Thread: Florida Revisted

Kinda of slack with my posting and had a couple of PMs about the Florida trip so I thought I would give an update. We went earlier this year because Easter is early and according to my buddy, after Easter it is hard to get a condo here. It was pretty full even at this time. By the way, I talked to a guy who was cleaning some of the prettiest crappie I've seen and he comes for 3 months. Said his wife doesn't like it so she comes for only 3 weeks. A happy man according to his take.
We fished the glades again, but we put in at a rest stop on I75(Alligator Alley) that had boat ramps
They named the Interstate Alligator Alley for a good reason. Where we fished was very secluded compared to Holiday Park where we fished last year, but people have fed the alligators and they are very aggressive. At onepoint we had 4 hovering around our boat about 10 feet away. One was a big boy that concerned us so I bought a sling shot to chase them off.



You can see how close they would come to the boat and this guys was 10 feet if he was an inch



One of my "bucket list" things was too catch Oscar on a fly rod and I did that this year. I lost the first one when I made the mistake of throwing a popping bug on a 4# tippet to them. That one lasted about 10 seconds, so I put a length of 12# mono on for a tippet and landed several after that. Man, it is a hoot catching them on a fly rod and for a while it was out fishing anything else we used. Tim (Inkdabber) had told me that they would hit Tommy's Rooty Tooty jigs and sure enough I caught some on them too, but after about 2 fish they destroyed the jig and I did not want to sacrifice any more to them. We went through 6000 crickets (6 of us) and while that seems impossible you need to understand that every time you through a cricket in the water something ate it. Lots of times it may have been a small bream and he ate several before you caught him or he got full. but the canals in the Everglades are loaded with numerous species of fish.

The last day Rick and I were tired of catching (and cleaning) Oscars so we went out on Lake Okeechobee for bream. You have to run a ways from the shore through canals in the reeds to get to the open lake and we did that just to see the open water. When we cleared the canal it was like entering the ocean. All we could see in any direction was water. We fished in the canal for bream and did pretty good, but I think you could run completely out of sight of land if you went far enough out. Not me, with the wind blowing I am a fraidy cat.

It was a great trip and over much to soon, but I will look forward to next year and another visit.



I'll leave you with a picture of one day's catch and a bream I got on the fly rod, in between Oscars.

By the way guys, this is an inexpensive trip all told. Our biggest expense is gas (duh!!) We paid $435 each for 7 days/nights in a 2 BR condo. The condo has one bed in one BR and twins in the other so we have 3 in a unit. There were 6 of us in two condos.
The $435 paid for the condo and most all our meals and 6000 crickets. We cook each night and make sandwiches from left overs if any plus we bought a ham and one of the guys made a big tub of Pimento Cheese for sandwiches. We ate cereal for breakfast because we left at daylight each day and came in around 1 to 2 each day.
The gas, fishing licenses, and miscellaneous items were cost not covered in the above. We also spend an extra night in a hotel on the way down so we will have the full 7 days there and the hotels around central Florida are overpriced at about $170 for two guys for 1 night. Days Inn too, not the Ritz Carlton. That was the only cost I felt was excessive but in the scheme of things not the end of the world.
We pull two boats down and I meet my buddy around Daytona and we end up with 3 boats for the 6 of us. With everything included I think it was about $100 a day which is not bad for room, food, fishing and fun.

If interested you can google the Roland and Mary Martin Resort and Marina in Clewiston Fl.