Strengthening the Ties Tour: Florida

Florida is filled with retirees, humidity and alligators... Right?

Wrong!

Florida is paradise on earth!

Hannah and I left Maryland and drove down to Florida - a cool 18 hours. Jenifer and Peter cleverly flew. They have a time share on Sanibel Island which is on the west coast of Florida.

We arrived to 78 F (26 C) weather. I shook the mothballs out of my swim shorts and headed down to the beach. The resort is right at the sea so it was a mere 30 yards away. Wow, after cold, white winter, warm sunshine feels SOOOO good! We spent our days riding bikes through the island, going to the beach, swimming and just generally chilling! We went to a few of the local restuarants! There was a mix up with Peter and Jenifer's car rental so they were upgraded as way of an apology to a Nissan 350Z. Hannah and I got to take it for a spin! You know the joke about the difference between a BMW driver and a hedgehog....With a hedgehog, the prick is on the outside...well, I can see why driving around in the silver 350z! After a incredible, warm, relaxing week in Florida, it was time to make the two day trip make to DC. We stayed over for a night in South Carolina visiting Anna Handley commonly known as Anna Banana (pronouced the South African way, Arna Barnarna) who we met while she was studying abroad in Cape Town. It was great to meet her and her boyfriend Nick! They were just about to spend 6 months in Mexico! We wish them all the best!

Jenifer peddling up a storm!

The three of us on top of the causeway between the mainland and Sanibel Island!

Someone with a sense of humour at the visitor's centre!

Jenifer and Hannah at the above mentioned visitor's centre, looking summery!

Fishing Report Florida modestly calls itself the fishing capital of the world. But maybe it has a point! I fished almost everyday and was lucky enough to meet up with some local fly fishermen who I got hold of through their fishing club! I went with Mike in his gheenoe to a backcountry area (mangrove lined channels and bays) near Naples. The gheenoe is quite a fantastic craft. It is very stable (i.e. two people can stand up and fish) and can run in really skinny water. I sight cast to two snook who were cruising in 6 inch water and the bigger one of the two shot forward and grabbed the fly! It was great to see! So first snook landed!
Snook are a bass fisherman's dream! The similarities are numerous! They hang around structure i.e. mangroves, rock pinacles. They love surface deerhair bugs and poppers. They fight hard and jump alot!
I blew a shot at a decent sized redfish with a bad cast! We continued cruising the shallows, but didn't get anymore strikes. Mike was a great guy to fish with and I learnt so much from him! He maneuvered the boat perfectly and had me in position all the time!

I fished the next morning in the causeway between Sanibel Island and the mainland. I got some ladyfish and some small spanish mackerel. The ladyfish are perfect replicas of skipjack just smaller but they fight hard for their small size! The following day I hired a kayak and fished tarpon bay. Tarpon Bay is a mangrove lined bay which is probably about 6 feet deep at the most! I did see a manatee which was pretty cool, but only decoded one small jack!

The final day I met up with another local fisherman, Charlie, who is originally from New York. He took me to the Ten Thousand Island area which is just north of the Everglades. We got to the slipway at about 6am. We were going for tarpon which were holding up in a backcountry river, but it was key to get there early. We run for a fair while, awaking up a dolphin who got quite a fright and took off at high speed! We found the tarpon rolling right at the top of the river. They were only teenagers around the 50lb mark! Try as we might, they wouldn't take our flies! It was still quite incredible to see them roll so close to us! We caught some small snook on our way back. The Ten Thousand islands area is a virtual fishing playground! There is just so much incredible water to fish...We did get a stark reminder that there must be balance even in this fishing paradise - we saw a large fishing boat 3 feet up and at the end of 30 feet deep path smashed through the mangroves...Hurricane Frances!