Fly Fishing the Everglades' Holey Lands for Micropterus salmoides

Photo credit: MyFWC.com. Calibers of different bullets ventilate many signs in South Florida, some to the point of obliteration.

Trying out the bass in the Holey Land Wildlife Management Area of South Florida

Henry Clement, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, August 2023.

By Henry Clement

Last year, TJ Douglas introduced me to trout fishing in Eastern Idaho and Northwestern Montana. We became friends, and his visit to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, allowed me to introduce him to the real largemouth bass he had always coveted. I decided to show him a piece of the Florida Everglades that Thadeus Ragan had shown me many times.

The water was down, the bass were biting and the South Florida Water Management did not screw up the fishing in the drunk and disorderlyby releasing water.

The Holey Land Wildlife Management Area is just off State Road 27, bordered by Rotenberger Wildlife Management Area, and Everglades Wildlife Management Area (part of the most northern extent of remaining Everglades sawgrass marsh), and is just south of Palm Beach County’s border.

NOTE: On the northern edge of the Everglades, you can enter the Holey Land Wildlife Management Area. Its unique name comes from the numerous depressions throughout the area, which comprise 35,000 acres of the Everglades ecosystem. Holey Land is also characterized by a marsh of dense sawgrass with scattered shrubs, over one hundred upland tree islands, wet prairie, cattail marsh, and freshwater sloughs. Whether you are into wildlife viewing, hiking, fishing, or hunting, this area offers a variety of activities for outdoor enthusiasts. Get off the beaten path and experience a perfectly peaceful excursion!

We made it to the Holey Land ramp at 9 a.m. It was not crowded, probably because it was a little chilly and midweek. Only two other trailers were in the parking area. I recognized both. Bob was one, and the other belonged to a rude, fat guy I never saw standing or driving without a beer, who seemed always to be sweating.

When the water was low

The ramp was in its usual state of disrepair—too steep and very slippery—and waiting for the next two-wheel drive vehicle that it could swallow whole by sliding into the canal.

I told TJ to set up his fly rod [8-WEIGHT] and pocket the box of flies I had tied for him. We were going to climb the dam to the top—the narrow dirt road at the top of the barrier, which provided access to the pumping station almost directly across from the ramp. I hoped to see if the largemouth bass had piled up against the spillway wall, waiting for an easy meal.

Thadeus Ragan with a 10-pound largemouth bass from the Everglades. Photo credit Thadeus Ragan.

Acres of bass

Acres of bass were there, and every cast produced a fish, anywhere from 4- to 5-pounds, but most were 2- to 3-pounds.

The Holey Land Wildlife Management Area canal system could take you to the west coast of Florida’s Everglades – with a few portages. In the winter, not as many mosquitoes and the more adventurous the trip, camp-out and fish the whole East to West canal system.

Mecca

After exhausting ourselves at the pumping station/spillway, we hit the honey hole ‘zone’ about a mile away. TJ could not believe his catching one after another, with a 6-pounder thrown into the mix of 2- to 4-pounders. After about two hours, I pulled the anchor and headed north, where the canal was much wider and required a different technique to get a bite [see below].

We heard a boat coming up fast on us. It was the beer drinker guy with two raggedy ass guys that looked like him. Fat, slovenly, and well-oiled. The boat was the dictionary’s synonym for unkempt. Its added feature was, of course, the slobs themselves, and the bonus of ugly was a boom box that crushed the wilderness with punk rock.

The fattest of the three porkers threw his cigarette in the water along while pitching an empty beer bottle that broke on a limestone outcropping. They thought it was hilarious and looked like they’d all been into the cooler often for liquid refreshments.

Setting the stage

When they came up on us, they disingenuously tried to engage us in the usual how’s it goin’ BS. I said fine, but if you guys double back a few miles and turn off the boom box, you’ll find the fishing is good. We’re headed north, ahead of you, and behind Bob, whom you probably know.

Fatso one said: ‘Yeah, I know Bob. He’s probably with his wife – a skinny bitch with tiny tits.’ The others thought the comment was hilarious—an accurate measure of their worth in this world.

I suggested they turn back and lose the noise box, and I’ll show you what you need to fish at that long S curve. On the way out, if you guys are still at it, Bob and I will give you a report. You know, a heads-up on where.

That condescension didn’t sit well with the overly tattooed driver, who turned sour and gave us the finger as they sped off ahead of us.

This illustration of the original big Florida largemouth bass [Micropterus salmoides] is by award-winning watercolorist, fly fisher, and environmentalist Thom Glace. NOTE 2: Largemouth bass exhibit variations in coloration and patterns due to their ability to adjust their pigment cells based on environmental factors like water clarity, light levels, and the color of their surroundings. This camouflage helps them blend in with their environment for hunting and defense [see difference in anglers’ catches and illustration]. NOTE 3: Seeing colors: The cellular composition of the largemouth bass’ eye is tuned to respond to two colors: red and green. Bass can see these colors well and make decisions with high selectivity based on these colors. Outside of red and green, many dark colors appear similar to bass, which cannot make highly selective decisions based on colors like blue and black. Likewise, bass cannot readily distinguish between bright colors like chartreuse and white.

