As a charter guide or fishing guide Capt. Phil prides himself in light tackle saltwater fishing for permit, trout, redfish, snook, and tarpon in the shallow water and  backwater areas of pine island sound, Sanibel, Captiva, Cape Coral, Ft Myers, Fort Myers and the near shore waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Florida is a premiere destination for light tackle anglers all over the world and the unique estuary found in these shallow waters offers some of the best fishing anywhere. Flats fishing as it is called here requires the use of a flats boat or bay boat and Capt. Phil’s 24 foot bay boat made by Pathfinder, a division of the Maverick Boat Company, is one of the best fishing platforms available. This is day one of two fishing trips planned with Capt. Phil Evans. We had heard from friends that Capt. Phil is one of the best charter guides in all Southwest Florida, ( SW Florida ). Redfish Fever: It was a warm summer morning when my son, Seth, and I arrived at the boat ramp at Matlacha Pass on Pine Island . It was still dark and the wind was dead calm. Capt. Phil had the 24 Pathfinder in the water and the Yamaha 4 stroke outboard engine was quietly warming up. We loaded our gear and shoved off for what was going to be a great day on the water. Phil told us that he had plans to get an inshore slam for each of us. We headed north going under the Matlacha Pass Bridge in search of bait. It wasn’t long before Phil located what he was looking for, birds. He explained to us that the birds are diving on the bait. That’s one thing nice about Capt. Phil, he does an excellent job of teaching and explaining all his secrets and tips. He knows that his clients want information; they get their moneys worth. Phil positioned the boat and lowered the trolling motor quietly into the water. As we moved slowly toward the bait he readied the cast net. With one single cast, the ten foot net opened fully, like a pancake, catching all the bait we could possible need. Phil handed each of a rod with a lure attached and said for us to make a few casts and catch some lady fish. Those little fish were fun to catch performing all sorts of jumps as we reeled them in. We caught a half dozen lady fish before Phil said we have enough. With the live well full of bait we were off to mangrove islands; the mangroves. Phil said the tide is very important to our success and it would be perfect in one hour. He positioned the Pathfinder bay boat at the mouth of a creek and lowered the Power Pole using the remote in his pocket. The power pole is a fantastic new shallow water anchoring system that is absolutely dead quite. He prepared two rods with lady fish chunks and two with live baits. He explained to us that he was using circle hooks and therefore he did not want us to jerk the rod to set the hook. He had barely finished giving us the instructions when the first rod bent over. It was one of those with a lady fish chuck of cut bait. I picked up the rod and as soon as the slack in the line was gone, I lifted the rod tip and the fight was on. Either the drag was loose or I had a very nice fish. Shortly I had the upper hand and the fish was slowly coming my way. Phil got the net ready and soon the fish was ours. After a quick measurement, Phil said she is too big. I exclaimed “what do you mean too big”. Then Phil reminded me that redfish must be between 18” to 27” (a fish within these two limits is called a slot fish) overall length with the tail pinched to make the fish as long as possible; mine was 29” and weighed 9½ pounds according to the IGFA certified scale that Phil has on board. Just then another rod went down and Seth grabbed it; another nice battle and another tight line. Soon Seth had the redfish along side and Phil scooped him up in the net. This time we had a slot fish – 26” and almost 8 pounds exactly – a nice keeper. We continued with great action for a full hour then Phil said lets go get some trout. Phil took us on a short ride out into Charlotte Harbor passing just offshore of Bokeelia, on the most northern end of Pine Island , on our way to Pine Island Sound. As we passed Jug Creek on our left Phil slowed the boat and lowered the trolling motor. He positioned us over a nice grass flat where he said some nice trout had been caught yesterday. Phil handed us a rod outfitted with a pink tail grub on a jig head. He showed us areas he called “pot holes” and he said for us to aim for and cast beyond them. Sure enough we started catching spotted sea trout, aka trout. We seemed to catch a lot of undersized fish, shorter than 15”. It seemed like no time had passed before we had our limit of legal size trout. Phil said it was time to work the bushes for some snook. He pulled up the trolling motor and fired up the 250 hp Yamaha. What a nice quiet engine but wow does it push that 24 Pathfinder. I looked at the 10” color Garmin GPSMAP and it said we were doing 55 mph. We stopped near a mangrove island, to fish the bushes also called mangroves. I could look across Pine Island Sound and see Redfish Pass , Captiva Pass and the pass created by Hurricane Charlie in 2004. Phil looked in the live well for the perfect “white bait” to put on our hooks. He showed us how to make casts back up under the overhanging mangrove limbs. For this we were using Owner 3/0 j-hooks, which meant that we had to set the hook. The first area only produced a few undersized snook, so Phil moved the boat. The same story at two more locations but finally we hit the big ones. By now we were way down by the power lines that cross over to Sanibel and Captiva. He took us to several spots that produced some real nice action; slot size fish. Now we had both caught our inshore slams and it was time to make our way back to the ramp. We continued south around St. James City and back into the shallow waters of Matlacha Pass. What a wonderful day we had. Thanks Capt. Phil – you made memories that my son and I will never