Pacemaker Fishing Forum

This winter's getaway took us to SW FL to fish the  Chokoloskee area which is "known for its fishing, bird watching and kayaking through the mangrove jungles of the Everglades."



It's an amazing place and if you don't have GPS, you may not get out of that jungle!

The day I arrived, I was able to get to the local Cuban restaurant for a late lunch...





...it was good! Unfortunately, they are not open for dinner so that was the one and only visit.

That night, we met up with a friend of mine who was also down there to fish. Dinner was fine, nothing to brag about. But we did have frog legs!



We (John and Craig) launched the boat on Wednesday form the historic Rod and Gun Lodge. This place has lots of fishing history!







Off to the mangroves we went.

I'll say it up front, the fishing was so-so as we encountered a full moon, a bit of nagging wind and dirty water.   Unless you are live bait fishing (we were not) the method of choice is to sight fish. Hard to see a fish with murky water. Unless the fish is tailing.

The scenery is incredible!



And yes, there are rest stops along the way!



The lady fish, lizard fish, sails (catfish) and trout kept us busy when we were not looking for a snook or red fish.























No big fish sighted or caught but we still had a great time! You know why? The air temps were in the low to mid 80's...that's heaven for me/

BTW, water temps were around 80dF.

When we got back to the ramp, these guys came a callin'!



They were looking for scraps of bait and carcass of fish. They were disappointed a s we had none.

We also saw some dolphin playing around.



Dinner choices in Everglades City are few and far between. Nothing worth posting.

That was Day 1...