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Camping and Fishing in the ENP- UPDATE/REPORT


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I've tried to find some old threads on necessities for an ENP Trip.  I've found scattered info but thought it might be helpful to have a thread (maybe a sticky) on sort of a ENP Checklist Thread (ala the Ditch Bag thread) somewhere.  The ENP Forum seemed like maybe a good starting spot.

My wife's bro-in-law has spent time throughout his life camping in the ENP.  I've fished it but never actually camped out in the islands.  He challenged me to do some "Hard Core" fishing during our visit over Christmas.  We will likely stay down around Rogers or Shark in a Chickee.  I've started my own check list of essentials for the stay.  Are there any suggestions or lists out there you guys would share specific to the 10K/ENP?

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Here's a link to a Wilderness Trip Planner from the Everglades National Park.  One key reminder is that much of the water is very shallow and you can ground your boat quickly.  Many of the beach/island camp sites will leave your boat "high and dry" at low tide--an unpleasant surprise upon waking.  I typically take a gallon of fresh water per person per day. Depending on the time of year, the mosquitos can be really bad, so repellent, Thermacell, netting, etc. is very important.  "Take only pictures, leave only footprints" (or boat wake!).  Have fun!

ENP Wilderness Planner

 

 

 

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16 hours ago, rubble said:

I've tried to find some old threads on necessities for an ENP Trip.  I've found scattered info but thought it might be helpful to have a thread (maybe a sticky) on sort of a ENP Checklist Thread (ala the Ditch Bag thread) somewhere.  The ENP Forum seemed like maybe a good starting spot.

My wife's bro-in-law has spent time throughout his life camping in the ENP.  I've fished it but never actually camped out in the islands.  He challenged me to do some "Hard Core" fishing during our visit over Christmas.  We will likely stay down around Rogers or Shark in a Chickee.  I've started my own check list of essentials for the stay.  Are there any suggestions or lists out there you guys would share specific to the 10K/ENP?

 

The Rogers is a very very tricky river to get in and out of at low tide...plan accordingly....the entrance is somewhat marked; however, the sand bar extends out well over a mile....there are a lot of oyster bars once you make the turn....I have not fished down there in a few years, but, it's not easy during the winter, as Dave says above, you can get negative tides.

Also, be aware, there can be some very nasty storms that will kick up without notice, and when they do at night, you have a problem.

If you are going with your wife's Bro-in-law who has experience, meaning serious camping, then you should be fine....but, if you are considering alone for the first time, be cautious.

For me, camping is the Everglades City Motel :)  so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I know the waters very well....and would hate to see you in trouble.

 

In another tread you mentioned about taking gas - yes, most definitely - there are no stations between Choko and Flamingo :):)    Probably 10-20 gallons in Jugs would be useful to take along...just in case you run around a good bit.

If memory serves me, the Rodgers river is about a good 45-50 mile run from Everglades City if you are going out the Barron and turning left at Indian Key.

And, if it get's crappy, you may have to run to Flamingo to wait it out if the winds are blowing from the North West....

Plan ahead and be sure you do have someone with experience if you are going to camp in the Rogers and other main rivers in the winter due to tidal variation.

 

DC

 

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I never leave the Flamingo ramp without 2 days of food and water, you'd be surprised how small you can package all the emergency gear you would need for 2 days out there.

This is a Pelican case, model 1500, this is it (minus the water). The first-aid in one vacuum bag and food+shelter in the other. The case goes up front along with my radio antenna which is in a piece of capped pvc pipe.

 

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Rubble- It would be easiest for you to follow the Wilderness Waterway from Glades City or Choko if you're going to camp at the Rogers Bay Chickee. You will have to run outside then up the Harney or in Ponce in order to get to the Shark River Chickee from there. You can only pull camp permits from the ENP ranger station a day before your trip commences. There will be many people camping the backcountry Dec15-Jan2 so permits will be at a premium. Also....keep in mind that the canoers and kayakers think they can pretty much set up camp where ever they want, when ever they want, and there are usually many dozen of them paddling around the ENP around Christmas time. PM me again if I can be of more assistance.

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It's pretty awesome, this particular one is a prototype from several years ago when I was in the military and we were doing R&D on them. It's identical to the later released commercial one though. There's bunches of them on the market now but this is the only one I'm familiar with. This particular one has made many detachments and has never failed me. It will run a laptop forever and radios, sat phones, etc... even longer, Its jumped many boats and trucks at the boat ramp as well.

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22 hours ago, conocean said:

Lucky for rubble that the wind isn't honking out of the north because the tides are low enough with this new moon!

