The Everglades Trapped in Time

My friend Calvin Fuller was pumped when I mentioned going fishing in Florida for an upcoming work trip to I-cast show, the largest fishing tradeshow in the USA. Calvin’s Dad had been taking him to fish the Everglades since he was in first grade. Calvin is an amazing fisherman, but outside of steelhead fishing I rarely see him get overly emotional about any style of fishing, until he mentioned the Everglades and staying at the Rod and Gun Club in Everglades City. What I didn’t know is how rewilding for a couple of hot, sand fly infested days with three of my best friends in Florida would help me better understand the mystique of fly fishing “the glades” but also give me a better understanding of my friend Calvin.

This story consists of my long time best friend, Paul Considine - one of the founders of The Fly Project and my high school soccer teammate, Rob Bolke - who after a wild trip through China, Japan and several other Shenanigans with our crew is now our product developer, and of course, Calvin - who after a night of whiskey and fishing in Hope, Idaho has become our fishing ring leader.  

What is Rewilding?

Rewilding is an old term, thousands of years old and used in books since the Bible was written. The idea being that it is actually necessary for us to spend time out in the wild. This is going to sound poetic, but the wilderness challenges our minds in ways that nothing else can and we can actually become weak in the mind by not spending time in it. That’s the idea behind rewilding.

Everglades City is trapped in time. It’s surrounded by cities like Marco Island and Naples that are loaded with condos and beach resorts but Everglades City hasn’t been touched. There is a gas station, a couple of bars and grills, a couple of fishing stores with small tackle sections, and the Rod and Gun Fishing Lodge. The Rod and Gun is a time capsule of what Old Florida was like and was the exclusive club in the Everglades for presidents like Roosevelt and Eisenhower, as well as celebrities like John Wayne, and Ernest Hemingway. We paid the current owner through the window of his Ford Taurus standing on the lawn outside our cabin; cash only.

We put the Modelos, apples, Pedialyte, and sandwich stuff in the fridge and got fly rods rigged immediately. Calvin’s was ready first, and had been telling us about how when he was little he would catch snook and tarpon off the boardwalk in front of the Rod and Gun. I was thinking, I have searched for tarpon many days without seeing anything, I was skeptical but Calvin wasn’t and that inspired excitement with Rob, Paul, and I. Five minutes after arriving at the Rod and Gun we were all hucking flies in to the outgoing tide. We could see lots of tarpon rolling in the current and could hear snook feeding under the docks.

A few minutes later Calvin landed a snook under the dock, and I witnessed the excitement of a 10 year old Calvin, and I realized in that moment what this trip was all about. I was no longer worried about connecting with a tarpon.

Ironically, a few moments later I caught a tarpon. Calvin grabbed it, and we let it go.

Side STORY, but relevant to the point of the story...

It was my first trip to the Bahamas, or any saltwater destination, and I wasn’t catching anything. It was a DIY trip with some friends and we had no idea what we were doing. Almost like a mirage, Ian Davis, owner of Yellowdog Fly Fishing in Bozeman, Montana appeared wading across the flat. I told him how it had been going and he basically told me to drink a Kalik, chill out, quit trying so hard to catch a bonefish, and then I would more likely catch one. That advise worked then and has always stuck in my mind on just about every fishing situation I’m in.

Back to the Everglades Story...

It’s very hot in the Everglades in July. We were there at the tail end of the tarpon migration and we noticed in some areas the water temperature on the guides sonar was reading 92 degrees. We went to bed that first night after landing 5 tarpon and a snook. We were hot with lots of sand fly bites. Calvin told us when he was younger his Dad made them sleep with the windows open and the A/C off so he could hear the Everglades as he went to sleep.

The first morning I got to fish with Rob, or Texas Rob as we call him now. He was most recently living in Texas but he is a pure-bred Minnesota mid-westerner. In fact, prior to our escapades in Japan the only foreign country he had visited was Canada. He comes from the conventional fishing world and now that he is developing products for Fly Project he has been experiencing the magic of learning about the fly side of the game.  

I got a text from Calvin that Paul had already landed a tarpon. Paul always gets a tarpon.

Rob and I lucked out on our guide. He was formally a Colorado trout fishing guide and moved to Naples to learn the saltwater game. It was clear he was still earning his stripes amongst many veteran South Florida guides, a very tight circle to break in to. His work ethic and laid back mentality is going to get him there.  

We searched for tarpon all morning without any real shots. So we decided to look for snook. We almost immediately found them and the rest of the afternoon we were taking shots under the mangroves. Rob hadn’t quite perfected his double haul yet but somehow developed this awkward tactic to get his fly to tuck under the mangroves that the guide and I dubbed “the floater”. The Floater lost so much energy on the back cast but the weight of the line and length of the leader would allow the fly to have just enough energy to “float” and land very softly at the target. How Rob was able to control it is a mystery still to be solved.

We landed about 15 snook, no giants, but we had a great time and the guide fished us until nearly 5pm due to the lack of fish in the morning and I greatly respect that effort.  

Calvin and Paul had been done since 1pm and a couple of stiff cocktails at the Rod and Gun had them ready to go get dinner by the time we finally rolled up to the dock.

We sat down at 1 of 3 restaurant options in Everglades City. Calvin ordered the grouper sandwich for the second night in a row. So did I. I thought it was good. Calvin didn’t think it was as good as it could be and thought maybe it wasn’t even grouper.  

At dinner that night Calvin explained how good the fishing normally is and how this was possibly one of the worst fishing days he had ever had there. Growing up with his Dad it was not uncommon to catch a number of redfish, snook, and tarpon everyday, and fish until 3 or 4 o’clock. The company and the experience was great but the landing of fish part was not as good as previous trips. I was sipping my beer thinking but not saying, “Pretty great day for a saltwater day for me”.

Day two

I got to fish with Calvin the second day. I let the guide know right away that Calvin is a much better caster than me, partly because I like to give Calvin hard time when I can but mostly because it’s true. I wanted him to catch a tarpon, and wanted him to fish first. He’s got a better chance at catching a tarpon, and I’m better at taking photos of it when he does.  

We saw some large tarpon rolling right away in the morning. We poled around a dead calm lake surrounded by the Everglades creeks and channels.  Finally we saw one laid up off Calvin’s left shoulder only 30-40 feet off the left side of the boat. Calvin laid a perfect cast immediately to the left of the fish, 3 feet in front of its face. The fish ate it. Calvin kept the rod tip down, strip set the fly, the rod bent for a second, the fish wagged its fork tail and the fly popped back at the boat. The guide estimated the fish to be 80-100lbs.

We ran about an hour south. Calvin and I took turns casting at rolling tarpon for about an hour but the water had no clarity and it was difficult to see which way the tarpon were facing. We cracked a Modelo and put some pickle salt on the rim courtesy of Texas Rob. It was really fun. We weren’t catching them but it was fun.

We got back to the docks and met Paul and Rob who had a similar experience that day. We concluded we were a little late in the year for the tarpon and we had hot weather and very hot water. We even went to the gas station and tried to convince locals to take us fishing that night but we weren’t successful. We decided to drive to Marco Island and sneak in to one of the fancy beach resorts and have some cocktails and go swimming. We were successful at that.  

We went to dinner at a place that had a live band singing Jimmy Buffet songs. Calvin ordered the grouper sandwich but he didn’t like it.

I’m very grateful Paul, Rob, and I got to go fish the Everglades with Calvin. We got to see one of the places that was most special to Calvin growing up. This is the place he had some of the best memories with his Dad. Nothing can replace those experiences. The grouper sandwiches were fine. The tarpon were there.  

Next year we are going rewilding in May.