Always an advocate of everyday adventures, I was excited
when Glen Pla, the Host of Average Angler
Adventures, asked me about fishing in the Everglades. It’s “no secret” that
I love the Everglades and I wouldn’t miss a chance to share it with anyone, so
plans were made to meet up and film an episode of Glen’s popular fishing show.
We met up at Port of the Islands Adventure Resort and didn’t
have to go far for our first stop. Adjacent to the Resort is a small landlocked
pond that houses some respectable fish. Through the early morning fog we could
see tarpon feeding just out of casting range. We launched our kayaks and began
our hunt. It was a cool morning and the action was a little slow. I didn’t have
any luck with topwater lures so I switched to live bait. Glen was using a soft
plastic mullet. I managed a gar on a shiner while Glen jumped two tarpon on
artificial. Lesson learned, I switched to a Vudu mullet and landed a nice
largemouth on my first cast.
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| Morning action |
Just before leaving the pond, Glen was working the edge on
the way back to the launch when his lure was slammed by a sizable fish. Our
excitement grew when the bucket sized head of a giant snook broke the surface.
In such a small landlocked body of water, we expect a few small snook, but this
was the king of the pond! After Glen skillfully landed the beast the fish posed
for a few photos before swimming off to fight another day.
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| Glen's morning monster |
The fog began to dissipate and we began the long drive into
the Everglades for exotic fish. I have wrote about and filmed my favorite spot
for exotics in the Everglades for many years, always just stopping short of
saying exactly where it is. I always thought people could figure it out, it’s
not that big of a secret. While talking to Glen on camera, I finally let the
cat out of the bag as to the exact location. We drove to the Collier-Dade
Training Airport just off of US 41. Just south of the airport there are large
borrow pits created while digging fill dirt. These lakes are very deep and are
full of largemouth and peacock bass as well as other exotics.
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| Looking for exotics |
We walked back to the lakes carrying only the essentials. We
opted for live shiners because the peacock bass seem to be a little harder to
entice with artificial bait when the temperatures are lower. We immediately
began catching fish. They were smaller, average sized peacocks and largemouth.
Glen caught and landed his first oscar and had a shot at a few more. We moved
on to hit a few other hot spots where we caught varying sized peacocks and
largemouth bass. By the late afternoon, the bite shut down and we made our way
out of the back area. We caught many fish but the cooler weather kept the
largest of the peacocks away.
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| 1st oscar |
Back at the resort we finished up with an ending interview
sequence. Glen and Producer Grant were quick and professional and we were done
in short order. We had a great time, caught lots of fish and hopefully got
enough video for a compelling episode of Average
Angler Adventures, exclusively seen on Bright House Sports Network. The
latest episode can be seen every Sunday at 7:00 p.m.
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| Filming |
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