By Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost staff writer [Everglades City, FL–] Yes, the weather may still be hot, muggy, and buggy in southwest Florida’s Ten Thousand Islands, but the fishing is …
Guy Harvey Interview on Fishing Florida Radio
4 Jun 20127:19 PM
Ever wonder what fish Guy loves to catch above all others? You can find out by listening to his interview with Fishing Florida Radio. Guy discusses his recent shark tagging expedition in the Bahamas and how his childhood in Jamaica influenced his career path. CLICK HERE to listen to these stories and more!
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![](mailto:?subject=Guy Harvey Interview on Fishing Florida Radio&body=<a href="http://www.fishingfloridaradio.com"><img class="alignleft" title="Fishing Florida Radio" src="http://guyharvey.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/fishing-florida-radiologo1.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="91" /></a>
Ever wonder what fish Guy loves to catch above all others? You can find out by listening to his interview with <a title="FFR web site" href="http://www.fishingfloridaradio.com/" target="_blank">Fishing Florida Radio</a>. Guy discusses his recent shark tagging expedition in the Bahamas and how his childhood in Jamaica influenced his career path. <a title="Guy Harvey interview with FFR" href="http://www.fishingfloridaradio.com/mp3/guyharvey_ffr.mp3" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a> to listen to these stories and more! https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/guy-harvey-interview-on-fishing-florida-radio/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Happy 4th of July!&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/709.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1369" title=""Sail America" - Guy Harvey" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/709.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="676" /></a> https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/happy-4th-of-july/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Fishing The Wild West in Florida's Ten Thousand Islands&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/eveg.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-2943 alignleft" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/eveg.jpg?w=300" alt="Eveg" width="300" height="225" /></a>By Sue Cocking, Guy Harvey Outpost staff writer
[Everglades City, FL--] Yes, the weather may still be hot, muggy, and buggy in southwest Florida's Ten Thousand Islands, but the fishing is what is truly smokin'.
Pending the onset of late fall/winter cold fronts, this remote region of jagged oyster bars, mangrove-fringed mud flats, and offshore wrecks and artificial reefs can be unmatched for rod-bending action and bountiful table fare.
Consider: on calm-weather days, anglers are free to motor 30 miles west of Everglades City into the open Gulf of Mexico to catch a limit of snapper, grouper, and whatever else deigns to stop by on rock piles, artificial reefs, and shipwrecks.
Or, those who prefer near-shore sight-fishing can battle big snook along the shorelines of most of those Ten Thousand Islands, especially the natural moats surrounding the mangroves and in the sloughs that ring the outside sand bars on lower tide stages. Redfish also are plentiful along those sand bars, as well as oyster bars and island moats. Large numbers of spotted sea trout patrol the sloughs and channels on higher tides and can also be found --(surprise!)-- on live, rocky bottom 10-12 feet deep several miles offshore. There's also a good chance of locating resident tarpon around island points and river mouths.
Fall is a great time of year to hunt for tasty tripletail, a mysterious fish found throughout Florida from near shore waters a few feet deep to miles out in the Atlantic Gulf Stream. But here in the Ten Thousand Islands, the search area is narrowed to crab trap lines strung a few miles offshore in the Gulf and dead tree stumps that have washed up in the shallows.
And there are several more species to be found cruising the region this time of year, including cobia, sheepshead, pompano, black drum, and Spanish mackerel. And don't forget sharks; they're pretty much everywhere and very satisfying to catch and release on all ranges of tackle. Lucky anglers might even catch sight of an endangered sawfish-- a very distinctive-looking member of the stingray family-- plying the flats or the sloughs, but they are closed to all harvest.
While it is possible to catch many of the region's fish on fly rod and on artificial lures such as plugs, jigs, and soft plastics, using live bait is far and away the best bet for closing the deal. Securing enough bait for a day's fishing is rarely a problem around the Ten Thousand Islands at this time of year.
Check out dimples on the surface revealing the presence of threadfin herring and pilchards. In open water, diving pelicans are very helpful guides. Mullet can be found schooling on the flats, especially in coves and creeks; single fish will be seen flipping for no apparent reason or else leaping en masse when chased by predators. Bait hunters finding no joy on the flats may find it necessary to head offshore to live-bottom areas to get what they need. Being able to throw a large cast net is a necessary skill. Caution: using live shrimp for bait will probably draw all kinds of unwanted interlopers such as ladyfish, blue runners, catfish, and who knows what.
