Well, it’s been almost a week since the trip and my ribs are just healed and not hurting from laughing so friggin hard.



For the 13th consecutive year a group of guys from all over the country have converged on Everglades National Park for an annual sabbatical/fishing trip/drinking escape, where the participants skin better be as thick as an elephant’s hide or you’ll get eaten alive!



Its big fun where the guys leave the real world behind and let it all hang out, and I was lucky enough to ...
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I had a good charter last week with a very nice couple visiting Naples from Tampa. We fished the 10,000 Islands out the ramp just before Marco Island. With the hot weather and anticipated afternoon rains typical of this time of year, we met at 7am. We started to a very slow bite in the back country early, in the extremely stirred up water from the torrential rains we’ve been having. So we quickly changed the game plan and fished some beaches near a major pass for snook. They were not feedin...
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I’ve been on the water 6 out of the last 7 days and it’s getting difficult to catch up with the reports. Great to be busy though and even better that the fishing continues to get hotter and hotter. The passing cold fronts are changing the bite daily, but were seeing glimpses of spring patterns during the warming trends. I had several charters this week in Estero Bay and the fishing was off the hook. On low tides and while family fishing with kids, we had no trouble catching lots of mangro...
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I was referred the mornings charter from a good friend, and met Doug and his party at the boat ramp at 951 right on time. The morning was still chilly for South West Florida standards in the low 50s and the tide was low. So we started fishing in a canal at a bridge where we had some water depth and good current starting to flow with the incoming tide. We caught a few small snapper and Doug caught his dinner, a nice fat sheepshead.



We continued working our way around catching a few small snapp...
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With a good bit of excitement for the family escape and fishing trip ahead of us we all jumped out of bed on Saturday morning. No nasty alarm clocks were set even though we had plenty of work to do before we got on the road. Everybody did their part and before we knew it we were at the boat ramp at 951 in Collier County by late morning, for our mini vacation on Marco Island. We invaded the house by land and by sea, and once all the stuff was unloaded, we headed to Key Wayden Island for a leis...
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I got a call early in the week from longtime friends and customers, the Ganchou family, asking about an opening for a fishing trip. I was able to fit them in for an early trip out of Marco Island on Thursday. We met at the ramp at 7, and after a bit of a scramble, purchased some tiny live shrimp and hit the water. The first stop was very close to the ramp, and we started catching fish immediately.



Carol started it off with a fun little snooklet.



Everybody caught a fish or 2 before we moved on t...
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With a very busy weekend on hand I was still able to reserve a small window of time on Sunday morning for some family fishing. The 3 of us did well getting up and out of the house, and we were at the boat ramp at 951 just on the north side of the bridge to Marco Island before 8am. There was a great high flooding tide, yet I was still debating on where to start fishing as we idled down the canal. We only had a few hours to fish, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted to run all the way to the gul...
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Bepops, AKA grandpa, was back in town for the weekend and we met for a morning of 10,000 Islands fishing action starting out of Marco Island. With our son and my better half joining my dad and me on his boat, there were 3 generations headed out together.



We had a great time, very nearby, catching a bunch of small snook, snapper, ladyfish, and one nice redfish.



There’s nothing prettier than the morning sun shining brilliantly off a golden redfish!



I believe we all caught at least a few snook ...
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We were able to take the holiday weekend off, and got the invite from Mom to join her at their great place in Marco Island. We loaded up the family, the dog, boat and way too much other stuff for a 2 day trip Sunday morning. We got to the ramp at 951 at the bright and early hour of 10 am or so and weren't surprised by the nice long line. We were surprised to see an attendant though, and things actually moved along rather quickly. With the boat splashed, we invaded Marco by sea and by land and...
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It’s that time of year again where a group of guys from all over the country converge on South Florida, in this case, as in the last several years, to the remote outpost of Everglades City. I have been lucky enough to be asked to join them the last several years, for what has become known as the annual Farming Of The Sea Festival. So named in the recently defunct Rock Bottom Bar, as we “casually discussed fisheries management and the net ban” with some very interesting gentlemen in the ...
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Although I’m no longer renting houseboats I still have access to one, and we had a chance to take my son and a couple of his cousins, from the east coast, out during spring break. The trip started with my  boy and I arriving in Marco Island Monday morning,  where we loaded Nana and the cousins into the truck for a quick trip to the Rookery Bay Education Center. They had some decent exhibits and knowledgeable people that made for a nice morning. After heading back to the house for a quick lu...

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     We got to spend a few days out of Marco Island with family over the weekend and managed to get some fishing in. We arrived at my parent's incredible new waterfront home in Marco, that will be for rent soon, to hear stories of the Goodland boat parade that we missed on Saturday. It sounded highly entertaining with highlights of tremendous beer bellies, hula skirts, and coconut bikinis all on the same characters. A quick run to Grimms in Everglades city for some stone crab claws for the we...

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