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THE SNAIL KITE FEATURED HERE is an endangered Florida species that outdoor enthusiasts can sometimes spot along the waterways of Lake Kissimmee. It is estimated that only 800 remain. photo by PEZZIMENTI
Florida natives aren’t as interested in the gators, but visitors like to take pictures
of them sunning themselves on the shore. Birdlovers like to photograph snail kites.
s
Chad Crawford, host of the “How to Do Florida”
television show, has been fishing since he was three
years old. A third generation Floridian, who grew up
in Sanford, Crawford loves surf fishing, particularly at
Canaveral National Seashore near Titusville. “I can go
over there in my swim trunks, fish on the beach early, and
when it gets too hot, I can jump in the ocean andAcool off,” he explains.
Kevin Updike, a fertilizer and agricultural chemical
salesman for Howard Fertilizer in Orlando, enjoys spear fisherman, or a lot of people that fish in Polk County, like fishing— along with other types of fishing. He spears to go,” says Gary Morse, regional information director grouper, hogfish, and snapper in Crystal River. with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
(FWC). “It is definitely one of the best freshwater fishing Updike began fishing when he “could pick up a fishing areas in the United States.”
pole” and still enjoys fishing with his dad, Larry, in the
Florida Keys. “He [Larry] likes to fish for mahi mahi,
wahoo, and tuna,” Updike says of his father. “I go offshore A plus is the ability to take out airboats. “Airboats can with him.” be very useful in fishing areas where access is difficult via
an outboard motor or inboard motor,” Morse says. “Some Fishermen and fisherwomen spent more than $4.6 of them don’t even need water.” While noise restrictions billion in Florida in 2011, far more than in any other limit the use of the airboat, the Lake Kissimmee area is state, according to the 2011 National Survey of Fishing, primarily undeveloped. From Grape Hammock Fish Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. The study Camp, airboat tours run near Brahma Island, which included people ages 16 and up. sits on Lake Kissimmee, giving sightseers something to remember: Exotic deer, a small herd of buffalo . . . “People In Central Florida, Lake Kissimmee and its chain of just absolutely go crazy,” says Chandley, an airboat captain who serves on the Polk County Farm Bureau board. “In the fall, spring, and winter, it’s unbelievable how much wildlife we see.” He and his brother Kevin, who co-owns the camp and also captains the airboats, utilize headsets that allow them to communicate with passengers while the airboat is running. “They get to experience a lot more stuff. It’s really been a plus for us,” he explains. Florida natives aren’t as interested in the gators, but visitors like to take pictures of them sunning themselves on the shore.
Bird lovers like to photograph snail kites.
Crawford’s grandfather, John Angel, was one of the first to have an airboat on Puzzle Lake in Sanford in the 1940s. “Airboats back then were all handmade,” he says. His grandpa’s airboat was “quite the contraption,” made with an airplane engine, plywood and resin. “Man has not designed a better way to get out there and really cover a lot of ground,” he says. “It rides up over the vegetation.” The ride is fast, and exhilarating, akin to riding a roller coaster/swamp buggy. But Crawford doesn’t like them because of the noise.
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lakes are popular. “It is a place where a lot of Polk County
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