Traveling to southwest Florida for a couple weeks in the dead of Iowa’s winter is a welcome retreat! Sue and I headed down in the Suburban on January 21 and arrived at the Surfrider Beach Club on Sanibel Island the next day–two long days of driving. Our daughter, Amy, and her husband, John Berry, flew down the following Wednesday to share a week with us. It was very cool (low 30’s at night) for a few days so not the warm weather break we’ve gotten used to in past years. John and I spent a day on the water with good friend and Marco Island guide, John Campbell, on the 29th. John C. took us after whatever would bite that day and we were blessed with some ocean trout we could bring back to Sanibel to have prepared at the MudBug restaurant a couple days later–very good! Amy and John left on February 2. On the 3rd, I took Ames Anglers’ Club President, Lee Huey, and his friend Bob Tarbox who now lives in the area back down to fish with John. Our day was much warmer weather wise and we had a good bite going further south from Marco. A couple highlights from our day were Lee’s hooking on to a big Jack Cravelle and Bob’s slippery trout that managed to escape his grip while we were taking pictures and headed back into the water! I managed to catch two nice trout we could keep and clean for the ride back to Cedar Rapids and a meal to look forward to. If you are headed to southwest Florida, please consider a fun day on the water with John: his phone is 239-860-0976. John will guide from his Marco Island home until early May then trek back to northwest Iowa to guide from their home on the Iowa Great Lakes! Thanks to my fishing partners and John for a couple good days fishing open water when most of my pals were ice fishing! Hope you enjoy the pics! Thank you, Mike, for posting! Spike