TREASURE COAST BOATING
FISHING
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are the life of the lagoon and the situation is getting exponentially
worse. Fishing guides could go the way of the dodo bird.”
Discharges from Lake Okeechobee during the “Lost Summer”
of 2013 forced the Health Department to post warnings
discouraging people from swimming in areas of the Indian and
St. Lucie rivers. The lagoon waters begin to improve after the
discharges were halted by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Most of the 100 guides fishing from Sebastian to Hobe Sound
practice catch and release, but sometimes clients just want to
eat some fish. The people who charter guides are there to catch
fish, and usually not interested in keeping them.
“These are people who work in the real world and I want to
put them on fish,” says Fornabio. “I learn so much from these
people. They are a wealth of knowledge. You want every trip
to be great so you put that pressure on yourself. Ninety-five percent
of the time you have good trips, but sometimes they are not
eating. There are things you can’t control and it grates on you.
In tough winds and weather you have to switch gears and keep
people catching.”
Fornabio rescues a pelican or so a month, but there have been
turtles and manatees. “They (anglers) help bring them in the
boat. The people really dig it. At the end of the day they don’t
care if they ever catch a fish. They become a part of something
bigger than that,” he says.
“I love kids and what we have here (the river) is very fragile,”
says captain Charlie Conner, a 10-year guide and fishing writer
from Port St. Lucie. “You try and do what you can to protect
those areas. I don’t go across the grasses with my motor.”
Conner is one of a handful of guides who volunteer for >>
PHOTO PROVIDED
Captain Charlie Fornabio, bearing an uncanny resemblance, mugs with a
Jack Crevalle caught during one of his fishing charters on the Indian River.
The father and son team of Drew and
Larry Swedlund take in some of the
local river knowledge from guide
Charlie Fornabio.
GREG GARDNER