Fisheating Creek

[caloosa bug 0]

August 2016

[mikechell 0]

I camped on Fishingeating Creek in the 90's. The campground was undeveloped at that time. No one "owned" it, there were no facilities, it was quiet and beautiful. Then someone bought the place. I took Wife there once, to show her where I'd seen the wild boar, and caught my first Bowfin ... but they wouldn't even let us in to look around.

 

Where were you when you took that picture?

[caloosa bug 0]

This was a couple miles west of the campground. We usually head west from Palmdale 4-6 miles, (by water), to camp. Sometimes in early fall we'll head east to avoid hunters.

 

1998 was when the state started managing the campground.

 

It's a nice place now. They have shuttles that take paddlers up creek/west 6 miles and you can pretty much float back to the campground.

 

We do wilderness camping and it's only $2 per person a day.

[caloosa bug 0]

http://myfwc.com/viewing/recreation/wmas/lead/fisheating-creek/history/

[caloosa bug 0]

Me and the paw-in law spent Sunday fishing the eastern section of the creek and out to fisheating bay. FWC is still busy clearing the creek west of 27 from hurricane Irma.

 

The morning began with a couple deer watching us slowly idle out towards lake o. We had a strong breeze blowing most of the day. It was blowing the opposite direction than the current, so boat control was actually pretty easy considering how much water was flowing. I threw the fly some, but the hassle of obstacles on the deck of my jon boat proved too much. The dark creek bass were voraciously nailing propped topwater plugs all day. For some reason I didn't take any fish pictures, but about a dozen bass were landed from 15-20 inches.

 

After a creek bank, shade tree lunch, we pushed back west towards Sheridan bend. This eastern section is nowhere near as beautiful as the western, but still a piece of untouched Florida. A group of turkeys scurried away before I could get the phone out. Then, before heading back to the ramp a young fawn popped his head out of the high grass a few feet from us. It was a nice end to the day.

[Bimini15 0]

Caloosa, use one of those foldable leaf buckets to manage the line on the deck.

 

Great pictures.

[caloosa bug 0]

Thanks Bimini.

 

I meant to bring a beach towel to lay out but I forgot. It didn't help that I had a transom mount trolling motor, (with bracket), mounted in my bow mount. Also a battery and gator clamps beside it on the deck. It didn't matter though, I had the conventional rods rigged up and had a blast. The fish seemed overly aggressive and I witnessed some awesome explosions. Hopefully we can get back to the area west of hwy. 27 soon.

[caloosa bug 0]

It's been 3 years since I've been to Fisheating creek, and it's only 15 minutes from the house. My oldest son was in the pictures that I started this thread with. He's now taller than me, and my second son has only been once. We've been talking about going for a while, and finally just went. Water levels are too low for a jon boat, so we paddled a canoe for most of the day. We had a blast just exploring this beautiful piece of God's creation.

[zip 0]

Kids are getting big bro! Glad to see you doing so well. Looking forward to our next trip.

[mikechell 0]

I love that creek.  If I lived closer, I'd be on it several times a year.  The water is perfectly stained to develop some really brightly colored sunfish.  It does look low, but I'll bet there are some nice fish in every deeper pool.

[Swamp Fly 0]

Great photos.  Fisheating Creek is one of my favorite places.  It's the land that time forgot, what the rest of Florida should looks like.  That looks like Monument Tree so I'm thinking you went East.  I tend to go west just because or maybe because I tend to stay for just one more cast as it gets toward dark. It's faster going down stream. LOL  I've been three time this year. I love it when the water is low but it makes paddling a pain though.  Fishing will get better once the water warms a few more degrees.  I've seen more Gators this year than the last 3-4 combined some bigger lizards too (12-13').  You notice more as well?

 

Swamp

[caloosa bug 0]

On 2/5/2023 at 2:53 AM, zip said:

Kids are getting big bro! Glad to see you doing so well. Looking forward to our next trip.

Thanks bud. I'm ready when you are...

 

On 2/5/2023 at 4:53 PM, mikechell said:

It does look low, but I'll bet there are some nice fish in every deeper pool.

My best fishing trips to the creek were always during low levels. I didn't bring a rod this time, but as much fun as we had, I see more trip's coming soon. Next time a streamer and a panfish fly will get drifted around for sure.

 

51 minutes ago, Swamp Fly said:

Great photos.  Fisheating Creek is one of my favorite places.  It's the land that time forgot, what the rest of Florida should looks like.  That looks like Monument Tree so I'm thinking you went East.  I tend to go west just because or maybe because I tend to stay for just one more cast as it gets toward dark. It's faster going down stream. LOL  I've been three time this year. I love it when the water is low but it makes paddling a pain though.  Fishing will get better once the water warms a few more degrees.  I've seen more Gators this year than the last 3-4 combined some bigger lizards too (12-13').  You notice more as well?

 

Swamp

Yes, that is the monument tree and we went east. My plan was to head west... as that is where I normally go. Also, I wanted to paddle back with the current. Then at the check in, they said there would be a good canoe drag before the first twisties, and there was more floatable water east to rock lake. So we just went east .

Funny thing was that the wind played more of a factor than the current. We had a head wind going east and the open stretch under 27 seemed like it took forever to get back to where the creek narrowed. One we reached a point that we needed to head back, going against the gentle current, with a stiff wind behind us, we reach the bridge before we knew it.

We saw maybe 6 gators and 5 were six to 8 footers. No dinosaurs were spotted on this trip 

[Swamp Fly 0]

Dragged right at the entrance to Picnic Lake for about 100 yds, probably could have gotten away with only 10 yds.  There were  2 or 3 more spots but nothing major, ran aground a number of times but pushing with the paddle and doing the canoe scoot got me going again without getting out.

I was hoping to get back out later this week but I don't think that will happen, maybe next week.

[caloosa bug 0]

Spent a few hours checking out a recently added board walk at the Fisheating creek campground. My two youngest and I packed a lunch, some towels, and a little bag cooler. We planned on doing some exploring and swimming. 
 With the creek levels being fairly high, the boardwalk ended to a grassy marsh in one direction. The actual creek was within sight, but there was no way me and the kids were going to trudge through waist deep water in head high grass. 🐊🐍🐊. I have more sence than that. I chose to go another direction avoiding the high grass and was going to try and circle back to the creek following another trail through the woods. This one ended at a tributary off of the main creek that had high grass on both sides of the opening. I walked across the middle of the open water and found the shallowest path...on the other side was high ground and a little beach on the main creek that always had a rope swing hanging from a tree. Ahha.. that's what I was looking for.  I threw my daughter on my shoulders, and my son was able to hold the backpack above his head and wade across. We swam for a bit, ate lunch, then headed back before the afternoon showers arrived. Mission accomplished.