It started out like so many mornings in the past fishing with me today? My wife, her brother and My youngest son Robbie. I hit the floor at 4:30 am and checked the PC. for a last look at the weather. Sky clear temperature at 79 degrees no wind the kind of forecast all shallow water sight fisherman live for! By 5:am we are on the road to Everglades National Park for a day of sight fishing snook, redfish, trout and tarpon?
We reached the boat ramp just before seven, from there it was about a ten minute boat ride to the first flat to try stalking some fish? After our arrival we raised the motor and I took my position on the polling platform, my wife and son climbed into the tower on the front of the boat as I began to push the boat slowly over the flat in search of our first fish. About ten minutes into the slipping along we spotted a couple of fish mudding for shrimp and crabs just ahead of us as we slipped into range Robbie made a nice cast but the fish were not interested in the lure offered? Moving forward we spotted a group of redfish moving our way Rob and Linda started casting trying to get the fish to accept the lure offered? Fish on and he began ripping line from the drag as the fish cut across the flat heading for deeper water but this time the fish is returned to the boat and the landing net as he becomes our first fish of many that day.
When You go to Everglades National Park in Florida its not just a fishing trip, its a return to a time of years long ago? Very little has changed in all the years except for the road has been paved and the amount of people now fishing the shallows? The Park is a couple hundred miles of one of south Florida’s natural estuaries that offer a home to more types of wading birds than anywhere that I know of and the same thing that brings the birds, brings the fish to feed in the shallows that make it a sight fisherman’s paradise!
As the day wore on we added a few more redfish to the cooler for dinner and released a snook that was not part of the legal bag for the day. We moved on to one of our favorite trout spots and in no time we were racking up the numbers! Final tally for the day, 7 redfish ,four kept to be blackened for dinner and a limit of trout to become dinner for a couple nights during the week?
The part of shallow water sight fishing that has such a hold on me is that we see 90 percent of all the fish before we catch them and it takes a lot of finesse to put yourself in position for a chance at them. There are lots of people that can reel them in once their on the hook but the gap gets much wider when You talk about how many people can get themselves in to a position to get a shot at one of the shallow water dwellers!
I think its the hunt and the beauty, no two days that are the same that keep me going back to the shallows to fish while “living life on the edge”!
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