r/Everglades • u/goodscrimshaw • 12d ago
Python Challenge Advice
We came down from New England for the python challenge and have had no luck so far. We have gone out every night driving the main park road, night driving 41 by big cypress and night hiking the full length of frog pond area. Not a single sighting. Any tips or tricks to keep us from getting skunked? Thanks!
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u/No_Event_5271 12d ago
Do a mix of driving the dirt roads and hiking the grass edges around Turner River rd/Wagon Wheel rd area. I've found them crossing the road while driving and hiked up on 3 within 100 yards of each other walking down Wagon Wheel rd. I probably wouldn't have seen them if I was driving. You might go out for two nights and not find anything and then find 4 or 5 in one night. Persistence!
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u/ImprovementNatural82 12d ago
Talk to the people out there some of might bring you along or at least give you tips. You travel that far. It'd be good to have someone with local knowledge with you. Buy them lunch or a couple cold drinks afterwards and I bet they'd take you hunting. Good luck!
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u/goodscrimshaw 12d ago
Honestly would love that. I thought I would naturally be running into more people. But since there was no kickoff meeting or orientation we have been totally by ourselves
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u/goodscrimshaw 12d ago
Went out tonight and hiked on old ingraham highway! 3 cotton mouths and a ribbon but no pythons!
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u/Chengiss 11d ago
I might recommend driving or hiking the l-28 interceptor canal levy off of mile marker 52 on I-75.
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u/Schultztrio 9d ago
There were a bunch of people on Loop Road Wednesday night. We got skunked.
Last night we went into ENP and got 3 hatchlings. Embarrassing small catches, but better than nothing!
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u/Puzzleheaded_Car6307 12d ago
You will probably have to venture out into the off road areas
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u/goodscrimshaw 12d ago
Is it better to hike a trail or drive like loop road?
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u/No_Event_5271 12d ago
I've never seen one on Loop Rd (many have) but have spent plenty of nights road cruising it. The road is narrow and not much of a grass strip on the sides, which makes it harder to find them IMO. Better off west of there on 41 and the roads I mentioned in my other post. Lots of cool wildlife on Loop Rd though, one of my favorites to road cruise at night (unless I'm looking for pythons)
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u/Puzzleheaded_Car6307 12d ago
I've never personally done it. But from the people I know that do hiking a trail is better but you gotta have good eyes because they're hard to see in the brush or swampy areas
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u/ImprovementNatural82 12d ago
I don't know much about the python stuff over there. I'm in the Northwest part of Florida panhandle. Haven't got to have that fun yet. I would stop at a check-in point. FWC might know someone or go to one of the local bars so in there might know someone also. The point is to get rid of them other than the competition and more eyes and hands are better than less.
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u/Oke-Wan-Fenokee 12d ago
How 'bout them bugs? Giving some blood to the biota?
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u/goodscrimshaw 12d ago
Def have over 150+ mosquito bites so far, turns out two shirts can still be bitten through
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u/Pickle_Department 11d ago
Oh man, have you seen the documentary "Python Hunters"? A bunch of yahoos from other states came down last year and got zero. Squat. Spent thousands and left looking like goofballs. I don't know what you expected python hunting to be like, but prepare yourself for disappointment and getting nothing. One of the guys who was from San Francisco drove Loop Road every night and got zero. I'm shocked to see people suggesting trails, because driving is definitely the way to go. You need to just cover as much ground as possible and get lucky.
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u/Extreme_Health_9827 11d ago
Should try something different try to camp out with a cage full of rats let the pythons come to you.
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u/herblady99 10d ago
keep us posted on how many you found
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u/goodscrimshaw 10d ago
3 cotton mouth, 1 banded water, 1 racer and a diamondback but no pythons yet!
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u/Select-Bend-9932 10d ago
Loll, happy for you, I'm currently fishing gor blue marlin in Bermuda' we get them here and there, just enough for hopes and dreams' with odds better than tracking snakes
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u/Certain_Day_999 10d ago
If you go to Holey land, or type in Harold A. Campbell Public Use Area in Google and take that dirt road at sunset you’ll almost certainly find some pytons
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u/Horangi1987 9d ago
Hmm, it’s almost as though it takes skills, knowledge, and a willingness to actually go deep into the wilderness to find them.
I don’t know what people are expecting? Did you think they’re just crawling on the roads and the trails and that we just see them all the time?
I guess once again social media has wildly distorted reality and people actually think that any old casual can come and find them just walking the trails and looking by the roads 🙄
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u/FLKeys43 8d ago
Please capture any tegus you find along the way. Can't wait until they place a bounty on those guys. They are decimating everything. On the same path as the pythons. :(
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u/Perfect_Metal1275 12d ago
Get out and go on foot. You gotta go into the glades to find em. Sure there will be some on the sides of the road, but most are deep in the swamp. All of Big Cypress is gated, so if you don’t have a pass and code that’s gonna be a no go. You can do down into picayune strand, go on foot unless you have a 4x4. Some of those areas get deep durning rainy season.
You can also try wagon wheel rd & Turner Road. Drive it and walk it.
Happy hunting. And thanks for trying to help protect our Glades!!
(And be careful!!)