Everglades City
by Captain Mike Merritt
With the temperatures staying up the Snook fishing has definitely picked up. We are catching some really nice Snook in the backcountry and starting to catch them out in the Islands. As the bait starts to move inshore this will pick up even more. Let’s all hope this trend continues. I love the warmer weather and so do the fish.
Of course this means the cold water fishing that everyone has been enjoying will come to an end. But fish like Permit, Cobia and Tripletail will start to show up. These are all great fun and can be sight fished to add to the excitement.
Redfish are here but are very scattered. We are catching some but not any schooling fish inshore.
Black Drum are around but still no large schools as I anticipated. This should happen any time now. The fishing will continue to improve as the water clean up from all the grass that has blown in. March is approaching so the winds will once again start to blow from the SW as it does in March. Hopefully we get some really nice mornings here in the 10,000 Islands. I love the morning runs and it just makes me appreciate what I get to do every day.
Tarpon are here and there are plenty of boats chasing these guys down the coastline. Give them a little room as they stalk these fish. Be respectful out there on the water weather you are offshore ,inshore, or backcountry. We are all just trying to enjoy our day and no need to ruin it for someone. Life is short so make the most out of it!
We truly have so many opportunities here. Even the Seatrout bite has remained consistent despite the fact that we have no Turtle Grass anywhere. Hopefully one day efforts are made to restore this important part of our ecosystem. I for one am a little disappointed that our great National Park doesn’t put forth any type of restoration efforts. Maybe we all need to write our representatives that are proud of the Everglades restoration about this. It seems they are unaware.
I love these Everglades 10,000 Islands and how they have supported a tremendous fishery and enabled me to make a living so I would love to see it restored. I don’t want to get into a lot of that right now but for those that don’t know or have the experience I can tell you this system is dying as compared to just 50 years ago.
But not to be all negative we have a fantastic fishery. I invite anyone who reads this to contact me by email if you want to learn more. Just look me up and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Get out and enjoy the beauty of what we have and teach a kid to fish! Fishing certainly kept me out of trouble as a young boy and now I am making my living doing it! Good luck fishing!
Capt. Mike Merritt
Guide
(561) 252-4324
SnookFishing1@juno.com