I love next week's tides which is why I'll be spending the first 9 days of the New Year in Choko. :ph34r:

Wow...great life...enjoy it while you are young and with your kids....build some great memories.

dc

 

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Man what a trip.  You guys down here have paradise right in your backyard. Was hot the first two days/nights but not too bad.  Last night turned cold as the front blew in about 4am on the Harney.  Didn't have the fly on our tent and had to get dry quick but the rain didn't last long.  However, the winds did.  Got to experience that honker out of the North.  Got stuck outside the Harney trying to get out to the Gulf.  Spent an hour waiting for the tide to change.  Got out in the Gulf and couldn't fight the 15 to 25 winds/surf.  Got back in the Broad and cruised home.  Got stopped in Last Lostman's (???) for a check by the Park Rangers.  Everything was good and we finally made it in after a few hangups in the Lopez.  Cannot believe we made it from the mouth of the Lopez to Choko.  Looked like you could walk across the bay.  Will try to post some pics and more details when back in KY.  Saw a cool sticker on the back of the Chickee sign on the South Joe.  Had to have been some kind of Outlaw that put it there. :)

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After a 15.5 hr drive from Naples to KY, I've had time to try and put together some thoughts on the trip.  First being I wish I could do that more often.  What a great way to unplug and get away from the rat race.  

After several days in KY preparing to head south, I had about everything I could think of. Almost took too much stuff but I'd rather say I really didn't need to bring an item rather than I should have brought something I forgot or didn't think of.  

My bro-in-law (BIL) covered all of the camping gear.  He's spent many nights tent camping in the glades and has an old box he built in his teens that carries his stove, lamp, utensils and all necessities for camping in the glades.  He really doesn't have to take anything else other than Tent and Sleeping Bag which he carries in another bag.  All I really had to worry about was bringing drinks, ice, sleeping bags/pads, tackle and fuel.  I did take a couple of extra thermacells which I'm not sure helped out a whole lot but at times it appeared that they may be.

We left Naples just before 7am on the 27th and arrived at Cholo Island Park at change to high tide.  Seems like we pushed off from the dock around 8:30 or just after.  We had no problems getting to the outside as my BIL had made that trip out many times and knew the way.  Most was from just memory as his old GPS was out of commission.  He had a newer hand held that he transferred his points and tracks to which eventually helped but he had a hard time seeing the screen.  Thank goodness I had my EchoMap 73 with the SW FL Coastal chip.  It came in handy many times.

As we headed south, he wanted to get outside the Park boundaries to run the crab traps.  We didn't see any until we got down to the Harney area.  At that point I was ready to head in and setup camp.  He thought we still had a little running to do but I told him My GPS said we were there.  He followed me in and we had no issues getting into the mouth of Harney River.  When we arrived at camp, someone was there and we told them we'd fish for a while as they wrapped up their camp.  There was no action in that area to write home about.  As soon as they we heard their engine fire up we headed that way, setup camp and had lunch.  Then we took off to the mouth and the bite was on as the outgoing had just started.  Caught a little of everything there:  Snook, Span Mak, Ladies, Triple Tail, Trout, Shark, Cat...  We probably should have stayed put in one spot but we trolled on up to the Broad Creek area where we ran out of the bite.  By that time we were killed and wanted to get back an have dinner.  The triple tail was the star.  As we settled in for the night, it was low 70s and kind of warm for us KY folks.  just sleep in shorts with no cover and still was moist.  Our tent didn't have a fly over it so we hoped that we'd get some breeze in there.  The only thing we got was the dew dripping off of the bottom of the chickee roof the next morning.  Got up at daylight, had breakfast and broke the camp down.  Took off to the South Joe to setup.

As we entered the Shark, we didn't know which creek to take so we picked one that looked the deepest on the chart.  Again, we had no problems getting back in the river to the Joe and had no issues finding the South Joe Chickee.  We setup camp and took off to Flaming just to do some sightseeing.  When we saw all of the people there in the creek and at the store we knew we made the wrong move.  We should have stayed near the camp and fished.  We headed back to the South Joe and started looking for fish. We had no luck.  For some reason we couldn't find the fish in the back.  Only place we were able to do any good was at the mouth of the rivers.

