JDHoss

How is the bank fishing on those canals? One cool day in February, my wife and I decided to go from Fort Pierce to Goodman for a day trip and an early supper. We took the scenic route through Belle Glade and down, and I stopped off of 27 in this area to stretch our legs, and we did a couple of miles on foot. I didn't see much activity, but it was around noon, windy, and "cool". Bass fishing in St Lucie County canals is futile, but this looks like a nice place that doesn't take much of a drive to get to.

Never fished SoHo, and only Watauga that one time. Loved Cherokee and Douglas, although it was a pretty good haul to Douglas.

You fish the Tamiami any? We went on a February day in 2022 that was supposed to be partly cloudy and in the mid 70s, but turned out to be cloudy, upper 60s and windy.

Only been to Watauga once, with a couple of friends to walleye fish. We were going to night fish, but got out on the lake about an hour or so before sunset, so we did some bass fishing. I was fishing a blue & white spinnerbait, which they told me was useless on Watauga. I proceeded to catch 4 keeper size largemouth, including a 4.5 pounder, and a 3 lb smallmouth. When the sun set, we walleye fished up until around 2AM and one of my friends caught a nice 8 lb walleye, but it was the only fish we had, and d**n near froze to death. It was in the low 70 when we hit the lake, and in the upper 30s when we finished. Watauga is a nice lake, and very clean, but it's a good haul from Kingsport when Boone, Patrick Henry and Cherokee are much quicker to get to.

Can't stress this enough, especially if you are bank fishing with water in front and behind you. There's a canal in the Indrio Preserve in St Lucie Co I fish that also has water behind it. I keep my head on a swivel there.

Grew up fishing the Powell, Clinch and North Fork as a youngster and young adult from their headwaters to the TN line. A 2 inch Rapala, Rooster tail, Panther Martin, a "flat" lure like a Lazy Ike, and a couple of top water lures like a Tiny Torpedo and Crazy Crawler were pretty much what I carried in my small tackle box. In fact, I used that Heddon Crazy Crawler to catch a 3 1/2 lb smallmouth on the Powell River just below the 58 bridge in Dryden. I tossed it into an eddy created by a large fallen tree at the edge of some shoals, and as soon as it hit the water it was like a grenade went off. I'm an old retired man now, but I can still see that fish taking flight in those shoals and my dad watching with his jaw dropped and eyes wide. Those were the best of times.

Personally, I'm not opposed to catching any type of fish. The most fun I've ever had in a day of fishing was sometime in the 1970s during a locust hatch. My dad and I were fishing on Cherokee Lake in East TN and we were catching carp on topwater plugs one after the other. Many of them were in the 5-10 lb range too. We caught a few bass (smallies and largemouth), but the carp were everywhere scarfing up the newly hatched locusts. It was nonstop action.

You may already know about it, but this place is pretty good... https://bayouboysjctn.com/

Good point about the flooding possibilities, and if you're wading, it's a good idea to check the TVA generation schedule. https://www.tva.com/environment/lake-levels Always check the weather forecast too. I took a float trip on the Clinch in Virginia back in the day before we had the internet. The radio said there was a 40% chance of storms, but we got an absolute monster of a storm that dumped around 3" of rain in a short amount of time. It was really scary as we had to find a spot where we could land the boat and get it up out of the water before we got swamped.

I grew up and lived in the region for 58 years before retiring to Florida. There's lots of lakes, but obviously you need a boat to fish. You could use a kayak, but there's a ton of boats on the lakes at any given time. There are some excellent rivers to wade fish for smallmouth though. Closest to JC is the Nolichucky in Unicoi. Other good nearby rivers with smallmouth action include the Holston river in Sullivan and Hawkins counties, North Fork of the Holston in Scott and Washington counties of Virginia and the New River in Grayson, Pulaski and Giles counties in VA.

Absolutely. My dad had a friend who lived in Clewiston that we'd visit some when I was a teenager. I've seen big gators in the water and around our boat, but as a teenager, I thought it was awesome. Now as an old, retired man sitting on a kayak 6-8 inches above the water, it's pretty nerve wracking, even with the outriggers.

I was fishing off of 41, past the Miccosukee village area and just past the loop road turn. I'm looking forward to getting back out there once things cool down. I did see a guy fishing out of a kayak just to the east of the village. I have a 10 ft Pelican sit on kayak w/stabilizers, but I'm a little skittish about getting out there in that vs just bank fishing.

The two strikes I had were around a culvert pipe a few miles past the reservation stores and gas station. The area looked like it was heavily fished, due to the amount of trash left on the ground. I hate people sometimes...? Yeah, the NWS website had the area with a high of 76 and sunny that day. Instead, we had a high of 68, mostly cloudy and a steady 10+ MPH wind. It was downright cold.

I'm going to make an effort to fish the opposite bank from 41 next time because it had way more access.

