Miami canal shore fishing

 After finding a last minute great deal on an airline ticket to Miami, I decided to forego my plans of chasing big bass on ice.  Choosing between visiting my grandkids, daughter and son in law, were already a no brainer at that point. Being that she lives in North Miami beach, warm sunny weather, and potentially great shore fishing, were added bonuses. Without going into all the airlines issues and mishaps, I'll skip directly to the relevant fishing part of the trip I managed to pull off. 

Day 1: 

After missing out on a day of fishing due to delayed baggage, I was happy to get out and fish the c9 canal / snake creek trail / Royal Glades canal again. Having fished various segments of that canal over the past few years, I knew what I was facing. My daughter lives within less than 15 minutes walk to the c9 canal, which runs runs many miles inland from the the dam near Biscayne blvd.

Fishing Miami canals on foot, requires a lot of perseverance. High heat even during the winter, necessitates bringing along a few liters of drinking water, which are carried in a backpack throughout the day. T-shirts keep getting dunked in the water in order to stay cool, in addition to the cap I wear. Most of all, cardio and isometric training, along with a lot of stretching and some Ibuprofen at my age, go a long way to keep me walking and fishing many miles per day, for days on end. 

After losing a nice snook that cut my line on the last trip, I picked up a couple Rapala Husky jerks, which was the lure that got cut off. Rapala Husky Jerks in models Tennessee shad Hj10 and Gold Hj12 were the newest weapons in my arsenal, courtesy of BassPro Shops. My new Penn Pursuit 4 reel, was spooled with hundreds of feet of braid, I tied on the new HJ10 to get started.

Immediately, I started getting tons of follows from largemouth and peacock bass. Literally a good 50 or so chasers in the first segment of canal I fished in the first 1/2 hour or so. Unfortunately no hookups. I crossed over Miami Gardens Rd, going into Sky Lake. Within a few casts, I got my first hit and hookup of the trip. To my great surprise, it was a small jack crevalle, my first ever saltwater fish in a freshwater canal. Nothing big, but a very welcome catch.

That turned out to be the smallest of any jacks landed during my trip to Miami. A few casts later, I hooked into a bigger jack, this time it was a rarer yellow jack.  Note the different color pattern.

After working my way down a long stretch of the c9 canal along the Snake creek trail, I hooked my first freshwater fish of the trip, a small largemouth bass that hit the hj10 husky jerk.

I kept working my way West along the canal, until I reached the point of turning back. After dunking my t-shirt in the water for the n'th time too keep cool, I upsized my lure to the HJ12 Rapala Husky Jerk. Within a few minutes, I was into to my next jack crevalle, as sizes kept increasing.

I kept heading East along the snake creek trail, and within minutes, I noticed 2 big jack crevalles swimming right in front of me at high speed, along the clear waters of the shoreline. I cast well ahead of them, and with a seemingly perfectly timed retrieve, I manage to get hit by one of the big jacks.

Jacks are built for speed, and on the initial blistering run, this big jack took a good 200 feet of line off my reel, before I tightened down my drag enough to put the brakes on it. During the entire fight, the second jack of just about identical size, kept following the hooked fish. After eventually subduing the jack, it was now a matter of finding the best spot to land it. Fishing on foot with minimal gear and without a landing net, I had to find a spot along the steep bank, overgrown with shrubbery, and hiding potential water snakes. I found a spot were I was able to hop onto a big boulder protruding from the water, and land the big jack crevalle.

The jack ended up measuring 26 inches in length, probably a good 7-8 lbs, but didn't have my scale with me due to delayed baggage. Still, the power of a big and speedy saltwater species like jack crevalle, will make for a better fight than most freshwater species, especially on gear designed for bass. Definitely a fight and catch that I won't soon forget.

Working my way back to where I started, I landed my first peacock bass of the trip, completing my trifecta on the first day.

As I kept moving along, I hooked into another jack crevalle. Another decent fight right in front of the yeshiva. 

After having landed 5 jacks, as well as both peacock and largemouth bass, I couldn't be happier with my first day of fishing the c9 / Royal Glades canal. My first day of landing multiple catches of saltwater species in freshwater, as well as both species of resident bass, had far exceeded my expectations. The size, power, and speed of the bigger jacks had made for some great drag ripping action, and I was stoked to see how well my plan for ripping jerk baits had proved to be successful.

