Fishing Forecast national park fishing with with

Mof my Glades trips recently. In past years we would only catch 1 or 2 per trip, where now we are catching 20-40 of them in 4 hours. Peacocks are making a strong comeback from the freeze this past year. I have seen millions of peacock bass fry from Holey Lands to Holiday Park. Next year should be a good year with plenty of 1 pounder sized fish.

The Lake Ida Chain has its ups and downs and takes longer to recover from lots of rain or a cold front. Thankfully the cold fronts are over for the year and the fishing should be on par with its normal spring and summer patterns. Live bait is your friend on this lake whether you’re targeting clown knifefish or peacock bass. Largemouth bass will eat most soft plastics and I have recently found a trick for catching cichlids on Lake Ida on artificial. Z-Man Micro Finesse has a new line up of baits and they all seem to work for catching a variety of smaller fish from panfish to cichlids. They work well in the Everglades and the Lake Ida Chain. My personal favorite choice is a 1/20. oz jighead1q with their Larva-Z soft plastic. If you aren’t an artificial user, live red worms will also do the trick.

One key point I sometimes forget to add to these reports is just to go out there and have fun!

Tight lines!

Florida Flats Fishing Adventures had quite an adventure as Matt from Utah and Jacob from South Florida decided to do a weekend at Flamingo ENP and an Alligator Alley trip. The two were convinced to only fly fish and as the casts just kept going, I was wondering what was going on. Although the quarter moon and tides just didn’t align the way I would’ve liked, as I awaited cast after cast a huge swirl and ripping line had occurred without warning and when least expected. The fight was on, and it was not just a fight but a battle with the 9-weight fly rod and the 28-inch snook. Jacob was on the fly reel and did a great job maneuvering the snook out of the dead wood in the water with an 8-foot bull shark on its tail. Luckily after we thought the bull shark got the snook, Jacob reeled the snook straight to the boat as if the snook was saying “please get me away from this bull shark”! Alligator Alley produced hundreds of fish for us on this trip, mainly exotics as the bass are far from between as I have noticed after all these years fishing the jaguars (pictured), Mayan cichlids, peacocks, and other exotics have done a number on the largemouth bass. Fishing will be red hot as the weather warms, get out there this May!

The sportfishing in May is spectacular! We’re catching some of the biggest and best fish that we’ll catch all year, during this month. Dolphins are biting strong on the inside edge of the Gulfstream in only 300400ft of water and are eating just about anything you throw at them. Trolling works well for dolphins, wahoo, and tuna. Slow trolling live ballyhoo from the outriggers or kite fishing using goggle eyes are the best techniques to get the biggest dolphin. A few sailfish are still biting and if you really feel lucky, a few marlin are being seen offshore. Night swordfishing is also getting good when the weather cooperates; May in general is a great month for billfish.

Amberjacks are abundant on the shallow and deep-water wrecks, along with some grouper and cobia... and you can finally keep groupers again; they are in-season as of May 1. There is quick action on big fish to be found fishing around our local shipwrecks, just drop down a live bait and wait for your rod to bend over. Big game sharks are still pouring through as hammerheads, mako sharks, threshers, and big bulls are doing their annual migration through our waters. If you want to hook into and catch one of these monster game fish, now is the best time. Sharks go where the action is and there is plenty of action happening in Fort Lauderdale this month. Tight Lines!

Let’s grow with Florida together.

Confessions of a Fishaholic, by Thatch Maguire, is a hilarious and irreverent look at one man’s quest to catch fish in spite of life’s annoying interferences. You’ll travel with this awkward adventurer as he risks home and health to pursue his passion for fishing...regardless of the consequences. Anglers of all expertise levels will immediately identify with why his addiction is incurable. This book defines the blurred line between passion and obsession.