Fishing the flats in Florida used to be a frustrating experience for me. For one thing, that crazy Florida weather played havoc with my plans. One minute it's fair, the next minute a thunderstorm has moved in, and has settled down for hours. All I wanted to do was fish the flats in peace.

The host of Fishing the Flats, Henry Waszczuk, has himself dipped into the skinny waters of Charlotte Harbor for cold-weather hunting of redfish, as well as many other Floridian fishing grounds. Fishing the Flats in Florida could be a weekly series all by itself.

The appeal of fly fishing the flats is easy to understand. Perched on a fishing platform on a typical shallow water skiff, an angler first of all takes in great scenery. To fish the flats means to enjoy the peace of the Florida shoreline, with miles of salt marshes, native birds and swaying pine trees.

Low tide will find you in 12 inches of water, staring down into a sandy bottom thatched with turtle grass, or a muddy bottom dotted with manatee grass. Either way, the fish will be darting around, hunting baitfish, or in cool weather sunning themselves against the sand. He who would fish the flats in search of redfish will do best with an 8-weight rod, with a floating line.

When fishing the flats in Florida, the choices of site are endless. If you don't want to worry about tides, you could fish the flats around Mosquito Lagoon, or the Banana River Lagoon. This area is part of the Indian River Lagoon system, world famous for its redfish.

What about further afield? Fishing the flats TV seeks bonefish in the Bahamas, an outsize specimen called roosterfish in the exotic environs of Costa Rica, and shark, of all things, in Long Island, Bahamas. Fishing the flat marshy waters of Louisiana is an unforgettable experience, poling a skiff along back waters dimmed and darkened by Spanish moss draped trees.

I'll never forget one morning in particular, last summer, when I spotted a bunch of redfish hanging around a rocky creek mouth, going to town on some mullet. I landed the fly right in front of 'em, and before you knew it, I was fly fishing the flats like the pros on Fishing the Flats TV.

And of course, there's always the Everglades National Park in the southern part of the state. Fishing the flat waters of the Everglades is an angler's dream, providing not only excellent shallow water fishing, but the chance to see up close the best of Florida's wild animal and plant life. Truly, the hardest part of fishing the flats in Florida is choosing where to go.