Anglers not inclined to get wet and dirty throwing a cast net will probably do just fine purchasing live or fresh-frozen bait in Everglades City. A couple weeks before the Oct. 8 recreational red grouper closure, part-time Everglades City resident Lou Volpe and a companion caught their limit of four (and released 30 that were undersized), plus a dozen lane and gray snapper and a limit of eight sea trout using mostly dead finger mullet and pilchards on 'knocker rigs' where the egg sinker is next to the hook. The pair had a well full of just-caught pilchards, mullet, and pinfish netted by Volpe on his 22-foot bay boat, but they didn't really need all that live ammo. And despite fishing on a sunny, calm Sunday, they encountered perhaps four other boats the entire day.
Despite its proximity to Naples (45 minutes) and urban Southeast Florida ( 1 1/2 hours), the Everglades City-Chokoloskee region still has the feel of a fishing frontier.
Saddle up and check it out.
*****
Sue Cocking chronicles the Guy Harvey Outpost travel and adventure experience in regular blog posts on GuyHarveyOutpostNews.com/. For 21 years, Cocking covered the full spectrum of outdoors adventure opportunities in South Florida and beyond for the Miami Herald, including fishing, diving, hunting, paddling, camping, sailing, and powerboat racing. She is a certified scuba diver and holder of an IGFA women's world fly fishing record for a 29-pound permit. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/fishing-the-wild-west-in-floridas-ten-thousand-islands/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Congratulations Bouncer!&body=Capt. Bouncer Smith inducted into IGFA Legendary Captains & Crew!
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/bouncer-smith-photo.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image" id="i-1878" alt="Image" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/bouncer-smith-photo.jpg?w=570" /></a>
Infectious enthusiasm could easily be the catch phrase for fishing on <a title="Bouncer's Dusky" href="http://www.captbouncer.com/">Bouncer's Dusky</a>. For a big and energetic guy Bouncer always manages to convey the best of humanity. He is known for always treating people with kindness and dignity. On top of that he is a fabulous fisherman. His clients have caught a long list of World Record fish. He is just as proud of all the families who fish with him and all the kids who can say they caught their "First ________ (fish in the blank)" fishing with Bouncer.
Congratulations Bouncer on an honor well deserved! Check out Fishing with Bouncer on the web at: <a title="www.captbouncer.com" href="http://www.captbouncer.com/charter.htm">http://www.captbouncer.com/charter.htm</a> https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/congratulations-bouncer/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=An Invitation from Vaughn Cochran to View his New Exhibition at the IGFA Hall of Fame Museum Through April 15th&body=<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/vaughn11.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1069" title="Vaughn Cochran Art Exhibition" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/vaughn11.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="402" /></a>Ned Stone and Vaughn Cochran hang the artist's self-portrait during preparations for an exhibition of Vaughn's work at the IGFA.
From Vaughn Cochran - artist, conservationist, fly fishing guru and proprietor of <a title="About Bonefish Bimini" href="http://www.biggameclubbimini.com/bonefish-bimini.htm" target="_blank">Bonefish Bimini</a> at the <a title="BBGC web site" href="http://www.biggameclubbimini.com/index.htm" target="_blank">Bimini Big Game Club</a>, a <a title="GHO web site" href="http://www.guyharveyoutpost.com/" target="_blank">Guy Harvey Outpost Resort & Marina</a>:
You are invited to attend the GRAND OPENING of my newest art exhibition at the <a title="IGFA web site" href="http://www.igfa.org/" target="_blank">IGFA</a> Hall of Fame Museum in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. There will be a reception in the main entry to the Museum on Wednesday, January 25th from 5 to 7 pm serving food and drink. The exhibit will run until April 15th.
ABOUT THE SHOW
The invitation to do this show arrived at the same time I decided to venture into the difficult world of portraits. Not just any portraits but drawings and paintings of the legends of the industry, following the path I chose years ago to create art that spoke about the images, ideas and concepts of the fishing industry....the tools, the colors, boats, familiar scenes and of course the fish. Degas painted dancers and Andy Worhol through his colorful paintings, silkscreen prints and sculptures elevated everyday items of the popular culture into the art world, (where the term "Pop" came from). This would be my chance to elevate the icons of fishing and to explore bringing my interpretation of my friends to the walls of the IGFA. What better way to force myself to actually execute the idea of contemporary portraits from conception to "hanging a show".
