Just got back from a visit to look after the grandkids in Naples, FL while my daughter attended a week-long nursing program in Tampa. I was determined to do some fishing while there, targeting snook and possibly tarpon, so I took three rods and an assortment of jigheads, topwaters, plastics, jerkbaits and anything else that I thought I might need. Based on talks with the guides down there, it turned out that the tarpon were not due back for another couple of weeks, so I set my sights on locating a snook or two along with whatever else might be around. Since we were driving my wife’s vehicle with a factory roof rack, I decided not to chance a 450 mile trip carrying my Hobie Sport or Outback on top. I hoped to either rent a yak or two, or to wade or beach fish while there. If you know anything about Naples, you might understand that the moneyed folks down there don’t take too kindly to the yacht-less masses hiking along their shores. So, I looked for state, county and city parks that would permit some kayaking or wade-fishing. Although there is some pretty nice beach access from the county parks, you better stock up on quarters to feed the meters--$.25 for 15 minutes. In Naples, I checked out Lowdermilk Beach, Doctor’s Pass, and Clam Pass. Usually you could find a park within a 1-mile beach hike from the jetty marking the entrances to the back bays, but I saw no one either hooked up or catching anything in several hours of jetty fishing, so I moved on after giving it a try. Here is a pic of Doctor’s Pass with a pod of dolphin heading out to sea.
Naples, however, also has a pretty nice City Pier, but there is no parking to speak of anywhere near the pier, and you have to hand-carry everything to and from. So, finally I worked my way north to Delnor-Wiggins State Park in North Naples. Now this was more to my liking, since you could fish along the mangroves on the inland side of the park, or fish the beaches on the Gulf side. But the crown jewel there is Wiggins Pass that has an incredible 5-6 knot tidal current during both ebb and flood tides. Because of the danger, no swimming is permitted at the Pass itself.
You cast upstream into the current and within 30 seconds your lure has reversed course and you are suddenly fishing downstream in about 6 inches of water right along the edge of the beach. That is further complicated by 2-3 foot boat wakes from the yachts and charter boats that have to pass out into the Gulf within 20-40 feet of the beach. This includes some of the charter captains that seemed to take great delight in flooding out the beach-fishing regulars by roaring in or out of the Pass at close to full throttle, in spite of it being a no wake zone only about 30 feet away. One of the beach fishers even found his jig head wrapped around the seat back of a small center console as it passed by, but the college age-kid who was driving was kind enough to unhook it and toss it back into the current. The other main thing you had to watch out for at Wiggins Pass were the most aggressive pelicans I have ever seen anywhere. As soon as anyone caught anything, 3-4 pelicans were literally on top of you and/or your catch trying to snatch it before you could even get it off the hook. Here are the varmints waiting to pounce.
I caught a nice Spanish mackerel right next to the beach in less than foot of water that was picking off bait fish and other morsels from the outgoing tide. I could not even get a pic of the Spanish since I found myself holding the rod in one hand, the fish and leader in the other, all the time balancing on one leg and kicking at the pelicans with the other to keep them away from my fish and line. While I was kicking at one pelican, another dashed in and managed to get his wing caught in my leader, whereupon he took off and flew abut 100 feet out into the channel, stripping off my line in the process, with the Spanish still firmly hooked and being dragged along underwater! Fortunately, no boats were passing by at the time and the pelican managed to free itself so that I could reel in the still-attached fish! The other main catch there were three ladyfish that were also feeding in the outgoing tide. Ladyfish are great fun to catch since they go airborne as soon as they are hooked and can put up a respectable battle. These and the Spanish were all caught on a Captain Mike’s (Floridays Fishing) 1/8 or ¼ oz. red jig head to which was attached a Gulp jerk shad tail.
I also caught another ladyfish right along the edge of the red mangroves next to the boat launch ramp on the backside of Del Nor-Wiggins State Park.
Although I had tried to hook up with some of the local guides for a snook kayak trip, they were booked up for the week. So, I decided to head for the mecca of SW Everglades fishing to try my luck. After dropping off my youngest grand at her Naples middle school, I hit the Trail to Everglades City and Chokoloskee Island (about 25 miles) to see whassup. It had been a long time since I was last there, but most of Choko Island did not look much changed—lots of old single-wide mobile homes that had seen better days, a number of which had for sale signs posted out front, plus the beginnings of some upscale home construction on one side of the island. Now there is virtually none of the usual Florida business enterprises in “downtownâ€
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I have since landed several lunker steelhead there but no more Ducks. 
