Captain Ben Chancey made his first trip to the Captiva, Pine Island area when he was just 2 years old. The Chancey family originally started fishing the area back in the early 60's when snook were called soap fish and grouper could be caught by the boat load off of the point at Cayo Costa. Back then Captain Ben's grandfather Herb Chancey would take Highway 17 a dirt road then 100 miles to Pine Island. Grandfather Chancey kept his boat at Pineland Marina before there was a marina there. He would tie his boat up to pole in the water and leave it docked until the next weekend. Many times before his grandfather and dad were able to take the 22ft. twin 80hp Johnson outboard engined boat out. They had to saddle up the trailer and load up the boat in order to scrape the 40 to 50 lbs of barnacles that were usually stuck to the bottom preventing the boat from plaining.
Captain Ben spent many years learning everything he could from his father and grandfather about the area. Most of his time was spent in the water of Captiva and Pine Island during the warm months and in the upper Peace River area during the cool months hunting for snook and tarpon. Captain Ben's uncle Henry is also one of the contributors to his snookn' success. In Captain Ben's opinion his uncle is the best snook fisherman ever. Captain Ben has seen his uncle Henry come to Captiva while he was struggling to catch a fish and watch his uncle slay the snook and reds while fishing less than 10-15 feet away from Captain Ben. There was many times when Captain Ben would fish the exact same waters as his uncle for longer periods of time and still come away with less than half as many fish as his uncle. Captain Ben's uncle Henry would never divulge any secrets to him. He would just tell him "pay attention and listen and maybe one day you will be able to compete with me".
Now 15 years later Captain Ben is ready to compete. Just a little further south than his original hunting grounds and willing to share some of the secrets his uncle would never share. If you are interested in learning a few fish catching secrets give the Capt a
In May of 2002 Captain Ben filmed an episode of Addictive Fishing called "Suburban Style." The show can be seen on the Sunshine Network. When the season is over it can be seen at www.outdoortheater.com. For more info on the show just go to www.addictivefishing.com
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