We watched

They started fishing about a half mile from us, boom box blaring. We watched them fish and knew they’d catch a cold before catching a bass. We waited to move on until the boom box was only faintly heard and they had zoomed off to new failures. They habitually moved at full speed when approaching their assessment of better ‘fishy’ water—a perfect warning for the bass to hunker down.

If they kept going, I knew they’d hit a curve with a giant stump buried just below the waterline. To avoid the hazard and make a safe passage, ‘local’ knowledge is required. The driver of the bass boat should have known about the stump because he was somewhat of a regular.

They had been pitching their trash in the water

This tells the story of what discarding fishing line can cause.

We picked up birds nest fishing line, floating butts, fast food wrappers – filling a 10-gallon bucket with their discards. Soon, no boom box noise about a mile from that harm’s way stump. When we reached the stump, there they were. Their boat hull gutted, one gunwale detached. Their boat was as smashed as they were.

Cooler and everything in the boat in the water: full beer bottles, wet cigarettes, useless boom box, and dozens of CDs afloat, an empty vodka bottle, and three bruised and wet, drunk idiots standing on the bank. The couple that was initially ahead of us was already at the scene. I asked if anyone needed immediate medical attention, and sheepish no’s were their answers.

We picked up what we could and shared the bounty on both boats. It was a cool day for March, maybe 70 degrees F, and cloudy with a slight southeast wind at 10 mph. We saw the idiots were cold, but we winked about not sharing our rain gear to help keep them warm. We ‘raced’ back to the ramp to ensure the idiots would feel as cold as possible.

Clean up duty and a less-than-pleasant farewell

We stayed at the ramp and made the idiots walk back and forth to their truck with the junk and trash. They got very testy about putting the trash and birds’ nests of line that we had picked up after them, and putting them in the truck. That pissed them off and gave us great pleasure.

When they left, they gave us the finger and hollered salvos of FU. That did not sit well with me, so I called Bob’s neighbor, a Park Ranger who had previously worked at the Wildlife Management Area and was on duty elsewhere. He called a former Ranger friend who worked at the Holey Land. In less than an hour, Bob’s Ranger friend had told the story of our encounter with the shipwrecked idiots to the on-duty Ranger. The Park Ranger found the fools in the Holey Land Wildlife Management Area parking lot.

Adventure in the Everglades’ Holey lands. Photo credit: MyFWC.com

Oh, that was a perfect ending

Two days later, Bob called me and said the alerted Ranger approached the three drunks and they got a little nasty, so nasty that he called for back up and the shit hit the fan. The three fat boys were in cuffs in about 20 minutes. They were still in jail with a laundry list of serious offenses, threatening an FWC Ranger, resisting arrest, no insurance, open beer and liquor bottles, weapons violations, and on and on.

Sidebar: Catching largemouth bass in the Everglades – spillway and canal

A photo of South Florida’s most knowledgeable angler, Steve Kantner, a former guide and current author of many books on the fishing and angling history of South Florida. Steve is shown here with a canal largemouth bass. Photo by Steve Kantner.

The MO was to cast and hit the spillway wall [gently] and let the fly plop into the water. The 10-pounders in deeper water are not easy to get a bite from as smaller bass intercept quickly. To get bigger bass meant heavier flies. Fast sinking fly line, short leader at 4-feet and 16- to 20-pound monofilament tippet. The water was about 4-feet deep at the spillway wall, and around 20-yards away from the spillway wall, it is about 10-feet deep. These depts can change dramatically after storm events, seasons, or sustained water releases.

Bead headed woolly buggers and Clouser deep minnows also worked for aggressive fish in deeper water. My methodology is to hit the lily pads or shore and pop them into the water, then swim them erratically, stop and go. Color combinations: brown and white, olive and white, brown and yellow, brown and tan, and all black. Natural colors are best for all bass flies except popping bugs, which may be brightly colored.

NOTE 4: TJ used red hackle on a big Woolly Buggers and got more attention than any other color we used. TJ also used a liberal dash of red ‘magic marker’ on the tail of the tube fly.

Caddis Fly Angling Shop- Jay Nicholas tied this Bugger but TJ left off the bead on his Bugger.

Well-tied and strong weed guards are mandatory everywhere in the glades. In the Everglades canals, you’ll cast every fly onto lily pads or under overhangs up against the shore. Rarely picking up hits in midwater. Almost all the canals in the Everglades system are not much wider than a two-lane road, and many are as narrow as a single-lane road.