Waiting for Wilma – Let’s go fishing!

Living in coastal Florida one cannot ignore storms and the last two years have made it a little tiresome. Four hurricanes last year and three already this year. So the news that a new storm named Wilma had formed in the Caribbean off the coast of Central America was most unwelcome news. Worse still, it was headed our way.

The storm had only just been named when it began to intensify; barely twenty four hours after achieving tropical storm status it was a major hurricane and had the distinction of breaking two records – the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic basin and the largest twenty four hour drop in pressure ever recorded. This was bad news for us in Florida, even worse for Mexico and the Yucatan peninsular in particular.

It was Thursday; the storm could be here by Saturday. Most of the initial preparations were done. There was nothing to do but go fishing. The tides were not good, a low in the late morning, no good high during daylight hours. The weather forecast was for deteriorating conditions later. Still as the last real fishing day before the storm, beggars could not be choosers. Out we went. It was a beautiful day. The wind was light, the sky overcast, but the rain stayed away. We caught all sorts of stuff, snappers, snook, even a flounder, but everything was too small to keep. Heading home we passed one of our favorite spots, an oyster bar topped with mangroves. We fished both sides hooking a few small snook and a dreaded catfish. Then it hit; a nice twenty four inch redfish. As they say, you only need one to make the day!

Friday was to be the day before the storm. The weather forecast on Thursday had predicted the day would be heading downhill but when dawn came the hurricane had stalled over Cozumel and Cancun. It was a little overcast but the winds were light. Most of the local businesses were already closed in anticipation of the approach of Wilma. So what else was there to do but go fishing? The sport was even better than the day before. We caught trout, many snook (all too small to keep but always fun to catch), a bunch of grey snapper and to top it off another keeper red. We had so much fun on an almost perfect day to be on the water we almost forgot that this day was courtesy of the people of the Yucatan who were taking a terrible pounding from category four storm Wilma.

Saturday dawned just the same as Friday and there was no doubt that Wilma would be here within forty eight hours. Her arrival would certainly restrict any outside activity so better get out there now and do some fishing. It turned out to be a carbon copy of the day before except that the redfish count was two, one of which was the largest of the three days. Smoked they would certainly provide great finger food in the event that Wilma took out the electric power. As we cleaned up the boat and began the final battening down for the storm our thoughts again went to the folks of the Yucatan, our pleasure was their pain.

Sunday morning the storm finally moved out into the Gulf of Mexico and headed for Florida. By Monday noon it was in the Atlantic heading for Nova Scotia and to cause a major north-easter in New England. There was much damage in Florida, and it would have been worse had the storm not moved so quickly. Think again of the poor people of Cozumel and Cancun.