Aside from fishing, the park's second most popular activity is visiting the chickee for coffee in the morning, games during the day, and a happy hour each evening.

The chickee is the social hub where all matters are discussed, followed closely by the pavilion where games, arts and crafts, weekly bingo, and special dinners are held.

Other favorite pastimes include crabbing expeditions with fleets of boats joining in the hunt for Blue-claw Crabs, often ending with crab bakes shared by the crews.

Outside the tight ring of mangrove island hugging the shore and outward several miles, many resident boaters embark on shelling expeditions to the outer islands. Here on the edge of the Gulf are beautiful, uninhabited islands ringed by pure white sand and framed by battered trees pounded by recent hurricanes. In addition to the gorgeous scenery, they find hundreds of shells, some spectacular, many of them becoming craft projects during arts and crafts days.

Chokoloskee Island Park is home to a number of accomplished artists and crafters who often work together on projects that include jewelry-making, painting, clay, wood, and shell sculpting, silk-screening, knitting, sewing, lure-tying, and more. Some of this work ends up in local galleries, some in galleries around the country, and some in the homes and RVs of visitors here.

As the images here suggest, many residents are avid photographers, and almost nothing is more adoringly cultivated than the fine art of sunset photos.

Fish stories rule the roost, however. Some of them are true.