Tackle Box

Lures & bait

Lure Ch. 2

A miniature plastic or metal fish with treble hooks, reeled with just the right jerk to look like a scared meal. Floating or sinking depending on weather, tide, and target.

Bagley Mullet lure Ch. 2Ch. 5Ch. 6

Dan's black-and-silver mullet imitation that 'glistens in the moonlight.' The lure that caught the South Point snook.

Yellow feather tipped with shrimp Ch. 2Ch. 3Ch. 13

A feathered jig with a piece of shrimp on the hook; jigged over grass for trout, bounced for snapper.

Popping cork Ch. 1Ch. 3Ch. 16

A float with a cupped top; tug every few seconds and it 'pops' to call fish to the shrimp dangling beneath. How Matt caught his first snook and most redfish.

Spoon Ch. 13

A curved metal flasher that wobbles on the retrieve. Matt's first post-storm cast.

The 'Golden Flicker' Ch. 14

Matt's prized red mullet lure with gold flecks.

Live shrimp Ch. 3

The universal Everglades bait, kept alive in a bucket with a battery aerator.

Aerator Ch. 5

Battery-powered bubbler that keeps bait shrimp alive overnight.

Live bait Ch. 14

Snapper tosses a small live snapper into the current and hooks the giant.

Line & rigging

Leader Ch. 2

The last few feet of line: heavier or clearer than the main line, with the lure or hook, often a swivel and a small weight above it. Matt adds a thirty-pound leader the night before the big snook.

Swivel Ch. 2

A tiny metal figure-eight that joins main line to leader and keeps the line from twisting.

Boat poles Ch. 8

Heavy rods with woven 30-lb test, steel tip leaders, and forged hooks for beach-casting at tarpon and sharks.

Steel leader Ch. 8

Wire leader that toothy fish can't bite through.

Thirty-pound test Ch. 6

Line strength rated to hold thirty pounds before breaking.

Gaff Ch. 19

A big hook on a pole for lifting a fish aboard by the mouth. Snapper's one lucky pass.

Sand pipes (rod holders) Ch. 8

Aluminum pipes hammered into the beach to hold rods after a long cast.

Techniques

Push pole Ch. 9Ch. 18

Long wooden pole for moving a boat silently through the shallows — how Snapper gets the Mako into the mangroves unheard.

Drifting Ch. 3Ch. 7

Letting the boat move with the tide and wind while casting. 'Drifting actually meant casting.'

Trolling Ch. 19

Dragging a lure a hundred feet behind a moving boat. Little effort, long waits, then Old Scarface.

Setting the hook Ch. 4

The upward yank at exactly the right bite. Too early and the hook flies out empty — Ch. 4.

Reviving a fish Ch. 6Ch. 19

Hold it upright and move it back and forth so water passes over the gills until the tail kicks. Done for the snook and for Old Scarface.

Storm tie-off Ch. 12

Bow rope to one mangrove, stern anchor out — the boat 'stretched secure from end to end.'

Reading the water

Throwing a wake Ch. 4

A big fish moving just under the surface, pushing a ripple like a tiny boat.

Reading the tide Ch. 2Ch. 5Ch. 9Ch. 12

Fish the hour either side of high tide; 'morning high' means plenty of water over the oyster bars. Dan: the water isn't rising, the earth is turning through bulges of water pulled by sun and moon.

Grass beds = trout Ch. 7

Seatrout hold over seagrass; mangroves and oysters hold snook and reds.

Snook closed season Ch. 4

Snook spawn May–September; the book's Gulf-coast season is closed then and all snook go back.

Navigational chart Ch. 14Ch. 17

Paper chart of the backcountry; cell reception is unreliable so 'they had to rely on actual maps.'

Boat & safety

Marine VHF radio Ch. 10

How Dan reaches the Sea Belle.

Channel 16 Ch. 10

The international hailing and distress channel. Dan says to leave it open 9–10 p.m.

Spotlight Ch. 17

Swiveled over the bow to find Doc in the dark.

Snorkel, fins, pocketknife Ch. 16

Matt's dolphin-rescue kit.

Doc's medical bag Ch. 17

Novocain, needles, thread, antiseptic, gauze — and Matt's first stitches.

Provisioning the Sea Belle Ch. 11

Peanut butter, three loaves of bread, cereal, cans, meat, milk, eggs, butter — 'a week of solid eating for two.' Plus donuts.

Tournament categories Ch. 20

Tarpon, cobia, snapper, trout, drum — by weight. Snook, grouper, and redfish excluded under catch-and-release rules.

Five knots worth knowing

The book never spells out which knots Dan ties, so these are the five every Everglades guide would hand a new mate. The drawings are first drafts: follow the written steps and the linked demonstrations, and have someone who ties them check your work before you trust a fish to one.

1. Improved clinch knot

   The everyday hook-to-line knot. Matt's first knot.

   

   1. Pass the tag end through the hook eye.
   2. Make five turns around the standing line.
   3. Bring the tag back through the small loop by the eye, then through the larger loop you just made.
   4. Wet it and pull the turns snug against the eye.

   Watch it tied step by step →

2. Non-slip loop knot

   Leaves an open loop at the lure eye so a Bagley Mullet or a spoon can swing freely.

   

   1. Tie a loose overhand knot in the line, pass the tag through the lure eye and back through the overhand.
   2. Wrap the tag around the standing line; lighter line takes more wraps.
   3. Bring the tag back through the overhand opening on the same side it left.
   4. Wet it and tighten, keeping the loop open at the eye.

   Watch it tied step by step →

3. Uni knot

   Line to swivel. Two of them back to back join line to leader.

   

   1. Pass the line through the swivel eye and double it back.
   2. Form a loop and start wrapping the tag around both strands inside it.
   3. Make five turns inside the loop.
   4. Wet it, tighten the knot, then slide it down to the eye.

   Watch it tied step by step →

4. Palomar knot

   The strongest simple hook knot. Good for the forged hooks on the boat poles.

   

   1. Pass a doubled loop of line through the hook eye.
   2. Tie a loose overhand knot with the doubled line.
   3. Pass the whole hook through the loop.
   4. Wet it and draw everything down evenly to the eye.

   Watch it tied step by step →

5. Albright knot

   Main line to a heavier leader, the way Matt rigs the thirty-pound leader for the big snook.

   

   1. Fold the heavy leader and pass the lighter line through the fold.
   2. Wrap the light line back over itself and both strands of the fold.
   3. After ten wraps, pass the tag back through the fold beside where it came in.
   4. Wet it and tighten the wraps carefully.

   Watch it tied step by step →

Reading the tide

Dan’s version: the water is not rising and falling so much as the earth is turning through two bulges of ocean the moon and sun pull up. Two highs and two lows most days, about six hours apart, each one roughly fifty minutes later than yesterday. Fish the hour either side of the high and you will have water over the oyster bars and bait moving along the mangroves.