New to the forum, new to FL

[Profishent]

Hi All,

I've been browsing through several threads since joining this afternoon and I just wanted to thank everyone for the informative conversations and sharing your experiences on the water.

I'm going to be visiting Miami from DC the second week of May and after quite a bit of research I've read about the possible dangers of fishing alone in certain areas around the city. Are there things to watch out for when fishing alone?

I'm flying down with my St Croix 7ft medium 4pc travel rod and either my Shimano Bradia 3000 or Stradic 4000 and my objective is to hook up with as many new species as I can for my photo album. I only have a full day to dedicate to fishing, so I plan to fish the flats along Rickenbacker Causeway at dawn for barracuda, Snook, and whatever else may strike my lures. Later in the day I'm going to fish a few of the canals that travel through the Miami Airport lakes for the infamous peacocks and hopefully freshwater snook/tarpon. Then I'll end my short excursion with some night bridge fishing at dusk for snook at some of the canals feeding in from Biscayne Bay. I know, it's a very ambitious itinerary but I can only work with what I got, you know.

Though I've heard live bait is the golden ticket, I'm also taking with me some bucktails, kastmasters, gotcha plugs, darter plugs, x rap subwalk lures, zara spooks and puppys, and surgical tube lures for 'cuda. Am I ready?

Thanks for reading.

-P

[FishermanD]

I think ull be just fine...

[Profishent]

Thanks, FishermanD.

3 more days. Hopefully, I'll have something interesting to share.

- P

[Profishent]

--Report--

Well, I'm back from Miami. Unfortunately, my single day allotted for fishing went off with a slow start. The package I shipped with all of my tackle did not arrive so I spent my morning loading up on tackle instead of working the shores at sunrise. Paid a visit to the kind folks at Arky's B&T and Bait 'Em Up to pick up some DOA shrimp, X Rap, Super Spook, some other terminal tackle and was on the flats at the Rickenbacker Causeway by 8:30am. Pretty much fan casted as I made my way east along the shore. Responses were sporadic from the needlefish and barracuda on the topwater plug so I switched to the X Rap and gave it a high speed retrieve and the 'cuda action was on! Although they were all juvie sizes, it was still fun. Sensing my chances at snook would be slim around early afternoon and without live bait, I decided to move on to hunt some peacocks in the canals. Fished a couple of bridges but had no luck so I drove west on US41 toward the 'Glades and tried my luck out there. I was able to hook into some largemouths and Mayan Cichlids, but again, no peacocks. I threw on a sabiki and collected some small bait fish to liveline and that resulted in some small gar fish and a bowfin, which I originally thought was a snakehead when I saw it in the water. Spoke to a local and he mentioned that I had gone too far west for Peacock and I needed to head back closer to Krome and the Indian casino. As I headed back back east, the fiance rings me for early dinner plans with the folks and that concluded my little excursion in Miami. No peacocks or snook, but it was a good learning experience and any pullage is better than none, I say. The Cuban and Latin food definitely made the trip worth it too. I'll be more prepared the next time around. Anyways, tight lines!

Here are some photos

[BoatlessFisherman]

Awesome and Glad you did get some fish