Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Still Life: A Suburban Canal in Miami

Tens of thousands of motorists drive past this suburban Miami canal every day.  Busy people with busy lives never give this water a second glance.

They don't see anything of value - just weeds, water and trash.

When I was a kid, this canal was my saving grace.  It was a place where my friends and I encountered wild creatures and explored the natural world.  Some days we experienced the worst aspects of city life - like the time we found two bundled corpses in the weeds during Miami's drug war era - but most days we caught fish and created great memories.

I fished my old neighborhood canal again today for the first time in decades.  It felt great to see my childhood haunt still harbors a remarkable underwater world - a far more interesting place than the surrounding sanitized suburbs.


























4 comments:

  1. Great photos... remarkably clear water for an urban ditch... Ever see gators in there? And I've heard rumor of other toothy critters... like piranha ... True?

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  2. I love the look of peacock bass. I really want to catch one.

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  3. Miami/Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin Counties all have wonderful opportunities. In fact the whole Sate of Florida is an outstanding fishery. Wether it is urban, Everglades, Bays of fresh or saltwaters, This is the best in the country. I've been at it for over fourty three years and Michigan prior to that. As a rabid angler, I could never leave it, even after my days are over.

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  4. Gregg, great to hear from you. I hope you are doing great.

    You would love this place. The access is great and there are also some huge grass carp in this canal. I wasn't prepared for them (only had a streamer rod with me). They weren't in there when I was a kid, but there are plenty of them in there now. I'll be back with some grass carp flies.

    If you ever find yourself en route to Miami, let me know. I'll give you the details.

    Brent

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