First, let me start by apologizing about my lack of fishing reports over the past few weeks.  You see I’ve been off the water, but my excellent adventures continued even on dry land.

My escapades began on Saturday October 14th where I had the honor of cooking gumbo to benefit kids fishing at the Seventh Annual AFC Gumbo Wars Cook-off at Fish on Fire Restaurant in Orlando Florida.  Although it takes a year of planning and many volunteers’ hours and meetings to pull this event off, the four hours I spend cooking and sharing gumbo is some of the best fun I experience all year.  As a member of the event team and the President of Anglers for Conservation Orlando Chapter I’m excited to see so many passionate anglers and outdoorsmen sharing their time and money supporting youth angling programs in Central Florida.  Central Florida is blessed by many passionate angling organizations and community partners which were clearly illustrated by the number of teams participating and the number of teen angling groups attending.  Last year’s beneficiaries were the Anglers for Conservation, Central Florida Teen Sports Fishing Association, Seminole Jr. Anglers, the Bobby Lane Cup, and the UCF Reel Knights Fishing Club and College Bass Fishing Team.  The most amazing thing about this year’s Gumbo Wars was the number of hard working and dedicated volunteers and the 42 youth volunteers helping support the event and our cause.

Okay, now the 2017 Gumbo Wars is over and cleaned up, it was time for the next round, so on Sunday it was off to Jensen Beach and River Palms Cottages and Fish Camp to attend the DOA Lures Outdoor Writers Conference.  For over a decade I have been honored to serve DOA Lures as a pro staff member and to serve and promote the best freshwater and saltwater lure company in the world, and I was blessed to attend this three day fishing and networking event rubbing shoulders with some of the best anglers and outdoor communicators in the world.  Like the Central Florida area, the catching was challenging due to high and dirty water conditions, but although the catching was tough we still managed a number of quality fish caught in both the Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee where they had good top water action with DOA PT’s on largemouth bass.

Next it was off to Kentucky Dam Lake and State Park to attend the 2017 Southeastern Outdoor Press Associations annual writers’ conference with my lovely bride Sandi. It was a long drive from Stewart to Kentucky Lakes in western Kentucky and back to Orlando, but the ride was worth it.  The Tennessee River Valley is certainly an American treasure and a beautiful place to visit, fish and camp.  SEOPA is an outdoor communicators association consisting of thirteen southern states, and their conference is always great fun and it is always great to again rub shoulders with some of the best anglers, outdoorsman and communicators in the world. The highlight of the conference was when my website was presented the 2017 Realtree Website Award for best family, friendly outdoors website.  Not plain to see at first glance, my website consist of over 60,000 words of content about fishing in the east Central Florida area intended to educate anglers in how to catch more fish and be responsible on the water.

All in all it was a busy two weeks of excitement and fun, and now it is time to go fishing.  As always, if you have any questions or need more information, visit my website or just contact me.

Good luck and good fishing,

Captain Tom Van Horn