We came back in to the Chickee that night and had a neighbor that was paddling a kayak.  He was Russian but has lived in West Palm area for about 12 years.  Nice guy and was very happy to have some fresh fish that we still had from the previous night. My son got sick that night and threw up several times.  Thought we were going to have to cut the trip short and get him home.  Pretty sure it was just a motion issue as he has had a history with motion sickness.  The next morning he got up and said he was find and could stick it out so we headed back to Harney to setup camp there.  Once we were setup, we headed a different way out to the Gulf via the Broad Creek? route (just north of the Harney.  Had no luck there but as we trolled down to the mouth of the Harney we started picking up fish.  After going back to camp for a bathroom break and snack, we went back to the islands inside the mouth and did well.  Funny thing though, as I slowly motored in to a island I wanted to fish, a bigger boat blew in from the mouth and jumped right in front of me.  He must have heard my comments as he apologized when I continued to head on in with the TM and said he'd move if needed.  I just went on around him and fished on down where I wanted to end up.  He was kind enough to give me some insight into where to find some Reds.  Turns out I was right over them and caught one the next cast.  My BIL saw where we were fishing and headed to that area and picked up a few reds as well.  As dark rolled in we headed back to camp to eat and call it a night.  We were expecting a cold front to move in and drop the temps into the 40s.  We did get a little breeze and some cooler temps that helped with the bugs but nothing major.  Not until about 4am when we had a huge gust and the rain started.  Scared me to death.  Jumped up and got the fly on the tent.  Was worried about the boats blowing away but they were fine.  After daylight and the rain had pushed thru, we got up and broke everything down.  

Things were going smooth and we thought we were going to end up in Choko much earlier than we planned as we felt like we could get there on the outside.  When we arrived at the mouth, the hard winds out of the North had blown all of the water out in the Gulf.  We had about 30minutes left before the high tide was supposed to start.  With the negative tide, we ended up stuck on a mud flat for about an hour until we had enough water to float off.  Then we headed North. It was miserable running.  Boat pounding hard in the waves coming in from the side of us.  I called up my BIL and said we needed to head to the Broad and he said that was a bad idea because there wouldn't be any water in the back.  When he told me that I knew we were doomed.  Luckily, about 5 minutes later he called me and said lets head to the Broad.  What a relief.  We would have been in big trouble when we got around that next point.  

Once in the Broad it was easy sailing.  Luckily we found the markers on the outside and got in without much of an issue.  My boat was singled out of about 4 boats running across the Huston Bay and we got to go thru a check by a couple of park rangers.  They were pretty nice.  I had made the mistake of writing down my order number and license number on a business card because my printer was down at the in-laws house and I couldn't print out the license purchased online.  Luckily, I was able to pull the confirmation email out on my phone and the guy said that was fine.  They asked if we had any fish on the boat and I told them no but they checked our coolers anyway.  First question when we tied up was, do you have a firearm on the boat.  Of course I said yes and that I had a CCDW permit from KY.  Told him it was in the first aid kit under the CC and he asked that I move to the front of the boat.  He found the holster laying loose in the CC and said he couldn't find the gun and I told him again it was in the First Aid Kit that was orange and clearly marked at the CC door.  He pulled it out, checked it and put it back.  They were pretty thorough and very kind.  As they were about to wrap up they asked what had brought us down to the ENP.  That's when it hit me.  This trip was for my Dad who passed away about two months ago.  We bought our Pathfinder together so that we could make a trip to the ENP and fish some of those waters that he had fished when he was young.  He had spend a few weeks during the summers in the Goodland area and had always  wanted to fish further down the in the Glades where there was fewer people fishing.  So as I was telling them this was for Dad, I got emotional and couldn't quite hold it together.  They were very kind and said they were really sorry but they still needed to check my coolers.  I guess someone had tried to pull one on them before.  haha. 

Where we ran into problems was once we left Sunday Bay and headed to the Lopez.  We followed the map of the Wilderness Waterway that took us around the Chickee at Crooked Creek.  The Rangers saw us parked and talking and asked if we were okay.  Told them we had just made a wrong turn and were trying to get to CIP.  They said that the Lopez route was really shallow and that we might consider an alternate route.  Once we found some water and could get up we took off and didn't slow down for the bumps.  There was one long bump in the middle of the Lopez but we both made it thru all the way to the tall poles outside Choko.  We idled around to where we could run until we got to the no wake area just before CIP.  Man was I relieved. That last few miles were tense.  

I'd really love to get back down to Choko and learn the waters with someone local.  More so for navigation purposes.  I could eventually find the fish.  I know we ran by a lot of fish to get to Harney and South but as the song goes, we weren't just fishing.  Next time we may be.  I'd love to maybe leave my boat down there and visit my MIL more often so that I can head down to Choko and fish.  

My Pathy 2000V did fine.  It did everything I asked it to do.  Got a little water back into the floor drains that I didn't like but usually it was less than a cup and was gone as soon as we got on plane.  The Ulterra was great.  Still have some learning to do but the spot lock and the directional lock is great.  I could point the TM head in the direction I wanted and hit the Nav Lock and didn't have to think about the TM again unless the wind or current was greater than the prop speed but all I had to do was bump the speed up a few notches.  I didn't use the Power Pole much since I had the spot lock but I did find it handy a couple of times as well as the use of my 12' Wang Anchor which also came in handy as a push pole when stuck.  

