Despite recent hurricanes, Florida’s Fort Myers continues to offer Canadian anglers a tropical winter escape

On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian roared in as a Category 4 storm, first slamming into the Florida coast at nearby Cayo Costa with downright scary sustained winds of 240 km/h. The resulting 15-foot storm surge was devastating, bringing with it untold tonnes of sand and levelling thousands of structures. Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island and Sanibel Island appeared to get the worst of it, with the causeways to both islands collapsing.

In all, the Fort Myers area and surrounding Lee County suffered $5 billion in damage, including the destruction of roughly 5,000 residential and commercial buildings. At least 149 people died. Trashed infrastructure aside, one of the most visible calling cards Ian left behind were large swaths of dead mangroves, denuded by the wind and waves and smothered by storm surge deposits of mud and sand.

With tourism obviously not a priority for many months following Ian, the local fishing charters were among the countless local businesses to take a hit, including Captain Bill’s Endless Summer Charters. To help make ends meet, Bill and many of the other captains signed on with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to recover all manner of debris, including appliances, furniture and vehicles, flushed out to sea by the storm.

And as with so many other local residents, Bill and his family were personally affected by the storm. Though they live 1.5 kilometres inland, and half that distance from the ocean-connected Caloosahatchee River, the storm surge surrounded their home with 10 feet of water. Then there was the wind. At one point, the weather station on their roof recording peak gusts of 330 km/h before it was torn away. In all, Bill lost three vehicles, three boats and a pile of gear. The boat we were fishing in sustained $67,000 in damage, meanwhile, and his house ended up needing a new roof, as well as new decks, stairs and windows.

Despite it all, by the time Jackie and I joined Bill to go fishing last winter, he seemed to have put it all behind him and was only looking forward, charmingly optimistic like so many of the other local Floridians we met during our brief five-day visit. Would you ever consider leaving Florida? I asked him. Not a chance, it would seem. “It’s in my blood,” he said, simply.