July 2009 Newsletter Stories
Story 1
BIKING ON SANIBEL
Sanibel has over 25 miles of wonderfully paved bike paths plus Ding Darling, it is a biker’s haven and even if you aren’t a biker it is just great fun. The scenery is beautiful! You will see so much on the paths and they are well maintained and you can go everywhere on your bike. It is a way of life on the island. Ding Darling is one of the greatest attractions on Sanibel and one of the most famous sites. People come from all over the world to go to the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge and biking through is one of the best ways to see it all. We have three different places where you can rent a bike. There is Billy’s Bikes, Fennimore’s Bikes and you can rent them at Tarpon Bay Explorers. There are a couple spots where you will see iguanas, herons, turtles, you will never know what you will find on those bike rides.
Click here to learn more about biking on Sanibel.
Story 2
EDISON & FORD WINTER ESTATES
Inventors Edison and Ford came to Ft. Myers and built beautiful winter homes a short drive from the Sanibel Causeway. Well worth the drive and to see all they accomplished is amazing to see firsthand. Inventor, Thomas Edison, who invented hundreds of devices, including the incandescent bulb built his 14-acre winter home in 1886 and built a laboratory and experimental gardens. A few years ago, a good friend of Edison, Henry Ford, the innovative inventor of the automobile built a home next door. The museums will be fascinating to all who enter with many historical notes you may and may not know.
Click Here to visit their website
Story 3
10 BEST U.S. SHELLING BEACHES
By Ann Shields
It’s no shell game—T+L marks the spots for the best unburied treasure in the U.S.
Glass-bodied lamps filled with bleached scallop shells and sand dollars; a pink-lipped conch shell; framed shell lithographs; tiny coquinas in the car ashtray.
David Driver, a NYC-based artist who creates elegant, minimalist mobiles from shells, has his own theory. “It’s a very natural, thought-free, meditative thing to do while walking on a beautiful beach. It’s a ‘task’ that takes only enough of your mind to be enjoyable, but lets the rest of your mind just be, in a good way.”
Whatever their reasons, beachcombers discover harmonious symmetry and delicate pastel color; even less-than-perfect shells, with sharp edges worn smooth and exteriors eroded away, can surpass man-made objects in one-of-a-kind beauty.
This quest for beauty of the bivalve kind determines vacations for some collectors. Shell-lovers from all over the world make pilgrimages to tiny Sanibel Island on Florida’s Gulf Coast, considered the best shelling spot in North America. Sanibel’s beaches, protected by a broad underwater shelf perfect for gently receiving deliveries from shell-laden currents, are carpeted with tiny, perfect pastel coquinas and false angel wings. The island has become so popular with beachcombers that some hotels offer rooms equipped with special sinks and worktables for cleaning and packing the day’s yield.
Getting shells home is the acid test for new collectors. You rinse them in a hotel sink, pack them into airtight containers or bags, and pray that their brittle walls don’t shatter in transit and that the containers don’t leak on the rest of your luggage. Will the shells still feel like treasures when you unpack them at home? Only time and temperament will tell.
Please remember ‘No Live Shelling’ on Sanibel.
Click Here to learn more about our Beaches!
Story 4
Redfish Pass/Pine Island Sound Fishing Report
By Capt. Dave Torrance/Shore Thang Fishing Charters
The tarpon are here. The wind has kept anglers from fishing for them in the Gulf, having to concentrate in Pine Island Sound and around the Passes. Redfish Pass and Captiva Pass has seen good action. The deeper holes of Pine Island sound have also been productive. The area up around Rocky Channel has been productive. The tarpon have been hitting threadfins, big pinfish, and cut catfish tails. Threadfins are showing up at first light around the Causeway Bridges. There is also a lot of blacktip sharks as well as occasional large bull and hammerhead sharks in Pine Island Sound as well, reports Capt. Dave Torrance of Shore Thang Charters (239-994-7768). proguide@shorethang.com
The snook have exploded. They're moving out of the backcountry creeks and moving out to the passes and the beaches. The action has been good in the passes on the big afternoon outgoing tides."There's been phenomenal big snook action up to 40 inches out at Redfish Pass on live sardines." Bait can be found on the flats if you have chum. You must be out at first light with a window of a about a half hour to get bait, Torrance said.
The speckled trout bite has been good on the grass flats around Pine Island. They will eat anything that moves right now. Live sardines, plugs, and jigs are all producing good catches of trout. The redfish have been spotty and tough to find, Torrance said.
Click Here to read more fishing around Sanibel & Captiva.
Story 5
AUTHOR OF THE MONTH
Joe Pacheco is the author of The First of the Nuyoricans - Sailing to Sanibel and Alligator in the Sky.
CHAMBER: WHERE ARE THREE PLACES YOU TAKE PEOPLE WHEN THEY COME VISIT YOU ON SANIBEL?
PACHECO: Ding Darling, Sundial beach, BIG ARTS
CHAMBER: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MEAL ON THE ISLAND?
PACHECO: Seared ahi tuna at Trader's Happy Hour.
CHAMBER: WHERE IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE TO WRITE/READ/CHILL OUT?
PACHECO: My den, lanai and Sanibel library.
CHAMBER: WHAT WOULD YOU MISS MOST ABOUT SANIBEL IF YOU HAD TO LEAVE TOMORROW?
PACHECO: Its tranquility
CHAMBER: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SANIBEL ANIMAL/BIRD REPTILE?
PACHECO: My second book of poetry is titled "Alligator in the Sky."
CHAMBER: WHO IS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS/IMAGES/PARTS IN YOUR BOOK?
PACHECO: Minority Alligator and GrandPopper Rap
If you have questions or suggestions, please contact us
by email at:
islandnewsletter@sanibel-captiva.org
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