Some relationships start out on rocky reefs!!!

 In long ago days I suspected Lloyd's fishing motives. I suspected that he was displaying his knowledge of the Everglades...not sharing it. I had no time for him and really no desire to meet him at all.

Mutual friends, Herman Lucerne and Ted Jurascsik, knew that I was mistaken and manufactured a houseboat trip, including Lloyd. They figured that on the trip, out in the Glades, I'd get to know and like Lloyd. It turned out to be the Trip From Hell!!! A major storm came up suddenly and almost sank my skiff which was tied off the stern of the houseboat. Fast action and cool heads, not the least of which was Lloyd's, saved the day. I was impressed with Lloyd's willingness to put himself in harms way during a bad situation. The storm passed, there was a search for my boat gear which had blown away, there was an alligator incident (another story), and the day was washed away by adult beverages as the sun melted the tops of giant, red mangroves. Washed away as well were my doubts about Lloyd. 

In the many years since that trip, my most enjoyable fishing days in the Everglades have been spent in the company of Lloyd (who makes the BEST sandwiches). Lloyd sees every move the Everglades makes and hears her every whisper. It's not merely about the fish but about the marl from which the Glades themselves spring. His love of and concern for the Everglades starts at the very bottom of the beleagured food web and works its way  up to the road signs along the track into the Park. His fishing skills are unsurpassed! After Lloyd fishes a shoreline or bay, you might as well not fish it again for weeks...If anything was there...he caught it!!! He's not just an Everglades angler. I've seen his skills at work along the Amazon, the bonefish flats of the Keys and the open waters of the Pacific catching marlin on his fly rod.

Lloyd practices oral surgery in Miami during three mornings each week...otherwise the sunrise catches his skiff skimming along Park waters on its' way to the most remote reaches of the Glades. When I need an Everglades fix, it's Lloyds number that gets called.