Frank Catino gave me a few options of entertainment today while I’m down here in Florida. We could go bass fishing on some private lakes. We could chase snook, but we are definitely doing that tomorrow with Paul Bruun. Or, we could bag fishing altogether and zip around on Franks airboat. Well, being a man who wants to experience everything this earth has to offer, and the fact that I’ve never rode in an airboat, my decision was easy.
Frank owns this beautiful airboat but rarely gets it out. He needs at least another person just to help him get it out of his storage shed. And for that reason alone Frank loved my choice. Like any toy with an engine, you never like to have them sit too long without some use. Today was a chance to rev it up a bit.
Frank had a wedding to attend starting late in the afternoon so we only had a few hours for our ride, but that was fine. I’m still trying to catch up on work and rest since my Brazil trip. We went to the St. Johns River and met up with a couple other airboat enthusiast friends of Franks and hit the water around 9 AM.
These boats can fly and we covered a lot of ground. And when I say fly, you can see in this photo we were going through very shallow water and often times over weeds and lilies. There were a few times where I kid you not, but we traveled 100’s of yards across dry land!
It was a super fun day and add a new experience in the books. I’ve seen airboats on TV but now I’ve been in the cockpit. I should mention, the section of the St. Johns River we traveled was a treat as well. The bird life was sensational and it was fun seeing a heap of alligators too. That’s all for today. Stay tuned for some serious fishing for tomorrow before I zip back to WI on Tuesday.
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