TALL TAILS FISHING
Fishing the Everglades and Flamingo
Flamingo & the Everglades
Tall
Tails Fishing with Captain
Tony
Traad guides anglers out of Flamingo Marina
in the Everglades National Park. The National Park is located in
South Florida to the south and west of the City of Miami and north of the Florida
Keys. Miami International and Fort Lauderdale International are the nearest
major airports.
The National Park dominates the southwest tip of Florida’s mainland and is approximately 1.4 million acres, half of which is accessible by boat, canoe or airboat. The Park waters are made up of three distinctly different bodies of water which include Florida Bay to the south of the Park’s mainland, the Gulf of Mexico to it’s west and many large and small interior bays such as White Water Bay, Oyster Bay, Tarpon Bay, Lane Bay and Hell’s Bay to name a few. Florida Bay has an average depth of 4 feet, is dotted with hundreds of small mangrove islands and has hundreds of shallow grass flats with a network of shallow channels to navigate by.
The
Park’s gulf coast has pristine white sand beaches, tall mangrove shore
lines and countless creeks to explore and fish. The Everglades back
country is chalked full of interior bays, rivers and creeks. The back
country of the Everglades is mystical and the dark waters seem to invite
intrigue. Its sear vastness is overwhelming; there are thousands of
interior bays and creeks. The back country offers great shoreline
fishing as well as shallow water sight casting. All of the Park’s
waters are accessible from the Flamingo Marine as well as the Upper Florida
Keys.
Typical Catches:
Flamingo
can be reached by driving 50 minutes from the cities of Homestead and
Florida City using the Park road, or in 45 minutes by boat from the Upper
Keys (pleases see the
Upper Keys page for a description of
the Keys). The Everglades offer’s an angler the opportunity to fish
for a large variety of game fish, the most popular of which are tarpon,
snook, redfish, sea trout, bonefish and
permit. Additional species include triple tail, Black drum,
sheep head, mangrove snapper,
Goliath grouper (Jew fish), barracuda, sharks,
lady fish and jack cravele. Fishing from shallow water flats skiffs or
a canoe, the fishing techniques utilized vary as well from sight fishing the
shallow water flats and back country shorelines with fly rods and light
spinning tackle rigged with artificial lures or live bait, to live baiting
the deeper channels and creeks.
Fishing in the
Everglades is good year round, however, on the flats, peak sight fishing is
during the warmer months from late
spring to early fall. Sight fishing in the winter is good unless the
waters go from cool to cold. During the colder periods, the fish tend
to migrate from the shallow waters to the deeper channels and creeks.
Please see the
fish album or click on a species above for more seasonal information on each species. In addition to
great fishing, the Everglades offer’s a true wilderness experience. In
some areas of the Everglades, it’s not uncommon to fish all day long without
having seen another boat. Anglers typically encounter plenty of
wildlife while fishing in the Glades from the endangered American crocodile
and manatee to alligators and a wide variety of birds.
As for the famous bugs of the Everglades, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that the mosquitoes and horse flies are plentiful during the warm rainy season. The good news is that once you are on the water and away from the dock, the bugs are rarely a factor. Even at the dock, the bugs are manageable by applying some repellent or, if you really hate bugs, you can dawn a bug suit and head net.
Because Flamingo is
remote, it is recommended that anglers stay in the Homestead/Florida City area for a
variety of hotel and dinning options. Homestead/Florida City is the gateway
to the Florida Keys, Biscayne National Park (Biscayne Bay) as well as the
Everglades National Park (Flamingo). Because of its location,
Homestead/Florida City is a great jumping off point and allows us to trailer
to and fish any of those three areas depending on what you want to fish for,
weather considerations, where the fish are and other factors.
If staying in a remote location with limited dinning options is not an issue for you and you’re not interested in fishing the other areas, Flamingo does have one hotel and one restaurant both of which are adequate. The restaurant is operated on a seasonal basis with services scaled back during the summer months. Anglers should check with the hotel regarding restaurant operations when booking your reservation. Please see the accommodations page for hotel and restaurant information.
Tall Tails Fishing - 305-246-0051 or 305-331-5142 Fax: 305-247-7700
Designed & Maintained by JPS, 2004
