shallow thinker

I answered my own question about water levels. That 10 yr old link was replaced by a new system and I stumbled around until I found what I needed.

I fished the leading edge of the storm on Friday morning. The water was up a good 6 inches from the past week (even before the 10-12" on Fri -Sat). I guess the western areas had been getting daily rain and there was a bunch of current in L-67. We did well on peacocks and a couple of LM in spawning areas and funnel points. I am supposed to go back out Wednesday with 2 fly anglers. It could be alot tougher. I just wish that SFWMD would publish up to date water levels so I could game plan. The site is frozen with May 19 data.

I made a couple of trips out there last winter. I didn't get into any toads but it is a great place for canoes and kayaks. Bank fishing is certainly an option. The rules prohibit any gas motors and it's only open on Fri - Sunday. I believe that's the area where Roland Martin films his YouTube videoes (from a canoe).

I fished Lox on Saturday. It was slow but the weather cooperated until about 11:30am. There was a short topwater bite just before the down pour but it was mostly stick baits. Biggest was 3 lbs. Both of the gates west of Lox ramp were wide open so there was tons of current. Water levels are pretty normal so I could run anywhere on the flats.

The SFWMD moves water north to south (mostly) so upstream is the north side of the gate while south is downstream. Flow is a measurement of the current through the gate.

You seem to be in the right place but I like https://www.sfwmd.gov/science-data/current-water-conditions and then click on the region that I am going to fish. It is simpler. You get water levels and a pretty good idea of which gates are open and the resulting currents. For example, S11c is letting water out of sawgrass into the US27 fingers. You can see that under the Ft Lauderdale tab. The other useful thing is download the map of all of the SFWMD structures. I have a pdf that calls out all of the gates. It was called SFWMD_map_overview.pdf but I can't find it on the website now. This link https://www.sfwmd.gov/sites/default/files/documents/em_flow_monitor_map.pdf looks like what I have. Good luck.

I'd recommend that you spring for a guide trip out of Lake Ida in Delray Beach. The guides net live shad and it makes for an awesome trip. They catch the heck out of largemouth, peacocks and sometimes clown knifefish. There are several good outfits who fish there daily bassonline, Butch Moser, swamptosea, or hawghunterguideservice...

I think Bruce was talking about the area around MM41. You can put in at MM41 or on the west side of the big rest stop at MM35. Historically (I haven't fished there recently), the Miami canal north of 595 is good for numbers of small bass but relatively few big ones. I like to bring tourists there since its usually fast action. There are breaks in the canal giving fish access to some flats. Further west is were most tournament anglers focus. You have some deeper canals, sometimes some current and lots of lilly pads.

Have fun. Islamorada is a great place to vacation. Great fishing, really good local captains and some of my favorite keys restaurants. You need to decide between inshore or offshore. Wintertime offshore means you have shots at catching big fish (sailfish, kingfish, amberjack..) but it can be windy and rough. If its too windy they'll take you a shallow reef to pull on little snappers. Check out the boats here http://budnmarys.com/ Inshore is more like bass fishing (usually). You are in a open flats skiff either sight fishing (bonefish, snook, redfish), blind casting for seatrout or soaking bait for all of the above. Most guys run north into Everglades National Park but the bonefish are caught within sight of the keys. This guy is good https://blackflycharters.wordpress.com/ as are many others that work out the Lorelei https://www.loreleicabanabar.com/marina-and-fishing/

I went out last week during the windy days. Caught about 10 dinks on a spinnerbait fishing the flats. There were some good looking mats out the end of the west canal (out of Boca) but I only got one bite out of it.

Geo, I fished Lox a bunch in May (before monsoon season) and did pretty well. Haven't fished in June but I did see the strong current and high water while doing some bike rides. This morning it seems that the gates are closed. There was no current in Boynton and water level and clarity both seem to be much, much better. Now you just have to deal with the extreme summer heat! Jack

The feds run Lox and they only allow a handful of tournament permits of year. The small parking areas at all 3 launches prevent them from hosting large tournament fields so they only seem to OK the smaller clubs. Part of the appeal of Lox is the lack of crowds so it works out. I don't see guide boats at Lox anymore. There used to be but maybe its easier for them to do those live bait trips out of Lake Ida. Fishing at Lox is good right now. Water is low and I've been having fun with the evening topwater bite.

Coming from Buffalo, you are probably happy with the weather in Boca... but it's like 10 degrees colder than normal so I would expect the better time to fish will be afternoons once the water warms up a bit. Good luck!

I think I'm done fishing Osborne and Ida till the fall. The ski traffic is pretty fierce and that makes it hard to fish the main lake areas.

If you figure it out... let us know. I fished Lake Ida a bunch this winter and most of that was 'offshore' around the shad schools. I was trying to tune my Lowrance side scan unit so I'd troll around for a few hours. Even on really cold days you could catch peacocks, LM and sunshine bass with lures worked around 6 feet deep. Shallow running baits didn't work as well and deeper baits just dredged up snot from the bottom. I thought about dragging a carolina rig but again that snot is nasty stuff. I can't say that I have done much offshore or ledge fishing there in the summer. We did find decent concentrations of bait in Lake Osborne 3 weeks ago and did catch a few small ones out deep... but the one fish over 6 lbs was taken along the bank where brim were bedding.