Day 2:

After the previous day's success, I figured I'd stick with the same plan. Started off casting the bigger Hj12 husky jerk, and managed to hook another smaller jack, that popped off right near the shore, when I tried to hoist it out of the water.    

As I crossed over the road to the next segment of canal, I came upon a few air and land predators.

First, a pair of protected / endangered burrowing owls:

Then, a big fox across the canal:

Along with a big flock of turkey vultures:

Eventually, back to fish species, another small largemouth bass landed, after I had switched back to the smaller hj10 husky jerk:

Followed by anther small jack crevalle.

Crossing under the 1-95  towards Sky lake, i connected with another peacock bass.

Moving East towards Miami Gardens road, another nice 18+ inch jack crevalle, right in front of Yeshivas Toras Chaim:

At this point, being that most of the jacks i caught were right near the yeshiva, I decided to rename the jacks. Jewish name for Jack is "Yaacov, or in Yiddish "Yankel". As such, all subsequent jacks caught on the trip would be "Yankels"...

Day 3:

The day started off much slower, again casting the hj10. Nowhere near the 50 of so follows I got from big peacock bass, mixed in with occasional largemouth bass. Jacks chased and swirled around my lure every now and then, but no actual hits. It seemed like the jerkbait magic had disappeared. Hitting my turnaround spot after a good 5 kilometers of trekking, I tied on the bigger hj12 husky jerk, but results weren't any better. 

After 5 hours of so of fishing in the intense heat without a hit, I decided to trek over to a liquor store to stock up for Shabbat. Fished the other end of Sky lake for the first time on the way, with a couple more follows from peacock bass, but no hits. After stocking up on liquor, I headed towards home, figuring I had been skunked for the first time this trip.

On my way home, there was a tiny stretch of fishable canal  that I was able to cast to. After having trekked a couple kilometers in the heat with a backpack filled with fishing gear, water, tequila, and a few liters of beer, I figured I might as well slow down and take a few casts. Sure enough, I noticed a small school of jacks swimming towards me. I ran ahead to head them off, and on my second cast, I got my first hit of the day. I hooked into the fish, and to my extreme surprise, I had hooked a big snook.

The snook was barely hooked to my lure's last treble hook, but as it came closer to shore and to the surface, I was able to embed more hooks into it as it tried to turn. At some point during the intense battle, my line ended up in it's gills. Fearing a repeat cutoff, I tried my best to carefully dislodge the line from it's gills, and luckily, I managed to do so.

The big snook kept digging down, using torque instead of speed, to avoid being landed. I took my time, enjoyed the battle, until the snook tired, and came into shore. Again, I had to find a landing spot along the steep bank of the canal in order to land it. When I did, I was amazed, and sort of frozen at that moment in time.

Some kid was passing by on his scooter on the bike trail along the canal, I handed him my phone to capture the moment.

The big snook ended up measuring 31 inches and weighing around 9 lbs. Note my 5 inch lure dangling from it's mouth. While I don't normally keep fish from the C9 canal, due to me fishing on foot without a cooler, nor being willing to haul around fish, spoiling in the heat all day while I keep fishing, this one was different.

For starters, I heard that snook were a real good eating fish. Luckily, I had researched the rules before heading out. The 31 inch snook was perfectly in the allowable slot size range of 28-32 inches, and with my luck, snook season had just opened to harvest a couple days before my trip. Lastly, I was within a 5 minute walk to my son in law's parent's house, to where I proceeded to head with my first harvested snook.

Luckily, they obliged, and I took a last pic with the big snook before dispatching and filleting it, as it was still alive when I got there.

I proceeded to fillet it outside, and had them fridge half of it for a dinner date a couple days later, and freeze the other half for later use.

Either way, I was very happy to land a new PB, as the other snooks I had previously hooked and caught in saltwater, were significantly smaller than this one.

Funny enough, I've always laughed at over dramatic fishing shows, where the hosts always seem to catch the biggest fish on the last day of the trip, or at the last minute of the show. Jeremy Wade from River Monsters and Cyril Chauquet of Catching Monsters come to mind. 

In reality, it is quite rare for things to turn out the way these staged fishing shows present falsified content to their audiences, in order to keep them captivated. However, this time around, the snook catch was even better than pre-scripted, as I had already resigned to the idea of having been skunked that day, and was beyond belief at what had transpired.

Day 4:

After spending another long and memorable weekend with my daughter, son in law, grandchildren, and their in laws, I had planned to take my grandkids out to fish one of the piers for good numbers of pilchards and croakers, using a Sabiki rig. Unfortunately, my grandson got sick, and ended up bedridden, while my granddaughter ended up making a playdate with a friend that was moving out of town the following day.