We listened to a lot of XM Radio.  That was the one luxury we had on the trip.  Radio stayed on the entire time between Lithium and The Highway.  Don't know if my son would have made it without the radio.  It was hard enough giving up warm showers and communications to all of his friends.  Between the GPS and the radio playing and the heavy use of the 36v iPilot (lots of bunny mode to move between spots), there is no way we would have made it without the Stealth 1 Charger.  Thanks to the guys here for that recommendation.  I never had one issue with battery power and was on the water for 4 days.  The Stealth was definitely an added plus.  My BIL didn't have any issues with battery either but I'm not sure that he ran his TM as much as me.  I know he didn't when he wanted to anchor because he had to pull out his big sea claw.  Mine stayed in the bucket.  Never touched it.  

As for supplies, we took food in case we caught no fish.  Meaning... we brought food back.  Had plenty.  Also brought drinks back.  Before we left, I froze (4) 1 gallon jugs of water, (16) 20oz bottles of water, (6) 32oz deli containers of water and one 5gal bucket of water.  We took (5) 20lb bags of ice from Publix.  Cold stuff was never an issue.  We put the 5gal block of ice in my 75qt yeti under the helm seat with 2 bags of ice and some of the deli containers.  That was our emergency supply and was not to be opened until we ran out otherwise.  We put frozen bottles and drinks in my 60qt Sherpa Yeti in front of the CC along with a bag and a half of bag ice.  It held our drinks and some food.  In my BIL's boat, he had a 70qt Frigid Rigid that kept all of the lunch meat and other cold foods.  That had a couple of deli containers of ice in it and a gal jug of ice.  Also had some loose bag ice.  He had another larger igloo that just had ice in it that was used to replenish the fridge and our daily drink coolers.  We put all of the ice in the coolers the night of the 26th.  On the 31st, we still had two bags of ice in the big yeti and the 5gal block of ice was almost it's original size.  I probably wouldn't do the 5gal block again but I might do some smaller 2 gal containers that would make it easier to pack.  I'd also do some type of shelf system in the fridge so that we didn't have zip locks of lunch meat floating in the water.  

We stayed in a 4 man tent (2 adults and 1 teen).  It had plenty of room for the three of us and allowed us some space to put some other things in there that needed to stay dry.  I had thought that a net enclosure would be nice if the bugs were really bad but I guess you could just stay in the tent but that could get a little warm.  We took one of those boat bean bags that my son eventually put in the tent to sleep on.  We also had thermarest pads doubled up.  One foam pad and one air cushion pad.  They were fine even with aching backs.

We took (12) 5 or 6 gal gas cans.  Each boat had 6 cans.  I would top off my tank every night.  The last night there I used up my last bit of fuel.  I had 30 gallons of fuel left in my boat tank upon arrival in Choko.  I think my fuel burn was decent.  BIL used up all of his fuel and he said he probably had about 30gal as well.  His was a guess.  I took my number off of my Navman.  I was running a 2006V with an F150 and he was running a 1993 MA18 with a Johnson 115 2-stroke.  

He also took (3) 5gal cans of water with one rigged up with a water spigot.  He drank a LOT of coffee and used it to wash dishes.  His rule of thumb is to take a min of 5 gal per night.  We came back with almost 5 gal of water.  We also came back with about 30 bottles of water.  We drank 1 6pack of 20oz cokes, 1 8pak of gatorade, 1 12 pack of powerade, 1 30pack of 20oz water.  Plus maybe 16 pots of coffee.  

I'm pretty sure I could do it again on my own.  It isn't as bad as first thought.  The key is preparation and knowing what to do when you run into a problem.  Doing it on my own, I'd probably take a Sat phone in case I ran into major mechanical issues.  That's when I might get into trouble.  I would just need to be able to get in touch with Sea Tow to get me to the dock.  I wasn't able to get anyone on my VHF but I'm only using a 3' digital antenna on my CC.  I think I could get out further with a longer antenna that I could zip tie to my 12' Wang.  Surprisingly enough, we did run across more boats that I thought we would.  I guess we could always get their attention and have them call for help if needed.  Thus the need for flares or other means to capture their attention.  My BIL had an Epirb and a PLB.  He does a lot of offshore with his son and they are well equipped.  He had a legit Ditch Bag.  One of the Big ACRs that had all kinds of meds and supplies.  Thank goodness for the dramamine for my son after we realized he got motion sick.  It's easy to do on those platforms that are over the water and have some movement.  Especially at night when you cannot see anything in the horizon unless you are right on the mangroves.  In the South Joe, you couldn't see anything after dark except for the stars.  And that Milky Way was amazing.  We could see some lights in the sky from what must have been Homestead but not much else.  

So the trip was a great success.  I learned a lot about the ENP and what to do the next time there.  Could have fished a little harder and maybe caught more fish but that wasn't really what this trip was about.  My only regret was that it had to come to an end.  Can't wait to return.

 

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