I saw Eric was selling his boat, an Ankona 17′ that is super unique.
I got to fish out of that boat with Eric last year. It is a great boat for the back country and I wish I were on the thing right now looking for snook or reds or, god forbid, tarpon. Florida haunts me a bit. This boat was one of the best parts of that last trip.
It just doesn’t get much better looking than this thing.
When I was on that Florida tarpon hunt I had the distinct pleasure of riding around part of the week in the best looking boat on the water. If you’ve been out in the Glades or around Miami, you might have seen it. I’m talking about Eric Estrada’s Ankona.
Check it out.
That is a good looking boat.
Each boat is built for a purpose and this is built for the backwaters, the skinny stuff. We tried to make this into an ocean-side tarpon boat, but a little water over the gunnels and we thought better of it. It is a thing of beauty. The art, Eric’s original art, is a wrap around the hull, so it can be changed, but I just love the look of it.
Eric Estrada put together this video featuring many of the people he’s fished with over the past year. In the video are a few of the gang from our Florida trip last June.
I didn’t get to fish with Eric myself, but he was there every day we were there and he is plenty dedicated to the fish, the fishery and his art. He was very willing to share it all with us, and for that, I’m thankful.
I met Eric on that trip to the Keys earlier this year. He’s one fishy dude and he’s also a very talented artist. I felt really fortunate to get to meet him and hear his story. Sorry I didn’t get out fishing with him though.
You can get a piece of his art through his website. One lucky guy just got this piece for his wife. Awesome.
Nice… very nice.
Thought I’d share a few posts about FL from the eyes of some of the other peeps who were there…
Adrienne Comeau writing at The Female Angle.
Matt Smythe (also known as “The Hair”) writing at FishingPoet.
The Hair
There have been some changes to the upcoming Florida trip, but the trip is still on (and coming up). We went down a man when Jason Pirus had to pull out, but we were back to full strength when we added Adrienne Comeau. Adrienne works for IF4 and Fly Fusion Magazine, not to mention she’s a steelhead guide so she’s got some cred.
We decided to go with diversity. Yup. That’s right. She’s Canadian.
Ms. Comeau with a fair bit of steelhead
She’s been to the salt before and is pumped about the trip.
Speaking of the trip. One of the guys we’ll be fishing with is Eric Estrada. Eric is an artist and pretty damn good at his craft.
Art by Eric
He does some solid work and he obviously has a sense of “place” firmly rooted in Florida. I’m very much looking forward to hearing him talk about his Florida in person.
Eric is part of the Skinny Water Culture crew and contributes to their blog, which is just full of awesome.
Florida… very much looking forward to this.