Ending up with a few hours to kill, I headed out to do some more jerk bait casting on the c9 canal, at Snake creek trail. Landed one of two peacock bass, and lost a decent largemouth bass in the 15-16 inch range, that spit my lure just at the shore.

Peacock bass weren't the only type of peacocks encountered...

Ended the short outing speaking to another angler that advised me to head East towards saltwater to try to hook into more and bigger jacks the following day.

That evening, I headed over to my daughter's in law's place, to cook some of the snook. I ended up with a nice fillet around 18 inches long and maybe 2 inches thick. Enough to feed the 3 of us. 

After cutting the fillet into portions, I hit half of them with egg wash and seasoned breadcrumbs, and the other half with a mix of Himalayan salt, fresh ground black pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. Pan fried them all in a hefty serving of butter, sprinkled with fresh squeezed lemon juice.

The snook was delicious, similar to striped bass, maybe a hint of snapper in the texture. Very moist and tender, with a mildly fishy taste. Definitely a meal I won't soon forget.

Day 5:

During my previous trip to Miami in November 2024, I trekked eastward along the c9 canal, towards the spot where the canal ends at a dam past Biscayne blvd. The canal gets cutoff by an uncrossable train track, so I didn't make it to the dam last time around. This time, I mapped the crossing to 163rd street, a few blocks from the canal. My plan was to fish my way up to the dam, and spend as much time as needed, once reaching the dam.

Fishing my way East was uneventful, with a few bigger peacock and largemouth bass swirling around my lures without hits. I eventually reached the dam, a relatively small area, with big schools of jacks of all sizes turning in circles. 

Unfortunately, despite my casting heavily into the big numbers of fish in a tiny area filled with all sizes and numbers of jacks, I wasn't even able to get a follow, let alone a hit.

After a while and some frustration, I decided to head back, and fish the canal all the way past i-95, a good 5-6 miles of trekking. I eventually connected with another jack after a couple hours, only fish of the day. Pic seems to have disappeared from my phone. Ended the day throwing topwaters on Pickwick lake, first time of the trip I switched from jerkbaits. No success on topwaters either. 

By far the most trekking of my trip, fishing a good 20 kilometers or so on foot.

Day 6:

My last day of fishing during this trip to Miami, I headed back to where I had most of my success over the past week of fishing.

I hit another jackpot within the first half hour or so, this time, in Pickwick lake right across Sky Lake. On my first cast to a given spot, I got followed by a big peacock bass, right up to shore. While this had already happened a good 50+ times during the last few days, I short cast my jerkbait again, twitched it a couple times, and got hit within less than 10 feet in front of me. 

Within seconds, I landed my biggest ever peacock bass, and also the biggest fish I've managed to pull out of the tiny Pickwick lake, since first fishing it on foot a few years ago.

With that sort of success, may day was already made. It was my second PB of the trip, and I was hoping to get one more shot at a giant largemouth bass I had seen bedding the previous day, without being able to manage any hits, no matter what I threw at it.

Unfortunately, the big bass was no longer on the spot I marked near shore. I did manage to land another decent "Yankel" nearby. 

I worked my way back home using the bigger hj12 husky jerk, that had provided most of the bigger catches of my trip. Started off landing my smallest largemouth bass of the trip:

Finally, on my way back, right in front of the yeshiva where I had landed landed my first catch of the trip a few days before, I connected with another very nice "Yankel", this time a 20 incher than put up another crazy fight.

Perfect end to a perfect trip, I packed it in early, in order to clean, break down, and pack up my gear, before heading home later that evening.

All in all, this was hands down my best DIY fishing trip to Miami, and possibly one of the better shore fishing trips I have ever achieved.

Catching a saltwater fish in a freshwater canal is an achievement in itself, but landing over double as many saltwater catches versus freshwater species, is crazy. To be exact, 11 jacks, 4 peacock bass, 3 largemouth bass and a big snook, as well as a few lost fish, from hundreds of follows in clear water. Let alone the bigger power and sizes, the high speed of jacks, and torque of the big snook, and a couple PB's to show for when it was all said and done.

Again, I thank my daughter and her husband for hosting and putting up with me, my wife, for allowing me to just hop on a plane and take off on a last minute whim, and most of all, God, for creating all the wonderful species I fish for, and for granting me the opportunity, health, time, and finances to afford to keep doing it, year after year.

