Gary Meyer | Tuesday, 19 June 2018
According to the calendar, summer is right around the corner. I, for one, will be happy to see it come.
There are many from the northern states, those we local folk call “yankees”, who say there are no seasons in Florida. Their meaning, I guess, is that it never freezes down here, so we never get to see the onslaught of ice, nor its thaw. Other more intelligent types, the likes of whom are meteorologist or hydrologist, say south Florida has only two seasons: the wet season and the dry. Their opinion is tough to refute as it has a basis in reality on the largest scale, but I think it ignores some very obvious subtleties.
In fact, I would argue that our summer has three distinct sub-seasons all by itself. Thankfully, we are just now at the end of the fist: the monsoon season. Something like 75% of our annual rainfall is delivered during the summer months. That is why it can be called our wet season. And the majority of that wet season rain happens right at the beginning, between the end of May and early July: the monsoon. Later into the year, usually in September, we may get another spike in rainfall if we experience a tropical storm or hurricane. That, of course, is called the tropical storm season, and that is the third or final summer sub season, the end of which usually ushers us into Fall.
In between those two spikes in rainfall, we have our typical summer. It becomes hot, humid and still. Some refer to it as the mean season because for the average person it is not very nice. Unless, of course, you are a fly angler, in which case you might think it is heavenly.
I think it is one of the two most enjoyable times of the entire year to fly fish, in particular, for small tarpon. Yes, the mosquitoes will be thick, even at midday. And yes, it is quite possible to overextend yourself and incur some rather nasty heat-related illness if you are not careful. But, oh what a time you can have if you know how to deal with those avoidable realities that effectively cull all but the most ardent anglers.
Last year I purchased some new video cameras with hopes of capturing and sharing some of the highlights but I wimped out and seldom wetted my canoes, choosing instead the easy way out and fished from other anglers flats boats. This year I vow to correct that mistake. So, maybe in a little while, I will have some videos to share. But as luck would have it, someone beat me to it and put together a nice video collage of what makes small tarpon fishing special.
Since they posted it on the internet I will assume it is OK for me to share the link with you. I believe you can simply click on the following line to access it. If not, maybe Paul can correct it to make it work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atic-EmVDk8
To be clear, I do not know the gentleman who made the video, but I recognize his affliction and I salute him as a co-conspirator in this particular delightful endeavor.