forget. Tarpon Magic: As my dad and I pulled away from the house, I was already envisioning the giant silver king. We arrived at Punta Rassa shortly after 7am. The winds were calm and the sun had just begun to peek over the tree tops. Captain Phil, a local southwest Florida legend and Christian charter guide seemed to be eager about the adventure to come. As we idled down the channel Phil shared his plans for the day. We headed to the Sanibel, Captiva causeway, C-span (the bridge closest to Sanibel), in hunt for large thread-fin herring, the live-bait of choice for large Tarpon and Snook. The current was ripping ocean-side toward the San Carlos Bay area just off Ft. Myers Beach . Phil maneuvered the Pathfinder bay boat in and out of pilings. I noticed his face light up; about the same time I saw the tell-tale upside-down rain drops produced by large bait just under the surface. Phil already had his ten foot 3/8” net in hand as we drifted back through. The net opened flawlessly. I could not believe the effort it took to bring the net boat-side. I scurried toward the gunwale to help bring the enormous catch in. We scored; one cast, and we had all the bait we could need for a week of fishing.  Phil eased the net over the side and released the enormous threads into the well. We were off. As we passed the light house on the southern end of Sanibel, Point Ybel, I asked Phil where we were headed. He pointed west into the Gulf of Mexico, toward the horizon, in the direction of Knapp’s Point, the southern most bend in the Sanibel Island . A large congregation of boats had already begun fishing near the shore. As we neared Knapp’s, I saw the first king of the day, a free jumper, nice size too. Phil also saw the fish and headed in that direction. We were just east and slightly off-shore from the central pack off boats. The breeze was coming from the southeast so Phil decided to position the boat just east of the free-jumper. We began our drift in 17 feet of water. He cast out two enormous threads, both on the surface, about 20 yards behind the boat. No more than ten minutes passed when one of the poles bent over and the drag started screaming. My dad quickly grabbed the rod. Seconds later, the giant fish launched out of the water. “Tarpon”, Phil yelled, “Bow-Bow to the silver king!” Dad followed the direction of our fearless captain. The fish put on a fantastic show for us. Dad fought the fish for nearly 45 minutes before the fish finally tired enough to bring it along side the boat. Phil reached out and grabbed the leader. He brought the beast alongside the port gunwale. He was armed with his IGFA certified 60 pound Boca grip. The Boca closed around the fish’s tough lower-jaw, near the corner. He removed the hook and positioned the fish so that the water moved freely over its gills. Phil raised the giant’s head out off the water and estimated the fish to weigh in excess of 125 pounds. I grabbed the camera and took numerous photos. This was to be the first of three Tarpon we were going to release this day. Phil said let’s run offshore and see if the permit are still here. We ran to the southwest for 20 minutes to a depth of 35 feet. I could not believe my eyes, hundreds of permit on the surface. Phil reached into his small live well where he had some small crabs. Sometimes the tarpon like a crab but the permit love a crab. He rigged two light tackle rods with crabs and we were ready to fish. We made a nice, but long cast toward the pod. A monster turned on my crab and I set the hook. Dad was extremely happy as I had never caught permit. The drag was screaming as Phil fired the engine for the pursuit. After what seemed like a long time the beautiful permit gave up and Phil grabbed it by the tail and pulled it in the boat. After Dad got several nice photos we released the fished un-harmed. What a great day we were having. Our next mission was to boat a couple of nice Snook. Phil decided we would head back over to the beaches of Sanibel to a place called “Snaggle Rocks”. As we neared the site, we were relieved to find no others boats fishing this hot little spot. We approached the rocks which were nestled very close to the shore. The water was only a couple of feet deep. Phil carefully and quietly deployed the sea claw anchor and it immediately grabbed and we began fishing. A nice school of jacks swam by, just short of the rocks. Just then my line went tight and the fight was on; I thought it was a jack. Only a moment later my snook started jumping. It was a really nice Snook. Phil put the Boca on the fish and removed the hook. The giant Snook was 41 inches long and weighed in at almost 21 pounds; a monster. I was amazed; it was by far the largest Snook I ever caught and the largest I ever saw in person. We caught several gorgeous Trout before my dad had his chance. Dad saw a large boil at the surf-line. He cast out a large thread and just missed the sand. As he gave the bait a tug the water blew up. We could clearly see it was a large Snook. Dad fought the fish for a few minutes. Phil brought the giant in the boat. It measured in at 39 inches. By now it was approaching 5pm so we decided to call it a day. I had a chance to reflect upon all of the day’s action, as we speeded back to Punta Rassa. Dad and I were both tired from the monsters we had caught and released today. As we approached the dock, Dad and I were so grateful we had a chance to fish the famous Tarpon grounds of Fort Myers . The mission was a success and we were proud of our accomplishment. I saw Dad slip Capt. Phil a very nice tip and say “thanks for the great “Fishin’ Mission” backwater, bay boat, cape coral, captiva, charter captain, charter guide, fishing, fishing guide, flats boat, flats fishing, florida, fort myers, ft myers, gulf of mexico, light tackle, mangroves, matlacha pass, permit, pine island, pine island sound, redfish, saltwater, sanibel, shallow water, snook, southwest florida, sw florida, tarpon