Hope to be back on ice as soon a weather conditions permit.   

December 2024 ice fishing report

A decent cold front early in December finally allowed me to venture out looking for safe ice. By now, after 20+ seasons of ice fishing, I have an idea of where and when to look, but as always, safety is first. No fish is worth risking your life for, and going for a swim in a snowsuit is never part of my plans. As such, I brought along my trusty spud/wrecker bar to ensure my chances of staying topside on the ice.

For my first outing, I had a limited window of opportunity. A couple days before the outing, some rain and a warm front moved in, so I was was skeptical on whether or not I'd be able to access my spot of choice. I had a backup spot nearby, just in case. Not having fished in about 3 weeks since returning from Florida, I was itching to wet a line.

December 10th 2024:

Got to my spot about 1 hour after sunrise. Though the ice looked sort of safe where I planned to fish, the shorelines seemed sketchy. Sure enough, my spud bar went right through the ice close to shore just about everywhere, with the first 6-10 feet being dense slush. Without access to get on the ice, I switched plans and headed to my backup spot.

Being significantly shallower, this spot had a good 2.5 to 3 inches of solid ice, with another 2-3 inches of grey ice on top. Safe enough for 3-4 jabs with my bar, I ventured out, staying close to shore. Historically, I haven't done very well at the spot on ice, but I was just happy to get out and not having wasted my day.

I eventually figured out that all the fish were interested in were spoons, after jigging a lipless crankbait and Rapala jigging Rap for a while. Both a Swedish Pimple, and Kastmaster spoon, yielded some decent numbers of bass, bluegill, sunfish, perch and crappie, though nothing big. As you can see, the fish in this shallow muddy spot don't have much color in winter.

Decent multispecies catch, though sort of felt almost like micro fishing...

December 15th 2024:

A few days later, I venture back to the original spot I had planned to hit the previous week, after a deep freeze cold front moved in to solidify the ice. This time, I was able to access the spot, with 5 inches of solid ice all around. 

Seems like I picked the right time and right spot. I landed a crappie on my first drop, jigging a Kastmaster spoon.

On the next hole, my first drop landed small largemouth bass.

The next few holes were the most productive, landing a huge mess of mix species, mainly bluegills. Again, the majority came jigging the Kastmaster spoon.

While I don't normally harvest sunfish, my younger daughter loves them. Being that I was catching some really nice ones in the 8-10 inch range, I decided to keep a few, as well as a couple small bass.

Eventually ended up catching some perch, but none big enough worthwhile to keep.

My surprise came close to the end of the day, when a small pike inhaled my lipless Yozuri rattlenvibe crankbait. I wasn't using a leader, but somehow, my 6 lbs flourocarbon line held up against hundreds of razor sharp teeth despite getting pretty frayed.

Was hoping for a possible evening walleye, but unfortunately, that never happened. Still, I managed to land 59 fish, with 40 of them being Bluegills. I'd say I got my fair share of panfishing done for December.

December 24th 2024:

After a major deep freeze in another region I planned to fish, as well as some decent snow cover, I had big plans for a small lake I've iced fished in the past. This early in the season, decent ice cover with some snow is a bare minimum for a good bite, otherwise the bass and perch in that lake seemed spooked under thinner ice in very clear water. 

My hopes were good for finding them where I usually do this time of year. Namely, 22 to 28 feet for schools of small largemouth bass, and 28 to 35 feet for schools of jumbo perch with some smallmouth bass. Obviously, there is an overlap, and I've often landed all 3 species out of the same hole, but this is a general guideline.  

Despite finding 8 inches of solid ice, covered in 12-15 cm or so of snow, all I managed for the first 3 hours of my outing was 1 perch, despite having fished over 20 holes at depths from 20 to 40 feet.

At this point, I decided to try shallower on a different section of the lake. On my 23rd hole, I finally caught a nicer "8 bar" perch in 20 feet, about 10 feet shallower than where I normally find them. 

Unfortunately, they weren't schooled up at that depth, so I kept drilling. 3 holes later, I finally landed my first bass of the day, which came out of 12 feet of depth, a good 10-15 feet shallower than where I've had most of my success on that lake.

Decent little fish that I kept for the table, as I always make it a point to try to harvest my bag limits of largemouth bass from this lake. In addition to making more room and reducing competition to the native smallmouth bass in the lake, culling small largemouth bass makes for bigger sizes in the future. Over the few seasons since I first started fishing this lake, my sons and I have landed many hundreds of these smaller bass there, and likely harvested well over 100 bass by now. Subsequently, I've managed to catch some more decent sized ones, as time goes on.

