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.