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Clyde Butcher

We first got a taste of Clyde Butcher's large format black and white photographs of the swamp at the Corkscrew exhibit we perused while waiting for a deluge to end.    I can not describe the beauty, detail and haunting nature of these 40 x 60 inch images.  Discovering that he used to live near here and has a gallery there just east on 41, we set out after our morning kayak in Halfway Creek Bay with it's  own dolphin herding fish show.  Entering the gallery, we found ourselves in an amazing world of images of Florida from Big Talbot island, the Keys and Ten Thousand Islands to the swamp.   We finished our afternoon and last day in one of his favorite places, Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk in Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park.

Everglades City

Everglades City is a funky, old Florida fishing village - the stone crab capital of the world.  But now the crabbing season is closed, the snowbirds have migrated north and the town has a lazy, deserted feel.  The locals we have met however, from our waitress to the fishermen,  have been warm, friendly and willing to share their Everyglades City story.

Collier-Seminole State Park

This is the beginning of the wet season.   The summer weather pattern - Atlantic breezes meeting Gulf breezes - creates  afternoon thunderstorms which fill up the swamps, now mostly dry.   We saw these storms beginning in Bocca Grande and continuing as we moved south.   Getting a later start today and hoping to avoid the storms, we drove west on 41  to Collier-Seminole State Park where canoe trails lead through the mangrove tunnels to form the Blackwater River.  We were able to rent both a SUP and kayak - amazing since we were the only ones here, making it our own private playground for the day.   The ecoguide gave us directiions, Tom a special "Blackwater" lure and sent us on our way.   A map would have been helpful since this is a place you don't want to get lost.   We fished and paddled through mangrove mazes and down the river, somehow missing the branch to Mud Bay.   We stopped for a late lunch and then headed back the way we had come.   Tom lost the lure to a might snook who broke the line in the mangroves, but was able to land a smaller one - his first snook.   We watched kites catching their prey and eating it midair, a manatee and her baby, flycatchers and piliated woodpeckers.   Only on the trail to the native stand of Royal Palms did we meet an obstacle - the mosquito wall.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Corkscrew Swamp, near Imockalee, FL, was our first introduction to the ancient bald cypresses that once filled the swamp land of  south Florida.    This area and Big Cypress National Park  are the last remaining stands of these magnificent tress, saved from the loggers.    

Fish On!

 Tarpon are magnificent 100+ lb, incredibly powerful , silvery sea bullets.   Each one has it's own personality when caught.  All fighters, some are jumpers, while others just bend the rod double and pull  so hard you don't think you can possibly hold them.    Our adventure began on Monday, meeting Captain Sandy Melvin at his shop, Gasparilla Outfitters, for pre-fishing introductions and a reunion of sorts.  Becca and her sister Kiki, who had both joined us for the day,  had worked for Sandy in the store and it was obvious that they were like family to him and his wife, Robin.    Carl had met Sandy once before, but really got to know him on this trip.  Tom, Carl and I were to meet Sandy at Whidden's Marina on Tuesday at 3:45 to dip brown bait crabs, tarpon candy.   Hard to believed  that a tarpon would go for a crab smaller than the palm of your hand.   Sandy gave us instructions on size, holding, and the top pincer breaking technique, quickly learned after a few mistakes.  On strong out going tides, these crabs swim and are pulled from the harbor out into the Gulf to spawn, then return on the incoming tide.   Between the boats dipping them and the tarpon, these crabs have a quite gauntlet to run.   Once in place for the correct drift, Sandy described "battle stations" - the correct position  to place the rod for him to bait the hook, and for you to lower the line (to the yellow ribbon) positioning the reel to strike.   We were not to give on this position, no matter what, until his instruction to insure that the hook was set.    Over the next two evenings we  successfully brought in four tarpon.   Tom and I each fought one with Carl getting two - the last an epic battle with at least six jumps - several right next to the boat.  The pictures say it all.  We were also treated to a storm, a rainbow, an incredible suset and a dolphin show, in the wake of the boat.  Thanks Sandy,  and Happy 21st Birthday Carl.    

Boca Grande

Our condo is on the north end of Booca Grande or Big Gasparilla Island, on a small key, between the second and third causway bridges.   In other words,  we are right in front of Little Gasparilla Pass and feel that we are sitting right in the middle of it, boat channels on either side.   This is the perfect staging ground for our explorations.  The kayaks and SUPs arrived by boat and can be stored right on the small beach for our stay.    Our main destination each morning is the Bird Island flats, to our right across the channel.   Paddling over at dawn, we await the fish just like the ospreys in the tops of the mangroves around us.    The DOA shrimp has been our most successful lure for trout, snook, and jacks on the grass flats, the water so clear, the abundant sea life is very visible and wary of our presence.   Gorgeous sunsets over the Gulf grace our fresh caught dinners enjoyed on the porch.