Bank fishing spots in Miami?

[fishwizzard]

Hi,

 

I am going to be traveling to Miami for work next week and am looking for some spots to beat the bank for a bit.  I will be staying by Key Biscayne but will have a rental car and will have a few hours free most evenings, though with traffic I would like to stay as close by as I can.  I don't need anything amazing, but would love to find a canal or something I can wet a line in.   I see them all over, but don't know the legality/etiquette of just pulling over and fishing.  

 

I go back again at the beginning of April and might have time to stay a while and make a real fishing trip out of it, maybe even drive up and visit the Big O and see these blue crawdads for myself.  

[MI.Kayaker]

Peacocks are spawning right now and will eat anything sinking near their beds. Find smaller canals with bank access on google maps and use your car to work around no fishing signs and find fish. Lakes are much more private and difficult to access than canals. Rock is better than grass. Parallel the banks with small, fast moving lures and look out for beds.

 

Coral Reef Park is a good starting point. You will see a lot of exotics with a chance at some solid peas.

 

Look around.

[fishwizzard]

Cool, thanks for the advice.  I will check out that park, there also looks to be a shopping mall north of it that has a ton of nice looking bank along the same canal.

 

I was thinking of bringing a few packs of senkos/flukes, a few small spinnerbaits, and maybe some Menace grubs on small shakyheads.  My travel rod is like a ML-M (5-21g rating) and the reel is currently spooled with 11lb floro, does all this sound reasonable?  

[MI.Kayaker]

The Falls Mall can be tough. Focus on the bridges and the drains to the east or west to narrow your search. Flukes are a good idea and a shakeyhead would be ok for bed fish. I would choose a small jerkbait or crankbait to cover water. Your travel setup will work well.

[SFL BassHunter]

A 4" stickbait in watermelon red will work very well down here. You can catch Largemouth Bass and Peacock on them using them like a fluke (weightless or with a small 1/32 or 1/16oz). Or just Largemouth using them in a more traditional way.

 

Most public parks that have lakes will allow you to fish, and hold fish.

As far as canals, google earth or google maps is your friend. Many times you can even zoom into the street and see if there are any no fishing or no parking signs.

I haven't been to the canal by The Falls mall in a long time but I know there is a good amount of bank there to fish. Saw a lot of exotics like was mentioned earlier concentrate on the bridge or culverts.

 

 

[fishwizzard]

Thanks for all the info guys.  I will pull my tackle together and run it by you all this weekend.  

[UrbanAmazonAngler]

Yeah, stick to the C-100 canal and you have a good chance of landing a monster peacock.

[RoLo]

Whatever you do, forget about surf-fishing along South Beach,

you'll have a terrible time concentrating on your fishing 

 

Roger

[fishwizzard]

Well, didn't make it out fishing during my first trip, but I am back in Miami again and hit Coral Reef Park. It was insane, far deeper then I expected and so many fish, it was hard to focus.  

 

Got out my first peacock;

 

amd caught two mystery fish;

 

Can someone ID them for me?

 

I also caught a bunch of small LBMs on 4" senkos.  I am headed back tomorow armed with some ribbon tailed worms and a silver lipless crank, I really want to catch a nice bass while I am down here.  

[MI.Kayaker]

56 minutes ago, Bunnielab said:

Can someone ID them for me?

Midas Cichlid, Spotted Tilapia

[fishwizzard]

Thanks!

 

The orange guys were everywhere right up on the rocks. There was always a smaller speckled one like I caught and a much larger pure orange one. I assume they were guarding beds?  They would charge lure but not strike it, the one I caught snagged himself on my crank. 

[MI.Kayaker]

13 minutes ago, Bunnielab said:

Thanks!

 

The orange guys were everywhere right up on the rocks. There was always a smaller speckled one like I caught and a much larger pure orange one. I assume they were guarding beds?  They would charge lure but not strike it, the one I caught snagged himself on my crank. 

They guard their beds and fry pretty aggressively. You can get them to eat if you find the right pair and downsize.

[fishwizzard]

Cool, thanks for the info.   I think I'm going to focus on peacocks and largemouth tomorrow. The depth of the canal threw me off today and I was fighting with the landscaping crew who's freshly cut grass kept fouling my crank baits.   Tomorrow I'm gonna try to get some peacocks on cranks on my walk out and switch to a ribbon tailed worm dragged along the bottom on the walk back for largemouth.