Turning Back Time in the Everglades

Written by Hunter Leavine

Photos by Eli Fulford

LISTEN TO OUR EVERGLADES SPOTIFY PLAYLIST HERE.

The Everglades is truly one of God’s great gardens.

A sprawling wilderness of mangroves, sawgrass, and moving water that feels both untouched and unfinished.

Its history is as wild and expansive as its topography. Indigenous trade routes once wound through these waters, later giving way to feather smugglers chasing the plume trade. Moonshine and rum runners followed, then marijuana traffickers slipping through the same maze of countless creeks and islands.

The Everglades has always been a place where people disappear into the landscape — sometimes for survival, sometimes for profit, and sometimes just for the freedom of it.

That freedom is why we chose to kick off our Drifter Fish Club calendar in this special place.

Many people talk about visiting the Everglades as a way to travel back in time. And, in many ways, that’s true. These waters feel far removed from modern life.

But what I’ve come to realize is that the Everglades doesn’t just take you back in time — it turns time back for the people who fish it.

Grown men—former CFOs, executives, and fathers—suddenly become kids again.

It didn’t take long for the effect to kick in. As members arrived, rods were quickly rigged and the crew began to head out. Several of them immediately ran off to ditch fish, chasing snook and exotics in canals with the same urgency you might have felt skipping school to fish a neighborhood creek.

The Everglades offers a remarkable variety of fishing.

During our time there we found snook, redfish, tarpon, and even a few permit.

But the fishing alone isn’t what makes the Everglades special.

Out here the landscape feels alive in a way that few fisheries do. The tide cuts through mangrove tunnels. Bait showers in nervous bursts along the shorelines.

Pelicans and frigate birds circle overhead, tipping off feeding fish.

Every bend in the creek feels like it might hold something.

You never know what the day will bring.

A snooty laid-up tarpon. A school of redfish cruising a flat.A snook tucked so deep under the mangroves it feels impossible a fish that large could feel safe there.

The Everglades rewards curiosity. The more water you explore, the more it seems to reveal.

The fishing in the Everglades alone is enough to cause many to grab a pen and scribble it down on their bucket list. But the setting of this fishery is unique enough to stand on its’ own.

Spoonbills walked the shore as we ate lunch. Frigate birds worked the sky on their own fishing mission, and crocodiles and alligators lurked the waters surrounding our boat.

Regardless of how the fishing goes, the Everglades is simply unable to disappoint.

In the evenings back at the house we feasted and dissected our days on the water. These moments on our trips have become some of my most cherished memories.

Friends gathering together to share a few cocktails while the kitchen fills with the smell of dinner coming together. Someone’s always leaning over a phone replaying a fish eat. Someone else is explaining why the one that got away would have definitely been the biggest of the trip.

Stories bounce around the room. Laughter gets louder. And for a little while the only thing anyone cares about is tomorrow’s’ fishing, food, and good company.

Just like each day on the water, each night takes on a life of its own.

One evening we might be making homemade pizzas — a Drifter tradition. Another night a guide might swing by and sit down at the vise to show us a new fly pattern. A podcast might be recorded.

The cornhole boards get dusted off, conspiracy theories come to life, and stories stretch a little further with every round.

As the night gets later, just about anything becomes fair game.

And sometimes… someone ends up getting a tattoo.

No matter what the night holds — and no matter which fishery we find ourselves in — every morning begins the same.

Early coffee, accompanied by freshly refilled hopes and dreams. Members quietly run through their gear, check their leaders, and move a little slower than the night before.

The house is quieter now.

We travel to these places for far more than a fish or a photo. We travel for the experiences, the friendships, and the memories we collect along the way.

Because thirty years from now we know what we’ll still be talking about.

JR losing the Atomic Jelly Bean challenge.

Matt hooking himself on the side of the road while chasing exotics.

DeJuan’s incredible cooking.

And everything else in between.

Whether it’s along the mangrove-lined shores of the Everglades, the white sand flats of the Bahamas, or simply the pond down the road.

Enjoy the journey.Share it with good people.And stack up as many meaningful memories as you can.

Everglades — thank you for providing the perfect setting for another chapter in the story.

We’ll see you again soon.

I

f you want to hear our podcasts with Eric Herstedt and Brian Esposito, it’s live now on the Captains Collective Podcast.