Any advice for fishing the Tamiami canal coming in from the Miami side? I live in Fort Pierce, and drove down one day last February to do some bank fishing. It was abnormally cool and windy after a forecast high of 76, so I didn't have much action. I fished all the way out past the Miccosukee reservation with only a couple of strikes, using flukes and small crankbaits. I'd like to go back down when things cool down a little maybe in November. I came back up 27 to Belle Glade and stopped at Holey Land and threw a few, but no luck there either.

My favorites in TN and VA.... VA: Buggs Island/Kerr, Gaston and South Holston (VA/TN water) TN: Watts Bar, Douglas & Cherokee.

I'm not going out during mating season, but I'm currently looking at adding stabilizers (outriggers) to our kayaks. We've been sticking to the Indian River lagoon so far, but I do want to be able to get out on the smaller lakes and river systems in the fall. If you take a spill in the lagoon, you get wet and it's a PITA to get where you can get back in. If you take a spill in a small lake, river system or canals, you could be in serious trouble.

I'm looking at getting an aftermarket stabilizer (outrigger) for our kayaks, which should minimize our chances for a rollover. I think it'd be good to have, even if we were out on the lagoon. The last time we were out there, the wind got up and the water was a little rough. I was fine, but my wife made me a little nervous. We have good life jackets, but I'd rather one or both of us not have a rollover. Speaking of gator attacks, there was a guy in Port St Lucie last year who was attacked by a 10 footer while he and his dog were walking along a canal behind his house. He saw the gator heading towards them and had his wife call for the dog to come to her, and when he looked back, it was on him and got him by the leg, trying to drag him in the water. He punched it in the eye several times before it let go. He had to have something like 100 or so stitches in his lag and hand.

Thanks for the suggestions. I talked to a guy today who also recommended slapping the side of the kayak to "announce" myself if there were visible gators in the immediate area. He also said that while he had never been bothered by any, he'd had a few small ones swim fairly close to check him out. He said the only time he had been really worried was in the Loxahatchee preserve because they were everywhere and he kept running the scenario in his mind of what would happen if he rolled over. Personally, I've never had an issue with them while bank fishing, but this evening at our neighborhood pond there was a little guy, maybe 2 ft long who kept following me around. I was catching a lot of small bass on a fluke. Maybe he was expecting me to save some for him. While they're more plentiful, "Florida man" doesn't have anything on "East Tennessee man".

Just bought (2) 10 ft Pelicans for the Mrs and myself. Right now, we're sticking to the mangrove areas around Fort Pierce on the Indian River until we get more comfortable operating them. I eventually want to go into places like the McCarty Ranch Preserve or maybe the Loxahatchee Preserve, and I'm just looking for advice when it comes to dealing with gators, aside from being sure to not roll the kayak over. I've never had them bother me while bank fishing or in a boat, but the prospect of being down that low is a little unnerving. Any tips are greatly appreciated.

Has anyone here fished the pond/lake and/or canal at the St Lucie Tradition shopping area? Pre Covid-19, we've been to a few of the food truck events, and shopping a few times there. Last winter (just before Covid), I decided to walk around and take a look at the canal while my wife went into a few places. Looks like good water, but I saw a "No Fishing" sign posted. Is all of the water posted in that area? I've also noticed on Google Earth that there is a pond or two across the road at the business park. I may have to check those out as well, unless they're posted too.

Has anyone fished the ponds on Green River Drive just as you leave PSL and enter Martin Co? We went there late this afternoon and although we didn't catch anything, they hold several gators, if not fish. We fished spinnerbaits, topwaters and Flukes, but didn't get the first bite. We didn't get around to fishing the pump house side, but may try that next time. We left there and stopped by the Savannah Preserve park off of Midway Rd for about an hour. Several people were fishing there and I lost three fish on a pearl Fluke. That was our first time there and I'd like to explore that a little more. I also saw an article from 2015 about a pond in the Treasure Coast Research Park that was stocked, but drove out there and didn't see any way to get to the pond that you can see from I-95, assuming that is the same pond in the article. Any other suggestions for St Lucie or Martin Co fishing without a boat? We just retired here in January, and the only other place I've tried is the Indian Hills recreation area in Ft Pierce, but with no luck.

.....has anyone fished this? It's a large, really nice looking pond, but I've fished it a couple of times without as much as a strike, and I've seen next to zero fish activity. Yesterday evening was overcast and relatively calm winds, so I was hoping for some topwater action, but came up empty. We have brought our dog out here a couple of times for walks, and have seen maybe 3 people fishing. I was just wondering if maybe I'm wasting my time there.

.....and would greatly appreciate any recommendations on bank fishing in the area. We are retired and moved down here in January from Tennessee. I used to fish some with my dad on Okeechobee when I was a teenager and we'd come down to Clewiston to visit and fish with a friend he had there. Does anyone fish the canal off of Okeechobee Road between Fort Pierce and Okeechobee? Told my wife that we should hit that up, but I've never seen anyone fishing it the couple of times we've been over to Okeechobee to hike on the lake levee. She's pretty apprehensive about gators too, but I've told her we'd keep a good eye out on the surroundings. Any tips on a spot(s) to try would be greatly appreciated. I also plan on using mostly weedless jerk baits, spinnerbaits, and top water.