Page 20 - CFAN_Aug2014

FEATURE | agriliving WITH 900 NAMED LAKES IN POLK COUNTY, the Atlantic Ocean on the east and the Gulf of Mexico on the west, Central Florida is a fisherman’s paradise. Some
“Airboats can be very useful in fishing areas where access is difficult via an outboard motor or inboard motor,” Morse says. “Some of them don’t even need water.”
catch bass. Some catch speckled perch. And some . . . catch memories.
For 40-year-old Barrett Chandley, the tradition is a rich heritage dating to 1948 when his grandfather bought Grape Hammock Fish Camp in Lake Wales. Now people come from Canada, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, Georgia, and “from all over” to experience the beauty of Central Florida sunsets and fish for bass, perch, shellcrackers, blue gills, and catfish. Some ride an airboat, and see alligators in their natural habitat.
“Everybody likes to see alligators. They’re our number one request,” he says. “Everything else they see is a pleasant surprise.”
Grape Hammock Fish Camp offers tent camping, rental cabins, and recreational vehicle spots, a bait and tackle store, and boat marina. “We’re staying pretty busy throughout the year,” he says. “More and more Florida people are finding us and wanting to come to the lake.”
OUTDOOR
Traditions
20 | CFAN
FloridaAgNews.com
What You
Can Catch—
by Casting a Line or
Holding a Camera— on
Florida’s Waterways
by CHERYL ROGERS