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River King . . . the world's finest fishing and working catarafts |
The Cataraft Chronicles The following is a chapter from my running journal of the six month effort to redesign the rowing frame on our Kingfisher catarafts. Here you will find an almost daily update of my current sea trials / shakedown / vacation trip to the Gulf Coast to try the new design in several different types of fishing water.
You can find the other chapters here: Cataraft Chronicles, Table of Contents
Note: This chapter is divided into two separate pages for faster loading because there are so many pictures. Click here to return to Chapter 6, The Everglades, Part 1
Friday, March 27 through Sunday, March 28, 1999
Today I hit the water early with a smug belief that "I've got this place wired". This is another characteristic that saltwater fly fishing has in common with fresh - as soon as you think that, you're in for a good skunk - which is nearly what happened that day. I worked hard all day and tried several new locations as well as some new tactics. Only one fish caught - a smallish Snook that had brilliant yellow tips on its fins.
Also, this day there was almost no feeding activity on the surface, no swirls and no slurps. But I learned that evening at the bar that the pros didn't do too well either. And that's how it is in Florida Bay. For some reason you can have exactly the same weather, tides and winds but the fishing can be just the opposite as the day before.
Even when the fishing was slow there was lots of testing to do on the new River King. It was soon obvious that in this area the anchor was not too useful as it easily got mired in the silt and then got the mess on the bow of the boat when it was retrieved. I tried one of the 8 foot dowels that I bought at Home Depot to use for awning supports at the bluegrass festival. It was a little short for pushing the boat along for any distance but worked OK for short hauls. For anchoring it stuck really well in the eel grass, was easy to stick in and pull out and held the boat against some pretty stiff winds at times.
Charles and I went out in the evening with similar results as I had experienced alone in the morning. We were both right handed casters so we had little trouble staying out of each other's way on the 15 foot River King. Each of us just picked an opposite corner and casting direction. It's easy to step up onto the upper deck at any time and start casting as the boat is quite stable even with two on board.
At one point we had drifted within about fifty yards of another boat when the teenage boy aboard let out a yell. We looked up just in time to see a big Tarpon snap his line off about 2 seconds later. The Tarpon hit the lure within 20 feet of his boat.
Returning to Flamingo that evening we passed a beautiful ketch that came between the River King and another fine sunset.
In the bar that evening, feeling a bit chastened, I listened to a guitarist and his wife do some very good Jimmy Buffett songs to the delight of the after dinner guests. I can definitely see why people love this place. Then I met a couple of guys who, like me, were each on a traveling adventure.
Chris, on the left is a painting contractor from Iowa who saves up his money during part of the year and then takes long vacations to out of the way places like Flamingo, Florida.
Greg is a dude from New Jersey, who is doing a bike trip from the tip of the Keys, north to home. He sidetracked to Flamingo because he'd spent a month here once fishing and really loved the experience.
Chris had his guitar along and Greg had a large bottle of wine that he wanted to release from his pannier before the next leg of his trip. Since I always travel with my banjo there was nothing to do, after a few beers when the above shot was taken, but retire to their campsite, at the edge of Florida Bay, where we sang songs and drank wine till the wee hours as they say. Around midnight we even drew an audience as three kayaks cruised to a stop in the moonlight a few feet out in the water. They listened to a few tunes, thanked us and then slowly glided off into the moon lit night.
I woke up this morning around nine in a hot van with a rather thick head - the price for last night's fun. After a slow start, today I reasoned, would be a good day to try the fishing on the inside of the park. There are hundreds of thousands of acres of waterways, inland ponds and lakes in the Everglades, and all of them have fish. The southern area has brackish water and the same species can be found there as in the Bay.
I headed north from Flamingo up a long waterway to Coot Bay and then over to Mud Lake passing gaiters, prehistoric trees, strange plants and vines and stopping occasionally to fish and listen to the sounds of the jungle. Again, I tried all known fishing tactics except gill nets and dynamite but never had a strike all day.
And again, the guides I came across back there were not doing well either. So I enjoyed the jungle and the seclusion. While traveling down one long stretch of waterway I had to stop when I encountered a most exotic smell. It may have been this flower, I'm not sure, but if they could bottle this scent, the perfume companies would make millions.
Rosie says this is a Bromeliad of some kind as it has no roots in the ground, they just hang in the air over the water. She thinks that what I smelled was not this but was possibly an orchid that also grows in the jungle and are better known for their heavenly scents.
Although the fishing was slow I explored some fascinating cover. Most lakes and waterways here are bordered with thick mangrove trees, the entangled roots bending down beneath the water. From articles I've read these Mangrove roots are great places for the large Snook that live here to wait in ambush. It was fun exploring the backcountry of the Everglades but it would also be great to be here on a good fishing day.
Fishermen have to have confidence. My personal fishing hero is Kenny Soares, a guide who works the Henry's Fork during the season, and spends his winters in Costa Rica with his pretty lady, Linda. Ken can fish all day and never get a hit, but when you look at him, his intense concentration, his focus, the gleam in his eyes, you can see that he really believes, despite hours of frustration, that his next cast could be his lifetime fish. That's what I call zen. I don't come close to Kenny's spiritual fish awareness, but I do get up every day thinking that this could be a good day to go fishing.
And today it pays off. The tide is low this morning. There are a few fish showing on the shallow flats but I find a deep spot between two flats west of Flamingo. The fathometer shows from 6 to 13 feet. It also says there are fish here.
I use my $3.95 pole to anchor the boat on the upwind edge of the hole. I then put another heavy epoxy head fly on my salt water sinking tip line and toss it across the hole. I count it down and start a strip, pause, strip, pause retrieve, hoping that it stays down. Bam, first cast. A great start for day four.
I catch several fish in the hole which is about 50 yards long by 20 wide including a very nice size Jack with a huge hole in his back where another fish, even larger, enjoyed an appetizer. Several fish are caught with the same chartreuse Larry TullisWiggle Bug that Rosie used to catch the first fish that was caught from the River King last week. His beak was a little ripped so I used some surgical tape from my first aid kit and some mono to keep him going just a little bit longer. I like his attitude - which he shows well in this fish eye shot. Like the country song says, "I ain't broke but I'm badly bent".
See Larry, I do use Lefty Kreh's loop knot as you suggest.
Today I also try using my cooler as a platform to see better and get better casting range. This fish eye shot shows how I tied the cooler down with a buckle strap on each side.
Results: It was too high for poling with the short 8 foot pole I had but I think it would have worked well with a 12 or 16 foot pole while scanning the flat from a higher vantage point. As far as a casting platform I rarely needed to cast further than 40 to 60 feet which I could do easily from the upper deck. For poling, maybe I'll still try to rig up something more permanent while I'm on this trip but I'd hate to lose a day of fishing for the slight advantage it would bring.
Again, no fish pictures today but I've got some ideas that might work for the next stop, Appalachicola, up in the panhandle of Florida. I leave Flamingo early, about one o'clock, to get to Rosie's, about 4 hours north, in time to do a load of laundry, take a hot shower and catch up on my e-mail. I'm sun burnt and wind blown but it feels pretty good.
Stay tuned!
Click here to return to Chapter 6, The Everglades, Part 1
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