On one of our first nights in Florida, Mark the maintenance man at Silver Palms RV Resort, and a great friend asked me to meet him at the “Pier”. The “Pier” is in Okeechobee Park, just 1/2 mile south of Silver Palms. The T shape pier jets out into Lake Okeechobee and is a great crappie fishing spot.

The pier is a very popular fishing spot, as most nights you have just enough room for the three rods you are allowed to use. Lake Okeechobee claims to be one of the top bass and crappie fishing lakes in the United States and I believe it.

Of course, I came with my light spinning rod and reel. Mark taught me how to fish off the pier using cane poles and mounted them on the railing of the pier. We met there just before dark, as the crappie don’t start biting until sunset. We caught several crappies that night and I went back fishing on the pier several times during our stay for the winter in southern Florida.

Kayak Fishing Florida

Shortly after our pier fishing, I took Mark out fishing in our kayaks. I was in mine and he used Sherry’s kayak. This time we were fishing for bass. We went to several spots that Mark knows holds bass, but they just were not biting that day. Those Florida bass get big, but they are finicky.

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My kayak is 13’2″ long. As we were pedaling along in a canal, there was an alligator every bit as long as my kayak. Mark swears we were perfectly safe, but being from Illinois, that was the end of my Florida kayaking.

Pontoon Boat Fishing Florida

Mark also had a great pontoon boat that he took me out fishing on several times. He lives right on a canal that leads to the locks to Lake Okeechobee. We would meet at his house and take off about an hour or more before dark. We would motor out the canal and through the locks. Just that was a fun experience for me.

I was very surprised we did see a couple of manatees come out of the locks one time. I didn’t know they were in freshwater.

Once we were in Lake Okeechobee, we would anchor and get set up. There were usually 3 of us in the boat. We would each set out 8 poles with minnows and bobbers. Then we would sit and wait, usually about 15 to 30 minutes. Then all at once, the action would start. It seemed it was always one or two of us would get a lot of action, with 2 or 3 crappies on at one time. Then we’d sit again and the action would start all over, but we all seemed to catch our share by the end of the day.

Marks boat was all set up with rod holders and a generator that ran lights all around the boat. The lights attract bugs, which attract baitfish which attract crappie. The boat to the left is not Marks, but one set up just like Marks parked right next to us.

Okeechobee, An Incredible Fishery

I don’t know how there is still any crappie left in Okeechobee. The pontoon boats were lined up one right after the other at sunset. The crappie in Okeechobee are incredible!!! Many were so fat, they would not fit in the measuring cup. The one pictured below was only 14 3/4″ and it was too fat to fit in the measuring cup. Most of them we didn’t even have to measure to make sure they were over the 10″ limit. The ones that were 10″ seemed small. The largest one I caught was just over 18″.

I just fried some crappie up a couple of days ago. THANKS, MARK!

I had so much fun, I never wanted it to end. We usually had to head back by 9:30 because the locks closed at 10:30 and we didn’t want to spend the night on the lake.

Saltwater Fishing Florida

As the activities director of Silver Palms, I organized a deep-sea fishing trip on Safari 1 out of Stewart, FL. This trip did not go so well. First of all, because Covid 19 was going around, a lot of people were afraid to go. So there were only 4 of us.

Then the day we went it was very windy. Windy means rough water. I was fine, but the other 3 that went on the trip got some level of seasickness. So needless to say, none of them enjoyed the trip. I felt so bad for them.

The Safari 1 boat we were on is 60′ long. They have a capacity of 56, but because of Covid, they were supposedly at 1/2 capacity. I don’t see how, because we were elbow to elbow on the fishing deck.

Shortly after we got to our first spot, I hooked into something. I started reeling it up from the 135′ depth. About 1/2 way up, there was a jerk on the line and all at once, I couldn’t reel it in anymore. I kept fighting for several minutes. I would pull it up a few feet, and back down it would go. There was nothing I could do to stop it.

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After several minutes of this, one of the mates saw me struggling and said I was hooked on the bottom. I told him I wasn’t but he was pretty sure I was. So he started making his way by all the other fishermen to get to me when suddenly my line started spinning off the spool. The mate said, “I guess you’re right you must have a goliath grouper on.” They can get up to 8′ long and weigh as much as 800 lbs.

Tough Conditions = Tough Fishing

Needless to say, I never landed that fish, he eventually broke my line. We stayed in the spot for probably at least another 1/2 hour and caught several fish, but the school of goliath grouper stole them all.

Fishing on that day was very slow, but there were a few fish caught. I caught one bluefish and one yellow snapper. One other guy in our group caught a bluefish and that was all for our group.

When we got back they cleaned and bagged our fish for us. The local pelicans ate better than anyone!

I look forward to the day we get back to Florida. I made some great friends and had great times fishing Florida.

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