The Everglades - Part 1

We left Port Richey on Wednesday morning and headed to Everglades City.  Erol's brother-in-law, Larry, and Jim's wife Robin  live there right on the northwestern boundary of the Everglades National Park.  Wednesday night we were treated to a fabulous dinner of stone crab claws, broccoli, and baked mac and cheese.

Erol cracking the crab claws while Doug supervises.

Our feast.

We visited for a bit after dinner and then got to bed to prepare for our day of fishing in the Everglades.

Erol, Larry, Jackie and Doug.

Thursday morning, we headed out to fish.  This is the western side of the Everglades which we had never experienced.  10,000 islands!  There are many rivers, creeks and huge bays.  

Erol and Mary Ann

Erol and Doug

Larry had arranged for a guided fishing trip with Captain Derrick Daffin of Fishingintheeverglades.com.  The first thing we had to do was fish for some live bait.  There was a lot of discussion all day on live bait (Erol) vs. plastic (Larry).

Captain Derrick preparing the bait net.

Tossing the net.

Some bait fish in the net.

If you look at a map, Everglades National Park Map, you'll see the 10,000 Islands region.  We boated about 60 miles of this area on Thursday, from their home base at Everglades City to the Gulf of Mexico to Darwin's Place and all throughout the rivers, creeks, bays and islands.  

Erol and Doug fishing for the big one.

If you look close, you can see a banana spider.

We had a great day fishing.  We caught 9 Spotted Seatrout.  As it turns out, the live bait caught more fish than the plastic bait.

Captain Derrick and Doug.

Erol with the biggest fish of the day.

Larry with a spotted seatrout.

We also caught a large Snook, but released him back to the water.

Captain Derrick also gave us a tour of a few of the historical areas.  One of them was the Watson Place.

This site is named after the notorious Ed Watson, who lived here until 1910. The Watsons lived in a two-story house, growing vegetables and refining sugarcane. Ed Watson was suspected of killing several people in the area. It is rumored that rather than pay his employees, he would kill them.  Shortly after the body of Hannah Smith was found floating nearby in the Chatham River, frightened islanders gathered at the Smallwood Store in Chokoloskee and shot and killed Watson when he arrived to explain what happened. "Killing Mr. Watson", a factual - fictionalized account of Watson’s life, is available at area stores. Historic objects can still be located at this campsite, including a cement cistern, a sugarcane syrup cauldron and farm machinery. 

We saw lots of wildlife including herons, ibis, egrets, hawks and even osprey.  We also saw dolphins and Doug had a huge dragonfly land on his pants.

We had a great time fishing and highly recommend Captain Derrick.  He grew up in this area, he is a very skilled fisherman and he is very friendly.  Check him out if you are in the area to fish.  fishingintheeverglades.com

We got back and Larry cleaned the fish.

Jesse was very intrigued by what was going on.  Larry even offered him a taste, but he didn't take it.

We got the sea salt off of us and went to the Everglades Seafood Depot along with our freshly caught fish.  They fried the fish for us and served it up with our choice of sides.  It was delicious!

After dinner Erol and Doug sat with the friendly restaurant alligator.

It was a great day.  Stayed tuned for Part 2.

"I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time."

Steven Wright