| Trip Photo Album Hells Bay 2004 This year we finally have some good looking weather in store. Doug Dorr arrived in South Florida Thursday to help us get ready for an early morning departure. We made it to the Everglades with no problems until a park ranger clocked Steve going a bit over the speed limit and pulled him over. With only a warning, we were back on our way and made it down to the ranger station. Here we found out that the Hell's Bay Chickee had already been reserved for that evening along with Pearl Bay. So our only option (with the lodge completely full) was to set up camp down at the Flamingo Campground and make due. After all was set up and we ate some lunch, Doug And Scott Baker launched the canoe right out front into Florida Bay while Steve and Scott Everett launched the skiff into the Backcountry and headed out to Northeast Whitewater Bay. Doug and I poled around awhile, but with very poor water clarity we decided it would be better if we fished up and down the mangrove edges rather than the flat out front. We caught a couple nice trout, and saw a possible redfish or two. Doug got his fly rod out just as I spotted a 4 foot black tip coming our way. He lay his cast right out in front of him, and stripped the fly just enough to keep it in front of the shark. All of a sudden with a burst of speed the black tip lunged forward and nosed the fly and bolted away. I could feel Doug shaking from the back of the canoe. I got a good laugh out of it. I was really hoping the shark would hook up just to see what would happen, but we may have been towed all the way out to Murray key. We then moved on toward Bradley Key and paddled up and down the shoreline with no luck. We got buzzed by a couple of a$$holes in there bay boats as they plowed out of an area that was too shallow for them anyway. We managed to locate a couple of baby tarpon right before dark which kept rolling and hammering bait in the mangroves but would not eat anything Doug would throw at them. We also saw three sawfish, small ones around 28 inches near the campground, but they would not eat either. So we headed back in to get ready to grill some steaks and see what the other guys had done for the day. They arrived a half hour or so after we made it back. Steve had caught a redfish so our steak dinner now became surf and turf. An awesome meal again in the everglades. We dealt with a few mosquitoes and chanting from the bible, boy scout and other camps which were in the park. We had some breakfast in the morning and packed up. Doug and I loaded the canoe into the back of the truck and headed down the road for the trailhead. After sweating our butts off loading everything we struck out on our 3 hour journey to the chickee. In the last creek before Hell's Bay, Doug hooked into a good sized jack which towed us almost the length of the creek before it did a 180 and wrapped his line around my head and broke him off. I'm just happy Doug doesn't use power pro. We arrived at the chickee and Ev and Steve had set up camp and were out fishing. Not even five minutes go by and another group arrives and again forces us to squeeze onto one side of the dock. Which didn't turn out to be that big of deal. We fished awhile out of the canoe but the water clarity in Hell's Bay was also pretty bad. So Doug and I came back and took it easy for awhile. When the skiff riders returned, the 4 of us loaded up and headed out to whitewater bay to throw a top water for trout and tarpon. We all caught a few trout, which we made for dinner that evening. No tarpon showed up. The next morning Doug and I headed out in the canoe again to look for better water. But the further we went, the worse it got. A couple of jacks and ladyfish were all we were able to catch, until right next to the chickee Doug caught a 8 inch snook. The fishing out of the canoe was real bad, nothing to speak of. So I'll leave the rest for the North River boys to report later.....But the camping was great. Incredible meals each night with the last night topping it all off. A seafood feast of redfish, sea trout and blue crabs was enough for all of us. We weren't ready for the paddle back but it had to be done (probably for the last time) as we needed to get back to civilization. Until next time, probably will be camping somewhere out of the Keys. |
| Hells Bay Chickee E.N.P 2004 |
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