In 1947 the great Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote the book “The River of Grass”, it was a gamechanger. To that time, most people considered the area a worthless, mosquito filled swamp. She brought the world’s attention to the need to preserve this incredible land. The 1.5 million acers that is the Everglades constitutes some of the best fishing in all of Florida. All the stars of inshore angling can be caught there; redfish, snook, tarpon, trout and much more.
It had been three years to the day the last time that I had journeyed to the River of Grass via skiff. It was finally time once again.
Everglades City
Three hours south from Tampa to Naples, exit to the Tamiami Trail and continue on until you hit the small fishing town on the edge of the River of Grass, Everglades City. A town of 400 people home to a handful of buildings and houses, it’s not the type of place you pick for a luxury vacation, it’s for those looking for a launch pad into one of America’s great wild lands.
There are a few places to stay, the Rod and Gun Club and the Ivey House are great choices. In our case, since we had three skiffs, we chose to Airbnb so that we could dock our boats.
Fishing the River of Grass
There are so many opportunities in the glades. You can run toward the Florida mainland to find freshwater and target species like gar, bass, bluegill and others. Running through the rivers out to the coast, you can find redfish, trout, black drum, jacks, tripletail, sharks and cobia. Fishing everywhere in-between are snook, tarpon, ladyfish goliath grouper and even the endangered sawfish.
Having three boats, we caravanned until we reached a meet up spot, then we would go our separate ways and fish for a few hours until it was time to meet up again. Cell service is not reliable at all out there, so we all had apps and/or offline maps that helped us navigate – it’s super easy to get lost out there.
We ran through the rivers to fish the numerous bays and mangrove islands, the small snook were absolutely everywhere. They hammered flies with reckless abandon – it’s highly likely that many of these fish never see baits, lures or flies. It was like clockwork, poll a shoreline, find a mangrove overhang or cut and then land your fly in the darkness. Once you let it sink, in only two strips it would get nailed by a juvenile robalo.
Multiple juvenile tarpon were hooked and landed, however, I wasn’t able to land any. Pulled hooks and broken leaders were the story for me.
Plan Your Trip to the River of Grass
As I have said, there isn’t a whole lot down there. There are a handful of decent spots to eat and gas stations to get all your essentials, it’s a very homey place. I would recommend a lot of bug spray, pants and long sleeves, you will get eaten alive without these items. Know that you’re heading into a very inhospitable place, so have your navigation plan set and pay attention to the weather. The last thing you want is to get stuck a long way from home.
Many of the areas where you will find fish will be shallow or at least require some degree of stealth in order to successfully catch fish. Be ready to pole (or troll) for long distances in heat and bugs through mud bottom.
Pack plenty of water and ice and make sure that you have redundancies in everything (chargers, water, emergency and first aid gear, etc.). If something goes wrong out there, you want to be sure that you have extras.
In Sum
If you fish in Florida and haven’t fished the River of Grass, you owe it to yourself to get out there and do it. The good news is that while we did it in technical skiffs, this isn’t necessary. You can catch a variety of Everglades fish from land by stopping along U.S. 41 (the Tamami Trail). Because we didn’t catch enough, we put in time on the trail on the drive home (see the tarpon below).
To learn more about fishing the trail, check out some of my other pieces like, “Tamiami Trail Fishing and Adventures” and “U.S. 41 (Tamiami Trail) and South Florida fishing”.
Hopefully you enjoyed this piece, more to come soon! Until next time, tight lines!
