East Cape Canal is on the southwest corner of the state of Florida in the Everglades National Park. It runs north for about a mile and then turns northwest for another mile until it reaches Lake Ingram. It was dug, along with numerous other canals in the everglades of south Florida, in the 1920’s and 1930’s in an effort to “drain the swamp”. Land barons had great real estate plans on the drawing board, “if we can only drain the water off the land”. Funny how making a dollar can cause people to come up with some really crazy ideas. Needless to say they never drained the swamp.
Lake Ingram is a saltwater estuary that is situated on the southwest corner of the state. It’s anywhere from a half to three-quarters of a mile wide and about 5 miles long. East Cape canal allows tidal water to enter and leave on the south end, and Middle Cape Canal does the same on the north end. The lake itself is a rather shallow estuary, averaging about 2 feet at mean low tide and navigable only through an old “prop” channel cut many years ago by commercial fishermen who allowed their prop wash to blow a narrow channel out of the turtle grass and mud.
The channel is marked by a few stakes that run the length of the lake. On a calm, clear water day the stakes are really not needed. But on a windy, muddy water day, those stakes were a necessity to keep you in that small channel. More than once I’ve seen a boat twenty or thirty yards off that channel on a low tide – engine tilted half way and throwing muddy water in all directions trying to get back to the deeper water of the channel. If you get caught out of the channel on an outgoing tide, you are going to sit there for a few hours waiting for the incoming tide to refloat your boat. Been there; done that; got the muddy t-shirt.
I looked toward the south bank of the canal. Just past the entrance to an estuary creek was a low hanging mangrove bush where we had tied our first bank hook. The north and south edges of the estuary creeks that ran off the canal are the deepest part of those creeks. A bar is usually visible at low tide right in the mouth. Incoming and outgoing tidal current cut deeper runs along the banks, and that is where we placed our hooks.
The bush was not moving as I idled closer. We used a gaff to catch the line – a ¼ inch nylon rope actually – and lift it to the boat. As we lifted it, the live mangrove snapper was still attached to the 12/0 hook and swimming nicely. We let the line go back into the water. It was a bit too early to run the lines, because the tide was still ripping out.
We were after – back then – jewfish. Today the name has been changed to goliath grouper and they are totally protected. But back then, they were jewfish, and they were plentiful and there were no limits. But – that’s a discussion for another time.
I moved the boat slowly up that estuary creek. It was wide enough for the 18 foot Squall King to turn around, and about 12 feet deep once you got over the bar at the mouth. As it twisted back into the mud and mangroves, the numerous outside bends really looked good for fishing. I moved up current from one bend and tied the boat off on an overhanging mangrove branch. The back of the boat swung into line with the current, and that bend was about fifty feet directly behind the boat.
