Post Irma Report October 01 2017, 0 Comments

It's hard to believe that so much of 2017 is already under our flip flops and we’re cruisin’ along with what should be a great Fall and 2018. First and foremost, thanks to so many of you who extended your best wishes for a positive outcome from Hurricane Irma. A few random thoughts on her.

Irma could have been a lot worse and fortunately took a favorable slight turn to the East just prior to slamming into Ft. Myers and Sanibel/Captiva. While many trees and signs were felled, we came through everything quite well. The loss of power for a week and Internet for a bit longer were more nuisances than anything else. It will take several months to clear all the debris from the sides of the road. Once that’s done most folks probably wouldn’t even know there was a hurricane that rolled through.

I often wonder how wildlife, including fish, must react to a big event such as a hurricane. As my wife Barb says, “They sense things pretty well, hunker down and wait for nature to get back to normal.” I know the several fishing trips I’ve had since Irma, the bite has been as good, if not better than most times of the year. This is probably due to the Fall in general being a good time to fish plus very little if any boat/fishing pressure. It’s amazing how few boats are out on the water. In some ways it’s pretty cool realizing you have Pine Island Sound and/or the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge almost all to yourself. We’re enjoying every minute of it.

Closing out on the Irma communique, let me suggest the following:  Because Key West, Marco Island and parts of  the Florida East Coast took it so hard on the chin, I think we’re going to see more folks visiting our islands this coming season. Therefore, whether it’s getting a place to stay and/or potentially lining up activities, you might want to start your planning sooner than later. We’re still a great alternative to temps below 35 degrees and snow on the ground up North.

Be on the lookout for our next Blog, "Bringing Some Clarity to Inshore and Offshore Fishing" coming later this week.