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This is going to be the beginning of what I hope will be a series of fishing reports. I hope that some of the information will be of value to those of you who wish to fish in the fresh water in South Florida. Since I am in Fort Lauderdale most of the time, most of the info will be centered in this area, including the Alligator Alley section of the Glades, and other nearby spots. When I say “we”, I of course mean M.E. and me. And we fish exclusively with flies, and almost exclusively with poppers, since we love to see the strikes.

There are two types of fishing that will be most usually discussed: fishing in the Everglades, and fishing in small local park and retention ponds. Occasional photos may be included.

I will start by discussing a trip in late January. We went to a very small urban pond, about the size of 2 basketball courts. We had had some luck here before. I caught and released a 10 inch Bass, and then hooked another one. As I was landing it, a much larger Bass ate him, and took off to the middle of the pond. After a great fight, I had him close to shore when he spit out the smaller fish. The small Bass took off, jumped, and the big Bass grabbed him again. After more fight, I landed the big one. The small one was gone, but the #8 hook in the Popper was firmly attached right inside his jaw. I measured him right at 23 inches, and let him go. No photos. I did not want to hurt his release chances. A short while later, I landed a 20 incher in the same pond, but this time without the benefit of live bait. I got another Bass, in a different pond in the same area, about 15 inches. All in all, not bad for about an hours fishing.

On January 29, we went to an area off Route 27 and north of Alligator Alley. The water was still very high. We did not see a gator! It was also windy, so we found a canal with an adjacent berm on the upwind side, and fished for 4 hours. I used a small Popper, ME used a larger Popper and a Dropper. The fishing was pretty good. Between us we landed about 40 fish, and most of them were Bass. Unfortunately, they were all small, the largest being about 13 inches. But it was a lot of fun!

On February 4^th we tried a small retention pond off the Turnpike, and did nothing.

17" Bass from a Park Pond

On February 16, we tried a couple of ponds in a nearby park. The conditions were near perfect. We got 8 Bass, the largest about 17 inches, all on a small Popper.