Saturday, November 2, 2019
Mile marker 41. This is the ramp on the South side about seven miles West of the big rest area. To get to the MM41 ramp, drive West to Snake Road (MM49) and then exit, turn around, and head back East. Snake Road (MM41) is about half way across. This is about the point where the grass to the East becomes trees to the West. This is a long drive. The toll plaza is about MM25 so you have to go another 25 miles past the toll just to turn around. Note, you could also exit at the big rest area which is MM35 and put in there. But running the boat West uses more gas than driving the truck so I drove to MM41. More on this later.
I arrived about 7:30am and there were other trailers in the lot already. Another boat was launching at the same time but there was plenty of room. The South side of the Alley has a lot of water lettuce in addition to the lily pads, sawgrass, and fallen trees. This area looked good and there were a lot of swirls everywhere. I then found out what the swirls were. GAR !!! They were everywhere. Swimbaits...gar. Surface frogs...gar. Shallow crankbaits...gar. They would chase everything between the surface and three feet. The lettuce was thick in some spots so I thought I could use a worm and punch through to the bottom underneath. Wrong. The depth under the lettuce is 2-3 feet and the gar were underneath. I stayed with worms thinking the bass would be on the bottom because of the competition near the shallow edges. I tried big and small worms in many colors but only a coupld of hits. The North side of the alley was the same except no lettuce on the North side. The gar were everywhere from the sawgrass to the edge of the lily pads. Turns out, the bass are on the bottom in the middle of the canals, probably because of the competition for food as well as the 80 degree water temperature. I also tried rattletraps and other lipless crankbaits by letting them sink to the bottom and changing the retrieve... slow and steady, fast and sawtooth, etc. I would see other boats run the canal, stop for maybe 15 minutes, and then run somewhere else so I was not the only one not catching fish. I was back at the ramp by 10am along with two other boats. Other people gave up too. I caught nothing.
Most of the ramps on Alligator Alley such as MM41 are a bit more difficult to load a full size bass boat because the canal is narrow in front of the ramp. A smaller boat is better here. Be careful of the rocks behind you if backing up to get a straight shot to the trailer. Trim up if near the edge. Also, the ramp starts to drop off after 5-6 feet which makes for a slightly steeper angle. Pull the trailer up a foot more so the boat will use the bunks to angle up.
The big rest area (MM35) has four separate boat ramps. Three will access the West side which leads to MM41 and also to the Miami canal running North and South. One ramp will access the East side and faces the long canal on the South side of the alley so launching and loading would be easy. The East and West sides are not connected. If gar are in the West side then the West alley and Miami canal would be very difficult. I guess you can still fish on the West side if you want a challenge, but my recommendation is to stay East of MM35 especially for recreational fishermen like me who just want a better chance to catch bass.
There are ramps around MM32 rest areas on the North and South sides of the alley between the toll plaza (MM25) and the big rest area (MM35). The North side of the alley has ramps facing the long canal which would be easy to launch and load. The South side of the alley has a side facing ramp like MM41 which has limited space behind the boat and trailer. The big rest area (MM35) would be the place to turn around to head East again, or to stop at the ramps on the South side. See attached pictures.
Good luck everyone.
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Originally Posted by cwilt