Moving along, I decided to spend the rest of the day targeting shallower water in the 12 to 20 feet range. I had a few followers show up on my flasher every now and then, but they seemed very finicky, and really needed to be worked. I had been alternating from jigging a lipless crankbait to using the Kastmaster spoon for 5 successive holes each. When I did manage a follow with no bites, I'd switch it up, but that tactic didn't do any better.

Finally, on my 36th hole, I noticed a nice mark come up after the Kastmaster spoon. I was jigging suspended at around 10 over 15 feet, while this fish remained in the 12-13 foot mark. It took a few attempts, but after a couple minutes of "working" the fish, it finally nailed my lure.

I new right away that it was a better quality fish, as it would dart straight back down every time it neared the surface. After a few good runs, I finally had tired it enough to ease it's big head up the ice hole, as I was using a 6 inch diameter auger. I was surprised to see it's size when I lifted it out of the hole.

At 18.5 inches and weighing around 3.5 lbs, this is by far the biggest bass I have landed there,  or ever seen come out of this given lake. At this size, despite being a major threat to the smallmouth bass fishery in the lake, I decided to release it, as I hate killing trophy sized fish, and to be honest, the smaller 12-15 inchers taste a lot better. The big bass looked liked it barely fit through the ice hole, though I've landed even bigger ones from 6 inch holes in the past.

I kept fishing hard, run and gunning holes until sunset, with a few more small chasers on my flasher, but no hookups. Finally, on my last hole, while working my way back towards the car, in 26 feet of water, I landed another small keeper sized bass. I didn't bother with a pic of the fish, but got this nice sunset pic instead.

Beautiful end to an epic outing. It was one of those days where I had resolved to simply enjoying the workout of hand drilling 52 holes, and trekking a good 4-5 kilometers on foot. to and from my spots, while hauling my sled/gear. Definitely beats a day at the gym, anytime.

December 26th 2024:

My last outing of 2024 due to lots of incoming rain, I planned to fish multiple flag lines for the pike for the first time this winter. Being that Quebec winter rules which allow for up to 10 lines and the use of dead baitfish, kicked in last weekend, I figured I'd try a new spot I hoped to hit last season. That never happened, as spot didn't freeze up properly with the warm winter we had. With all the recent cold, I had my hopes up, but when I got there, I only found about 2.5 inches of ice under 6-8 inches of fresh snow near shore. Further out looked even thinner, so I was forced to hit my backup spot, a smaller waterway on my way back home, as I won't fish sketchy ice.

As I've caught pike at that backup spot in the past, I set up 9 flag lines, keeping my last legal line for jigging spoons. Used a mix of headless smelt, and thawed mackerels as bait.

Sure enough, I hit the jackpot on my first jigging hole with the Kastmaster spoon, landing 5 keeper sized perch in a row, when most of the perch I usually catch at this spot are significantly smaller.

I fished a few more holes in the general vicinity, but perch only decreased in size, with 1 more keeper sized perch in the 9 inch range. Then, returning to the first hole I started at, I hooked a small pike on the Kastmaster spoon. Lucky it was hooked in the tip of the snout, which gave it little to no chance of cutting the line. Fish had a large tumor / infection on both sides, and was also bloody at the tail, mouth and gill plate.

Moving to the other side of my flag line spread didn't yield any interesting results, so after a while, I returned to the general area of where I started jigging. Sure enough, the 13th hole yielded another pike, this one smaller than the first.

Just after releasing it, I landed another keeper sized perch from the same hole, as well as a smaller one.

The flag lines didn't produce a single bite all day.

By this point, I started having issues with my auger, I believe the battery may need to be replaced after 4 seasons of heavy usage. Will wait for Ion tech support to confirm. 

As 2024 winds down to it's end, I'll take the opportunity to wish everyone happy holidays, and much success in the upcoming year. 

Thanks again for reading/following my blog, looking to add many more posts and pics in 2025!

Shore fishing Miami canals

After having spent a weekend visiting my eldest son in Phoenix, I flew to Miami overnight, in order to spend 8 days with my eldest daughter, and her growing family.

I landed in Fort Lauderdale around 11 am, after flying overnight via Chicago. First order of the day was to make a quick pit stop at Outdoor World / Bass Pro shops, which is a few minutes drive from the airport, and also happens to be on our way back to her place in North Miami Beach.

