Been looking at the rules for ENP fishing and I want to make sure I understand the ‘Special Protection Areas’.
I see all of the islands are closed (less a few) and ‘Wading within 100 feet of any closed area is prohibited’. Are boats allowed to get closer than 100ft? This would also be question for some of the creeks that are closed in the NE section as well. Thanks
Yes, you can fish right to them in a boat. Palm Key is the only I can think of that has signage to not get closer in a boat.
Thank you sir!
Honest question…Are they patrolling this whole area writing tickets?
Not really I’m sure they do but it’s so big just don’t have the manpower to really patrol. I’ve never been stopped out on the water but have been checked at ramp and once our campsite was checked by rangers. I do try to follow the rules though I’m sure down here in south Florida there will be some bad apples bending and breaking rules…
We have some seagrass areas that are protected and I see dudes running over them all the time. Game Wardens are too busy stopping random people in the ICW for safety gear and not getting the guys on the water who are really breaking the laws I feel are more important. Seems to be the case in a lot of scenarios. Low hanging fruit are easy.
They definitely patrol. I had a buddy that went with a group while back and part of the party brought firearms. Somebody had a desk pop at the campsite and a ranger was there in like 10 mins and gave them a pretty good ass chewing.
Under enforced probably. But definitely patrolled.
The areas here are patrolled with drones. I was offshore in the stream 65 miles one day and a boat came out of nowhere. It was FWC. I asked how he knew I was there. He said they watch from the comforts of their air conditioned office.
So they could be being patrolled there as well. Not sure though.
Here’s a map I use a lot when I’m planning to fish in that area . It has a legend on the bottom that kind of lets you know what areas are ok and not .
great map!
In the Park, there are idle speed zones, Pole/Troll zones, manatee protection areas, areas where motors are prohibited and special protection zones that are closed to public use. These include some rookeries in the backcountry and several Florida Bay Keys. My understanding is that both wading and boating within 100 yards of these areas is prohibited. If you can find it on the ENP site, the Boater’s Guide is very helpful.
What no one has mentioned… is that, particularly in Florida Bay where most of the restriciions are… no one would willingly wade since the bottom everywhere is two or three feet of nasty sticky mud, loaded with sharp bits of shell (that will suck the shoes off of your feet and cut you up in the process). Been many years since I poled myself aground out there then jumped over the side to push back into deeper water -then struggled for 30 minutes or so to keep from losing my shoes…. not something I’d ever do again unless absolutely necessary… If all you ever did was avoid any places with birds (islands, etc) you’d hardly ever run afoul of the restrictions (mostly..).
For beginners venturing into the maze of islands or into the backcountry of the Everglades I’d highly recommend a good chartplotter loaded with Florida Marine Tracks software (at this writing those plotters need to be by Lowrance or Simrad, they’re working on getting the software into other manufacturers machines, I believe…).
