Captain Mike Smith, Sanibel Fishing charters, Fort Myers fishing charters

The wind was blowing frothy wavelets when I met Capt. Mike Smith at the boat ramp adjacent to Sanibel Causeway. The captain offered that his livewell was full of pilchard and pinfish and he was ready to go. Which meant go inside, considering the strong onshore winds pummeling Sanibel's Gulf shore.

The first thing to notice about a guide is the boat he uses. Smith's skiff was immaculate and laid out efficiently. He had an electric trolling motor on the bow that would take us quietly along mangrove edges and flats without spooking the snook. Also, the outboard motor powering his skiff featured a power trim and a jackplate. The latter device is necessary for running over super-shallow flats in order to save time or to reach fishy places.

Our destination was to be the Darling NWR. As the mangrove shoreline flew towards us, Mike eased back on his throttle.

"I'll be tossing pilchards into the mangrove pockets to wake up these fish," the guide explained, "and then we'll follow with the main course, a pinfish."

At that moment we passed through an opening in the mangrove forest and entered the refuge. Immediatel

y, Mike raised the engine on the jackplate to adjust for shallower water and idled for 10 minutes through a jungle of channels, islands and creeks.

"A lot of people get lost in here, but I've fished this area since I was a kid," he offered as the featureless wall of mangroves slipped past. Deep in the Darling refuge, there was but a hint of the harsh winds. As the sun got higher, it also got hotter.

Smith finally lowered the electric motor, steering to a mangrove pocket, where he dropped anchor. After dipping out a few pilchards from the livewell, he tossed them into the trees from which they rained down on the surface. One of those "rain drops" was met with a loud pop.

Quickly I had a line baited with a pinfish headed for the same spot. The strike and hookup were immediate. The fight was brief and we next released a brown-colored 6-pound snook back into its watery home. That scenario was repeated again and again during the day - the perfect way to spend another day in the mangrove paradise that is Sanibel and Captiva!

A DAY ON THE WATER