Again, I hadn't bothered renting a carp, as the C9 canal, also known as the Royal Glades canal / Snake creek, is within walking distance from where I was was staying. Being that I'd be shore fishing during working hours for the next few days, the most important items outside my fishing gear were a very comfortable pair of hiking shoes (Columbia Peakfreak), and a back pack large enough for my gear, with enough drinking water to stay hydrated all day trekking in the Miami heat / humidity. 

I brought along a few lures that I've had some success with on that water system in the past, and I have a rod in my daughters house, in addition to the spare travel rod/reel in my backpack. I knew that the C9 canal has miles and miles of endless shore fishing, but the fish in there are quite finicky. Bites are usually far and few in between, at least when it comes to it's freshwater predators, largemouth bass and peacock bass. There are also some saltwater species in the canal, due to the North Miami segments of the canal being close to saltwater, and I had encountered both juvenile tarpons and jack crevalles in the past, but hadn't been able to catch any. As well, there is a huge population of striped mullet in the canal, and they tend to jump and go airborne quite often, but they aren't considered much of a game fish by most anglers.

Day 1:

I got started after seeing my grandkids off to school, choosing to start fishing where the C9 canal turns into Sky Lake. Directly across the snake creek trail, is a small development, with tiny lake in middle, I believe Pickwick lake is the correct name, based on the realty sign at it's entrance.

I tied on a Berkely Choppo, which has been my most productive topwater lure in Florida to date, and sure enough, I landed my first bass of the trip from Pickwick lake within minutes of getting started.

Great start to my day, and about 1 hour later, further down the canal, I hooked a nice peacock bass that exploded on the Choppo. I fought it to shore, where it ran into the dense weeds growing all along it's shores, I managed to get it out once, only to have it run back into the weedbed again, and when I tried to lift it out of the weeds up the steep shoreline, it came off. I was bummed about not getting my hands on it, but I got a close look at the peacock bass a few times, I'd estimate it was in the 3 lbs range, possibly a bit bigger.

I spent the next 4 to 5 hours casting endlessly, using a variety of spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, spinners and topwaters. It wasn't until mid afternoon, on my way back, when I hooked a small largemouth bass again, which hit my PopR, but ended up spitting the lure when it jumped. Called it a day around 4 pm. Close to 8 hours of fishing, 1 of 3 fish landed, after having trekked about 18 kilometers. Nothing outstanding, but I gave it my best shot.

Day 2:

I decided to work the same stretch of waterway, concentrating more effort on areas where I've seen or hooked fish in the past. Morning started with another small Pickwick lake bass within my first 5 minutes or so.

I then worked my way down the Glades canal along snake creek trail, but nothing I threw was working. With the wind gusting over 40 km/h straight at me, I tried to make my way to the other side of the canal, but taller grass was filled with sharp burrs that got all over my socks. Being that I was in shorts, and that the grass was only getting higher, I know the chances of running into poisonous snakes such as cottonmouths and coral snakes would increase. A bit too much for my nerves, I decided to head back to fish other areas of the canal closer to the trail, where the grass is maintained and cut quite short. Casting my way back, I spotted 2 big manatees near shore. Always cool to encounter them, which has happened to me there in the past as well.

On my way back, I decided to get to the other side of Pickwick lake, passing through the small community. There was a grassy area of waterfront that possibly seemed wadable from where I was, so I had my hopes up.

When I got there, first thing I noticed was this sign:

And right next to it, some telltale activity of a large aquatic bird that had been devoured:

While the alligator may or may not have been the culprit, I definitely wasn't taking any chances of wading out onto Pickwick lake's reefs to cast anything that would attract attention. I did get a few small chasers in shallow water casting from shore, but left after 10 minutes or so.

Getting closer to my daughter's home, I decided to fish one last stretch of canal, where I had caught some smaller bass and peacocks in the past. I tied on a brand new gold Rapala Husky Jerk I had just picked up at Basspro a couple days earlier. Within a few casts, I had a small bass take my lure, but it came off right away.

