Florida
Roadtrip Series
A happy gator (inset) welcomes you to Captain Jack's, up close and personal (pictured) with gators on Captain Jack's Airboat Tours, Everglades Bait & Tackle (bottom) at the Everglades City Marina sits on Lake Placid in the middle of town.
CAPTAIN JACK’S BOATS ARE MORE INTIMATE, WITH LESS THAN A DOZEN FOLKS ON EACH RIDE. We thought that our heartbeats might slow after leaving the gator areas, but that was not to be. Matt took us to some wide-open spaces and commenced to speed up and spin donuts in the airboat. Backwash rushed over the boat as we all did our best to stay seated and enjoy the spray. The grasslands tour was a fantastic way to experience the limitless wilderness of the area. We capped our Wooten’s tour day off by visiting their Animals and Alligators Show and riding on their Swamp Buggy Tour. The Animals and Alligators Show featured classic Florida wildlife such as bobcats, American crocodiles, otters, turtles and more. They even house a pair of white tigers. We then crossed the street for our Swamp Buggy Tour. Their swamp buggies are larger than life with oversized tractor tires and an open, elevated platform with seating for up to 20 people. It travels over dry land and muddy marshes, giving you a great vantage point to see plants and animals an airboat can’t reach. Our tour guide, Mike, was full of knowledge about the area, pointing out the Native American chickee huts, edible plants and the many colorful spiders that wove their webs in the overgrown forest.
‘CAUGHT OUR LIMIT O REDFISH BY LATE MORNING’ No trip to the area would be complete without fishing, so we asked around and found the highly recommended Everglades City Fishing Charters. We met up with Capt. Kaleb at Everglades Bait & Tackle early in the morning and found that it was the perfect place to get our
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Everglades City—
F LO R I D A C O U NTRY O c t o b e r | N o v e m bTHE e r 2 0GATEWAY 21
TO THE TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS
TOP PHOTO COURTESY OF CAPTAIN JACK'S AIRBOAT TOURS; OTHER PHOTO BY DAVE KELLY
Matt knew his stuff and where to go. First, we checked out his known hideyholes, where we eased up on a couple monster-sized gators. After assuring our crew that gators could not make the jump into our airboat, he put us within a scant couple of feet of these prehistoric beasts that measured upward of 12 feet. Seeing them in their natural habitat, without cages, was an amazing feeling.
