- Joined
- Aug 9, 2010
- Location
- Coral Springs, Florida
Sawgrass Recreation Center is located about 1.5 miles north of I-595 on US 27. It consists of two canals. One canal runs north paralleling US 27 and the other canal runs northeast. Typically the northeast canal fishes better in the fall and winter months and the north canal fishes better during late spring and summer. I fished both canals on October 23, 2010. The weather was clear and windy and the temperature was 86 degrees.
I only put one fish in the boat after fishing about 5 hours and one other fisherman I spoke to got only one fish well. The fish I caught was at the end of the northeast canal. It looked like a few boats made a run into the flats but I did not meet up with them to see how the fishing was back there.
The weather conditions were not ideal and there was not much current running through either canal. It appeared to me that the water levels may still be high enough so that the fish are back in the flats and have not moved out to the edges of the canals. As fall progresses and the dry season starts the water levels will gradually drop in the flats forcing the fish to move into the canals. This will make for some exciting fishing when it happens and will enable anglers to catch fish using a variety of methods including trolling crankbaits, buzzbaits or wild shiners along the canal edges. I fished at this location many times twenty years ago and it seems to be following the same pattern.
Unlike some canals that have dikes lining both sides, the northeast canal at Sawgrass usually has a dike on side of the canal with the other be bordered by bullrushes bordering the interior Everglades. This can be very productive when the water in the flats fall and the fish move out. When water is high in the flats it may be more productive to fish Holeyland or some other canal areas that have solid dikes bordering both sides of the canal where the fish cannot escape back into the flats. Some people do journey back into the flats but be careful if you decide to explore there since the water can be very shallow and the narrow boat trails filled with weeds. Additionally I would reccomend putting a high orange flag on the end of the boat so that an airboat can see your flag while driving through the high weeds.
I only put one fish in the boat after fishing about 5 hours and one other fisherman I spoke to got only one fish well. The fish I caught was at the end of the northeast canal. It looked like a few boats made a run into the flats but I did not meet up with them to see how the fishing was back there.
The weather conditions were not ideal and there was not much current running through either canal. It appeared to me that the water levels may still be high enough so that the fish are back in the flats and have not moved out to the edges of the canals. As fall progresses and the dry season starts the water levels will gradually drop in the flats forcing the fish to move into the canals. This will make for some exciting fishing when it happens and will enable anglers to catch fish using a variety of methods including trolling crankbaits, buzzbaits or wild shiners along the canal edges. I fished at this location many times twenty years ago and it seems to be following the same pattern.
Unlike some canals that have dikes lining both sides, the northeast canal at Sawgrass usually has a dike on side of the canal with the other be bordered by bullrushes bordering the interior Everglades. This can be very productive when the water in the flats fall and the fish move out. When water is high in the flats it may be more productive to fish Holeyland or some other canal areas that have solid dikes bordering both sides of the canal where the fish cannot escape back into the flats. Some people do journey back into the flats but be careful if you decide to explore there since the water can be very shallow and the narrow boat trails filled with weeds. Additionally I would reccomend putting a high orange flag on the end of the boat so that an airboat can see your flag while driving through the high weeds.