Everglades Fishing – Captain Ned Small

Keith Calhoun and I fished all three days of the Snook Tango. We had lots of encounters with big snook but, alas, although we got ‘em hooked we couldn’t keep ‘em buttoned on. Fog and wind plagued us but we fished from dawn to dusk every day. We found schools of red’s, too, far from shore on the flats during the new moon low, but the wind had the surface so scratched up that we couldn’t see them until we poled over them. Everyone was going aground including us, in the twilight of the dawn about a mile from shore on an uncharted flat. We walked around in the fog discovering all sorts of oceanic creatures that we wouldn’t normally see while we waited on the tide to float us off. We fished ‘out front,’ in the middle and all the way into the ‘waybackcountry,’ we finished on the third day with about thirty snook and one tarpon, I think this was the only tarpon caught all weekend and it was in a new spot for me, we jumped four or five before we landed this one. You can be sure I’ll be keeping an eye on this spot. Thanks to Bill Blanton, Buttonwood Bob, A.T., George Anderson, Peter Babb, Claire and Big Al,  Rick Hirsch and all the rest of you that pitched in for all the fun. Bill and I have been comparing notes on the event and we promise next year will be even better.

We’re entering that winter phase of rapidly moving cold fronts. The Gulf temperature has finally dropped to the mid sixties after hovering in the mid seventies since October. This has both snook and red’s heading for the backcountry into their winter habitat and ‘jungle fishing,’ has become the ‘prime directive.’ Backcountry bays, sloughs and mud bottom flats are the targets for fly rodders, and spin anglers are looking at ‘the creeks,’ as well. Small lures and flies are the rule for the subtle presentations necessary to tease one of these winter fish into biting. At this time of year the fish can be fussy and it’s not so much a numbers game as it is that quest for a perfect moment when stealth and technique come together in a strike from one of these winter beauties. Here’s a photo of one Chris Hamilton seduced yesterday with a six weight rod, a twenty pound flouro’ bite tippet and a #2 mullet imitation that he tied himself. Stay tuned for news from the second annual ‘Snook Tangle,’ a gathering of fly rod wielding masochists descending on Chokoloskee and Everglades City for yet another try at some of the most demanding, and rewarding snook fishing in the Everglades.