Each piece in this show could be a starting point for another show, paintings that would be take offs, exploring the concepts that were established in that particular painting. I'm sure you'll see these thoughts again in paintings somewhere down the road, as every artist is always asking the same question...where do I go from here? Should I keep painting the same thing over and over again or should I take a chance and risk failure?
Take a chance.....failure is not an option!
I hope you enjoy the show. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/an-invitation-from-vaughn-cochran-to-view-his-new-exhibition-at-the-igfa-hall-of-fame-museum-through-april-15th/){kind=link}
![](mailto:?subject=Billfish Invitational Day 2 – Big Marlin, Big Whales and a Big Honor!&body=During this week’s Billfish Invitational tournament, Fred Garth, Editor-In-Chief of <a title="GHM web site" href="http://www.guyharveymagazine.com/" target="_blank">Guy Harvey Magazine</a>, will be filing a series of dispatches from tournament headquarters at the Bimini Big Game Club.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/bbgcwhaleshark.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-750" title="Team Tag Line takes a break from billfishing to swim with a whale shark!" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/bbgcwhaleshark.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="389" /></a>Team Tag Line takes a break from fishing the tournament to swim with a whale shark!
Bimini – day two on the water was as much of a Big Game as it was a Billfish Tournament. Six billfish were hooked and almost every boat saw fish for the second day in a row. Also, two boats came in with amazing stories of swimming with whales.
<a title="Guy Harvey Inc. web site" href="http://www.guyharvey.com" target="_blank">Guy Harvey</a> spent the day riding with Tedd and Tammy Amberg on the Hillary Lynn where they had a front row seat watching an aerial display of a blue marlin on the vessel Southside, which was fishing nearby.
Three of the fish hooked were reported over 500 pounds and two of blues on the line were in the 200-300 pounds. Also seen were a tailing white marlin and several free jumping billfish.
“It’s been a good run of nice sized fish,” said Tournament Director Ned Stone, “and we’ve had good fishing. Of course, there’s always the challenge of getting big fish to the boat.”
The tournament has been blessed with sunny skies and light winds providing excellent conditions for sighting other big beasts. In the spirit of Guy Harvey’s passion for marine conservation and swimming with large marine animals, one team was able to get into the water with a pod of pilot whales and another team swam for a half hour with a whale shark.
Erik Akins and Robert Collins of the Last Dance Team spotted a pod of pilot whales and hailed Chris Peterson from the <a title="Hell's Bay Boatworks web site" href="http://www.hellsbayboatworks.com" target="_blank">Hell’s Bay</a> Hopper Team on the radio. Peterson’s team swam with the whales and said that they were eating a big blue fin tuna.
“One of the whales swam by with the tuna’s head in its mouth,” Peterson said. “Another had the body of the tuna. They were sharing the fish. It was pretty incredible.
Gaston Legorburu’s Tag Line team came back to the dock with stories and photos of swimming and riding a 16-20 foot whale shark.
<a href="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/frankstribute2.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-745 " title="Presentation of the Frank Johnson Perpetual Trophy" src="https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/frankstribute2.jpg" alt="" width="495" height="295" /></a>Left to right: Bill Shedd, Tim Choate, Shelley Johnson, Ed Pang, Frank Johnson, Mark Ellert, Guy Harvey, Charlie Forman, Kent Ullberg and Frank Johnson Jr.
The day ended with a fabulous tribute dinner for Frank Johnson, creator of the iconic <a title="Mold Craft web site" href="http://www.moldcraft.com" target="_blank">Mold Craft</a> soft head lures. Many stories were told, some not to be repeated herein, and artist Ed Pang presented his perpetual trophy to Frank which displays a bronze Mold Craft lure a top of a jumping marlin.
VIP guests in attendance were Tim Choate, Bill Shedd, Kent Ullberg, Guy Harvey, Charlie Forman, Frank Johnson, Jr., and of course Frank Johnson and his wife Shelley. https://guyharveyoutpostblog.com/740-2/){kind=link}
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