Casting my way along the canal using the same lure, I got the surprise of my trip about 15 minutes later. Right next to a weedbed near shore at the end of my retrieve, and big head popped out, inhaled my lure, and turned to swim off. The big fish cut my lure off clean, just as I was about to set the hook. I had a pretty good idea that it was a big snook, as they are the only species in the canal with razor sharp gill plates, which must have cut the slack line in a freak occurrence. Nothing else in there has any teeth sharp enough to cut line, except for possibly barracuda, but this was definitely not a barracuda. It's mouth was much wider, and it had a thicker head and shoulders. I felt sickened by what occurred for the first couple minutes, almost in disbelief, as that was definitely a very nice sized fish, by far bigger than any other fish had ever seen in that canal, let alone manage to hook.

That ended my second day on the canal, after a good 7 hours of fishing, and probably a good 15 - 16 kilometers walked. Only one small landed fish, but at least I managed to hook a bigger saltwater species.

Day 3:

After hooking the what I was pretty sure was a big snook the previous day, I decided to follow the C9 canal along snake creek trail in the other direction. I had been fishing moving towards the inland section over the past couple days, so I decided to head towards saltwater, hoping to encounter some possible saltwater species if the canal turned brackish at some point.

I mapped Biscayne blvd / US1 close to the end of the canal on Google maps, after which there is some sort of dam where the canal drains into a saltwater bay name Maul lake. 4 miles on foot from my daughters house, figure it would be a good start. I made my way along the canal casting lures as usual. At some point close to my destination, I encountered a group of older men, still fishing for mullets. 

Growing up, my late father had told me of fishing in the Mediterranean sea for mullets with hook and line using bread balls as bait. From my experiences, the only mullets I have seen caught, were by people throwing cast nets at them from piers or boats in saltwater.

These guys seem to be having some success, so I stopped to talk to one of them. They were using a system similar to float fishing for carp, Namely, a slip bobber with a bobber stop set about 10-11 feet up the line, and 2 hooks fished 1-3 feet of the bottom, anchored by a sinker. They used a mix of either small balls of bread, or tiny pieces of white rubber bait to fool the mullets, and were chumming heavily with flavored / prepared oatmeal or seasoned bread crumbs. Judging by the coolers they planned to fill, I figured they must know what they were doing.

I kept working my way down casting for predatory species, all the way to Byscayne blvd. I hoped to get across the highway to the dam, but was stopped by and unpassable train track and the highway next to it. With no way around, I spend a bit of time casting the spot, and managed get a nice jack crevalle in the 7-8 lbs range follow another husky jerk. Too bad it didn't hit, that would have made for a crazy fight on my medium light rod.

Working my way back on the other side of the canal, I managed to land small peacock bass:

Heading back towards my starting point, I passed by the group of mullet fishermen again, and saw them land a couple, which now had me intrigued, I checked out the gear they were using, just in case I decided to try on my own, and kept working my way back inland. Nearly 4 miles later, close to where I  lost the bigger peacock bass a couple days earlier, I managed to catch 2 more small peacock bass within a couple casts of each other. At least all that trekking paid off a bit. Working my way toward the shallower end of that segment of canal, I spotted a big fish cruising the shallow shoreline, looked almost musky like from where I was standing. I got closer, and realized it was a giant snook, probably in the 40 inch range, well above the top end of the slot size, which is 32 inches. Thick girth too, probably weighed 25 lbs or so. I tried casting a couple lures at it, as well as heading it off, but nothing doing, it just kept swimming. About 10 minutes later, and came up on another big snook up shallow in a weedbed, that darted as soon as it saw me. Slightly smaller, but still likely 36 inches or so.

Seeing those 2 big snook a good mile or more inland of where I had hooked one the previous day, gave me some hope, and made me realize that they will be just about anywhere in the canal I planned to fish. For some reason, they were much bigger than any snook I've ever seen or hooked in saltwater.

It was getting close to sunset, I headed home, and got a couple sunset shots at Pickwick lake:

Another 18-20 kilometeres of trekking over about 8 hours of fishing, with 3 of 4 small peacock bass landed. Not exactly crazy action, but at least I got confirmations of both the quality of snook that are in the canal, as well as some good pointers on how to target striped mullet.

Celebrated all my efforts when I got home:

Day 4:

This was likely going to be my last day fishing the c9 / Glades canal at Snake Creek, being that I had other potential destinations early the following week. Having had trekked and fished, casting on foot for over 50 kilometers over the past 3 days, and having landed a grand total of 5 out of 10 hooked fish, with no big ones to show for, I decided to switch thing up, and try still fishing for mullet for a change.

I had seen some good schools of them in different locations, but I figured that my best bet would be to hit the spot where I had seen the group the previous day, hoping that they may be back again. I figured I'd ask them to join, and show me the ropes, in exchange for them getting to keep all my fish. Being that these guys were both eating and selling the mullets, I didn't see why they should refuse.

