Florida Fishing Weekend
This is our second year in a row that the Burchick and Betz parents have spent an extended weekend of fishing in Florida. Last year was St.
Augustine and this year was Naples. We stayed at Patti's aunt house in Fort Myers. Thank you Joe and Judy!
On Friday we fished in Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park. The shorelines of the creeks and canals included bald cypress with air-plant and Spanish moss, live oak, cabbage palm, saw palmetto, slash pine and the alien invasive Brazilian pepper.
This area of the south Florida swamplands includes expansive remote areas and the Florida Panther Wildlife Refuge, all signs that we noted along Alligator Alley (I-75), the fenced toll road from Naples to Miami, to help keep basking alligators at bay!
Needless to say that we saw many alligators up close and personal while fishing.
Our professional guide for Friday and Saturday was Captain Roan ZumFelde, a life-long resident of Naples, who specializes in salt-water fly fishing, but will also guide for the orchids of the Everglades, during the peak of their bloom times, associated with air-plants.
Roan got us on fish and Dan and I caught over thirty largemouth bass each for the morning of fishing. Does two applications of sunscreen 30 constitute SPF 60?
We used a combination of top water, cranks and plastics. Our guide suggested that the pre-spawn will convert to bedding bass by the next new moon, if weather stays warm. The day time highs all weekend were in the upper 80's and the night time lows were between 68 and 70-degrees. Sweet!
It was a birding bonanza. We saw kingfisher, brown pelican, cormorant, green heron, great blue heron, great egret, snowy egret, wood stork, white ibis, anhinga, red-shouldered hawk, bald eagle, black vulture, osprey and many a bird I could not identify. Dan saw three roseate spoonbills and waves of tree swallows would occasionally pass by.
We flushed this endangered wood stork from the banks. The largest known
I had a great time with these guys it was fun watching these big guys set the hooks on some nice Florida Bass. The birding wasn’t bad either
