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Florida Back Country May 2007

 Chokoloskee Island

Trip Report

By ray hutcherson

May 19, 2007 to May 26, 2007

Dan Blanton and I  traveled from San Jose, California to Fort Meyers, Florida where we were met by Capt. Bill Blanton  (maybe a distant relative of Dan’s.) We were looking forward to fishing Florida’s ‘back country.’  Our quarry was to be Snook, Redfish, Sea Trout, Lady Fish, Jack’s, Snapper and maybe even a layed up Tarpon.  

We proceeded to Everglades City and then on to Chokoloskee Island and to the guest house of  Ted Juracsik.

The wind had been blowing and the reports from the east coast of Florida and the Keys didn’t look promising. I told Bill that we had brought West Coast Karma and he said that we might need it.

Up at 6:00 am and we were off for our first day. After a run of 10 miles or so along Mangrove Island and unmarked waterways we pulled up to a sheltered Island that looked to like all the rest that we had passed, but Bill assured us that this was the spot to start.

It wasn’t long before Dan was into the first Snook of our trip and I had my first ever Redfish.

We fished a total of 6 days and although it blow every day we managed to catch fish each day. The going was tough with many trips to the Mangroves. Bill was a good sport about the extra mileage required to retrieve our flies.

We caught all species that we had expected with the exception of Tarpon. The wind just put them off and in fact we only saw one baby Tarpon the whole trip, which was layed up under some Mangroves, that didn’t even give us  a chance to cast.

The food was excellent, in fact we ate at the same seafood restaurant  each night.

All in all we caught several Snook from 24” to 31”and many smaller ones. The Reds we a little wary with only two caught. Pretty much the same for Sea Trout and Snappers. We did get a shot at some large Amber Jacks in the 25 to 30 pound range. I manage to hook one on a small whistler using a Albright XX 8wt which lasted all but about 30 seconds and they were gone. In 3 feet of water it would have been a blast.

I used  an Albright XX 8wt and Tempest reels the entire trip and mostly small whistlers and rabbits foots, chartreuse and white. Dan used mostly TFO rods and in honor of our lodging host, Tibor reels. All flies were small and weed guards are a must.

The general fishing was reminiscent of our delta in that a fair amount of blind casting to edges, seams and cuts were required. When we were able to sight cast it was a differ story. The excitement level soared and the rewards were great.

With the wind the casting Buckets were a must.