The following article is featured is this months World Traveler on line and in flight magazinie. Thank you Northwest Airlines.


An Everglades Excursion

The hot Florida sun pours down on your winter-weary bones, and the warm April breeze off the Gulf of Mexico ripples the turquoise shallows. Noisy sea birds chatter in the endless tangle of mangroves and small fish dart among the roots exposed by the falling tide. Your guide is perched atop a tiny platform at the back of the small skiff. He looks like a Venetian boatman as he expertly and silently propels you through the narrow channels with a long fiberglass pole. From behind a pair of polarized sunglasses, he scans the water. You stand just above the waterline at the bow, fly line coiled at your feet, fly rod in hand. Suddenly, from the platform, your guide shouts, “Snook! Eleven o’clock! Long cast! Now, now!” You lift your fly rod, but for a moment you can’t see the fish. And then it materializes, a silvery translucent shape ghosts out from under the mangrove roots, and you see it more by its shadow than by its perfect camouflage. Like a largemouth bass crafted out of hammered aluminum, the snook is one of many prized game fish that haunt the waters.

You make a hurried cast and the fly lands two feet from the fish’s nose. Will it be close enough? “Wait!” shouts your guide. Time stands still. The fish moves oh so slowly toward the fly. “Okay! Strip! Strip! Strip!” You take in line in short quick tugs and then Wham! there’s an explosion of silver and spray and you are hooked to what feels like a pit bull with fins.

Welcome to the other Florida, the getaway from the getaway. To the average tourist who comes for the white sand beaches and countless golf courses of Fort Myers and Naples on Florida’s Gulf Coast, these lovely backwater channels teeming with wildlife on the edge of the Everglades are terra incognita. But for the traveling angler, or anyone who wants to experience the thrill of saltwater fishing, these endless mangroves, meandering creeks and hidden bays offer exciting year-round fishing opportunities for anglers of all skill levels. You came for the fishing, but it’s the deserted, Robinson Crusoe-like isolation that surprises and delights you, as if you are the first to discover each new magical channel and bay on the edge of the Everglades wilderness.

The waters that feed these lush estuaries rise hundreds of miles north in the freshwater springs near Kissimmee and flow through the vast Everglades to where they mingle with the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico. These waters are home to a remarkable diversity of flora and fauna. There are alligators here, and shy manatees. Dolphins romp in the surf and a wide variety of birds stop here on their annual migrations. Though it is barely out of sight of the luxurious beachfront resorts, fine restaurants and unique shopping districts of Naples and Marco Island, and less than an hour from Fort Myers, this lush tropical paradise at the edge of the Everglades is a world apart. It’s a glimpse of the Florida your grandparents first fell in love with less than half a century ago. And at the end of the day of fishing, when you’re back at your hotel sipping something with an umbrella in it and dangling your toes in the pool, you may wonder if it was all just a dream.

THE DETAILS: Florida
Best Time to Go:
April-July, Sept.-Nov.

Guides and Outfitters:
Everglades Angler-Orvis
239-262-8228
810 12th Ave. S.
Naples, FL 34102
evergladesangler.com

What’s available: Full- and half-day guided trips; Fly-fishing or light spinning; Fly-fishing lessons

Where to Stay:

Olde Marco Island Inn and Suites
877-475-3466
100 Palm St.
Marco Island, FL 34145
oldmarco.com

Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club
800-455-1546
851 Gulf Shore Boulevard N.
Naples, FL 34102
naplesbeachhotel.com