Everglades backcountry, 21 February

We've been fishing both ends of the Park this past week - and this time of year a backcountry slam (snook,redfish, speckled trout) are daily targets. Add a tarpon and for any angler to manage all four in the same day... it's a grand slam... A week ago out of Chokoloskee we started out along the outside working south with little success - except for one slot sized redfish on a Gulp tailed small leadhead. Moving back up inside we finally found good numbers of speckled trout, and small sized snook as well as another keeper redfish. Here's local angler Leon Tomcyzk with a nice small snook - carefully released to fight another day... Leon and his wife had both redfish and trout to take home that day for dinner... A few days later, earlier this week I was back down at Flamingo and the conditions were finally right for the giant tarpon in the interior... We found them at the first spot we checked, ranging from around 80lbs on up. These aren't migrating fish - in fact they only come up inside for the warmer waters of big bays like Whitewater where they simply hang out and soak up the sun in sheltered areas. With big fish all around my skiff we couldn't get a bite on lures at all - but a nice big live bait and things got hot. We hooked up and fought a fish to the boat that I estimated at 90lbs in waters that were less than four feet deep. I didn't have time for any photos so here's one from my anglers... This was Scott Phillips' biggest tarpon to date... I had the leader in hand several times before she finally gave up... and came in for the release When we'd finally released that big girl I ran to the west coast so that we could find a few other species in the time we had left. With less than an hour remaining in the trip we hooked up a big snook and had to play keep away with a small shark that tried to eat it right at the boat... I quickly snatched the fish (risking breaking it off...) into my skiff where we did a quick photo and then a careful release... William with his first snook ever (31", 10lbs on the Boga Grip...). With no time to go anywhere else we tossed two more baits into the spot the snook came from and hooked up again within seconds.... this time a double header of big fish running in different directions.... The first of the two I could see was a big cobia (not what you expect at a river mouth)... While we were fighting the cobia - the other fish was just running straight away and keeping clear, fortunately... At the skiff I grabbed the cobia with my Boga Grip for a quick photo and release... Scott Phillips again with his Dad, Tony and a lot of cobia... They're sitting on an 80qt cooler for reference... I estimated it at 30lbs... While all this was going on William was hanging on with something entirely too big for the heaviest rod on my skiff (a big heavy spinner with 30lb braid....). We chased that fish for about 15 minutes, gaining line -then losing it again.. with something that probably didn't even know it was hooked... At the 30 minute mark it finally broke us off - and we never had a clue what it could have been. Looking back on it I think we were very lucky to have landed the snook and cobia in a spot with something that could have eaten either (or both of them) the moment they were hooked up and struggling... Just nothing like the 'glades day in and day out. Be a hero, take a kid fishing! Bob LeMay (954) 435-5666 for full report with pics... https://forums.floridasportsman.com/discussion/276280/everglades-backcountry-report-21-february#latest