Stopped by Walmart on my way, to pick up some terminal tackle and bait, namely white Wonderbread, which is what most of them swear by. Made my way over to the spot, and sure enough, there was an older guy fishing for mullet at the spot. I introduced myself, and asked him for permission to fish nearby, he was super nice of offered to show me the ropes. After having my first setup stuck in the rocks, another one of his group retied my rig properly.

 

We began fishing again. Tony and I hit it off quite well, despite our cultural differences, with him being an elderly pastor in the black community, and me being a practicing orthodox Jew. Though we found some common grounds in religious philosophy, one of the beauties of fishing is that it transcends, race, age, color, financial / social status, and then some. We're both there trying to catch the same fish, using the same tactics, and the fish aren't discriminating or differentiating between us.

Didn't take too long, and I landed my first ever striped mullet:

Decent size, and promising start to my day. Into Tony's cooler it went, and shortly after I added this sand bream as well.

As the day went on, we caught some more mullet, and missed many more hits, which are typically very subtle. I managed to land some bigger ones too.

Unfortunately, I had to call it quits by 2 pm, as it was Friday, and I still had a good 3 mile walk back to my daughters home. We said our goodbyes, and I got a selfie with my new friend Tony.

Casting along the canal on my way back home, I didn't catch anything else, but encountered another big snook, close to where I had lost my first one a couple days earlier. Again, I got many good casts at it, but it showed no interest in my lure, as it was just cruising along the edges of the canal.

With a total of 7 of 9 mullet and 1 bream landed, I was very happy with my short day's success, especially since I learned how to successfully target a new species. As they say, the wise man is he who learns something from everyone.

I don't fish on Saturday's, and took Sunday off from fishing to spend time with my daughter's family. Ih I packed a rod in the car along with a Sabiki rig in case we made it to the Sunny Isles pier to show my grandchildren some easy fishing. We couldn't find any parking there, so ended up at Haulover beach, we did some kiting after playing in the sand. I also took them to the marina where the fishing charter boats operate out of, so they got to see some fresh caught kingfish, as well as  a big school of mid sized tarpons swimming near the docks, waiting for carcasses of fresh filleted fish.

Day 5:

This was my last day of fishing on this trip, as I was flying home the following morning. I decided to rent a car and drive up to fish the Everglades canal near the Sawgrass trailhead at Atlantic. I had fished the spot a few years before, and managed to land some largemouth bass, Florida gars, and lost the first and only snakehead I had ever hooked. I was hoping for redemption, and being that I had a entire day to fish there instead of just a couple hours I had last time around, I was optimistic about my chances.

Unfortunately, when I got to the parking area, I noticed that instead of finding a neatly groomed trail along the canal I was planning to fish, the grass was very high. A couple locals confirmed that the park stopped maintaining / cutting it, and being next to a snake and alligator filled canal, in waist to chest high grass in the Everglades, the only thing sure to get bit, would be me. 

Being a bit disappointed at the situation, I figured I'd make the best of my day, and fish nearby in the C14 canal, also known as the Stranahan river. I had fished it once before with out catching anything for hours, so I didn't have high hopes, but at this point, I was still hopeful that I may get real lucky and catch something, possibly even a snakehead. After casting the first segment over a few miles using a variety of lures, I headed to another spot on the same canal. After seeing a few fish chase my spinnerbait without hitting, I tied on a Rapala X rap. Sure enough, I landed my biggest peacock bass of the trip within minutes.

A few casts later, I landed a small largemouth bass.

Working my way up the other side of the canal after not catching anything else at this spot, I managed to hook a couple more small largemouth bass to end the day. Nothing crazy, but at least I got some more pics, and more importantly, managed to stay safe and salvage my day.

All in all, I did confirm that canal fishing in South Florida is much tougher than what I'm generally used to here, although a couple of our local canals around Montreal can be very tough at times as well. Still, I was very satisfied with the amount of time and effort I was able to put in, really "beating up" the waterways I fished to my fullest capabilities.

As was extremely lucky to have perfect weather in both Arizona and Florida during my trip, and that my plans to put in good time DIY fishing on foot ended up working out in the end. Better yet, I got to spend time with my kids, grandkids and in laws, lot's of good times and good memories.

Not sure I'll get any more open water fishing up here before the start of my ice fishing season, which is fine by me, as I think I got my fill for now.