and snags in the water.  If you have a pedal kayak, I advise against using the pedals in the river sections to avoid hanging up on the snags with possible damage to the fins.  More importantly, as of April 2018, the river linking Lake #4 and #5 (Crab Pot Lake) is completely blocked by a couple of downed trees about half way between the two lakes.  Hopefully it will be cleared soon, but until then the trip ends at Lake #4.  See the photos below.  The good news is that the fishing is still worth the trip for snook, baby tarpon, and the abundant cichlids:

 

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Aargh!! Trip’s End After 30 Minutes Hard Paddling In The River To Crab Pot Lake

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Approximate Location Where River Is Blocked By Downed Tree

 Here’s a scenic trip that will give you multiple shots at good-sized snook and high-flying baby tarpon…but only if you’re willing to be on the water before the crack of dawn and then navigate a couple of long, mesmerizing, but snag-filled mangrove tunnels that elicit epithets more freely than they yield fish.  As a bonus, you will see huge flocks of birds, flotillas of long-nose gar, and plenty of gators.

The put-in is a small, heavily used public park about five miles east of the intersection of the Tamiami Trail and Route 29 in Carnestown near Everglades City.  A word to the wise:  It is mandatory to be on the water very early to beat the kayak ecotours that descend practically every day on this popular route–and more so on weekends.  If you sleep late and tarry, you may not find a parking spot and on the water will have to dodge colorful, careening kayaks often piloted by novices.  img_0329

January is a good time of year to make this trip, especially if the weather has been dry in November and December or several good cold fronts have blown through.  Reduced freshwater flows will mean more saltwater that will lure bait and gamefish up into the lakes, and cooler weather attracts snook and tarpon to the shallower, warmer inland waters.  Also, the East River has a strong tidal flow so depth is not usually a problem.  Let’s go!!

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Go For More On Canoe Route #4 Near Port of The Islands, FL

For more on backcountry creek fishing around Everglades City, see my Florida Sportsman article:  FloridaSportsman Backcountry Creek Ways

April 2015

One of the least-visited, but most productive kayak fishing routes in the region is just a stone’s throw from Port of the Island and the Tamiami Trail–but deep in the heart of the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge.  I’ve never encountered another angler on this trip, even though I rate it as having the best potential for a big snook or red of any I have sampled hereabouts.  It begins inauspiciously in a little road-side lagoon off the Tamiami Trail on what’s marked as Canoe Route #4 by the Ten Thousand Island National Wildlife Refuge folk, then follows a narrow, shallow little creek snaking its way south through a tight corridor of sawgrass into a pristine, hidden wilderness.

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In stark contrast to the Port of the Islands and its sister Golden Gates Estates developments to the east, poster children for environmentally rapacious Florida-style real estate projects of the 1970s, this route wanders through a beautiful untouched haven for egrets, spoonbills, ducks, and my favorite Florida bird, the graceful swallow-tailed kite.  The channels it follows and shallow ponds it flows through are loaded with mullet and other bait fish, attracting snook and reds that grow fat on the bounty.  Tarpon, bass, cichlids, jacks, and snapper also are on the menu for anglers who probe the water carefully.

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Swallow-Tailed Kite

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