JDHoss

Have you ever fished the Harold Campbell Public Area/STA 3/4 for peacocks? I've bank fished out there for largemouth, but haven't noticed any peacock. I love going out there during the week and the solitude of it.

From where you turn at the Miccosukee Casino, the canal is 50-75+ feet wide until where the L-67 canal comes in. Heading west after that, it's still probably 25-30 feet wide. When you get a quarter mile or so past Tippy's Outpost, it narrows into a ditch, but still fishable in spots. Also, just past Tippy's by a maybe a couple hundred yards is a road that turns onto the L-28 canal. I haven't been on it, so I don't know if it's fishable except for a couple or three spots I've seen on Google Earth. I have heard airboats running on it, though. Speaking of Google Earth, it's a great tool to use for exploring this area.

I haven't fished it, but I've heard the canal along SW 34th next to the Homestead Speedway is really productive, and there's space to park with a camper, but you might have to ask for permission or even pay a parking fee even though there's no race. Also, when you turn on 41 to head west, just past the Miccosukee, there's a road that cuts across the canal on the right. You can take that road for several miles and it's all bank fishable with ample space to park the camper. Let us know how your trip goes.

As a native of SWVA, this can't be stated enough, especially wading in the spring. Like most streams/rivers on our end of the state, it's rocky, slick, and the spring flow produces currents that are stronger than you think.

How's the bank fishing access at Sunset Cove? I've been to some football games at West Boca and know where that is.

Let me know how it goes. I had planned to go this past Monday, but couldn't get away in time.

Thanks for the info, but I'm going to be bank fishing along the canals. I was just wondering if it would be worth the drive over from Fort Pierce for that.

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.

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