Palm Island After Hurricane Irma

Well, my home town in South West Florida had an extremely close call with an extremely dangerous storm last weekend.  Hurricane Irma came busting up Florida's west coast with some, but not all of her angry attitude and definitely gave this homegrown local a scare.  Palm island made it through ok and so did our little town of Englewood.  Mostly storm debris and rain with many losing power, although there were some residence with some structural damage from hurricane force winds.  The force Irma was intended to pack was made weaker by the islands in the Caribbean and the Florida keys.  The islands sucked some of the storms intensity right out of her, just before she made landfall on the mainland of Florida's South West coast.  That doesn't mean she wasn't still angry.  Naples and Ft. Myers got thumped fairly good, and the keys took a direct hit from a large category 4 hurricane and is devastated.  We here locally, were certainly spared Irma's full wrath.  

I was able to get out last week and survey the local fishery over, we are going to need some time for it to come back.  The gulf is silty and the bay is black as coffee with run off.  By the middle of next week, we should start to see some clarity come back to the flats and with that hopefully some hungry fish to follow.  

Keep those that were effected by hurricane Irma in your prayers, especially the keys and the Caribbean.  The clean up efforts will take some time in those areas.  The residents of the entire state that depend on travel dollars for income, and to feed their families, need your support now more than ever.  So let's say this: Even though it may not seem to be, there truly has never been a better time than right now to visit South West Florida.  We need your help and support to make it through this! 

Capt. Mike Slattery
941-626-6946
www.palmislandoutfitters.com
www.charlotteharborchronicles.com