Author: ginnyinshanghai

Pretty much at the last minute, Eric suggested going over to Crystal River for a few days of fishing.  Friday morning he called for reservations at The Plantation beginning Sunday and checking out Monday.  He figured that Sunday night wouldn’t be a problem and he was right.  We always get a patio room so we can see the boat tied to the seawall.  This time was no exception.

Their boat ramp is one of the skinniest that we have ever used.  I refuse to back the boat down the ramp.  On past visits, if there was a low tide when we launched or loaded the boat, we have been unable to use the ramp and I would drive the trailer to another ramp.

Even though the room wasn’t ready (at 10 am – go figure)  they allowed us to use their ramp and park the truck and trailer on their property.  We always hope that we can get a patio room along the tree-lined canal………..

…………but it was not to be.  This is the oldest wing of the hotel and always our first choice.  They have definitely been adding some upgrades.  The new fish-cleaning area was amazing.

Since we’ve been frequent visitors over the last 5 years, Eric has gotten to know some of their employees.  They shared that a guy bought it several years ago as he was acquiring ’boutique’ hotels.  He put some money into the place and made some really good improvements.  This time one of Eric’s , acquaintances said it had been purchased by another person four months ago and more improvements are happening.   We would rather rent a home or apartment so that we could have a kitchen, but that hasn’t been possible for short-term rentals, thus we stay at The Plantation.

We had already put gas in the boat prior to arriving (80 gallons -yikes) and needed some live bait (shrimp). He did comment that we are paying less for marine gas now than we paid for regular gas when we bought the boat (still yikes!).    We refer to this as Crystal River, but the headwaters are called King’s Bay.  I had to do a little internet research to get more background.  It is the second largest springs group in Florida,with more than 70 springs scattered within the 600-acre bay.  Lots and lots and lots of manatees overwinter here and they have created local business opportunities around that fact.

These springs are the headwaters of Crystal River, which is a short, tidal river that flows seven miles from the headsprings to where it meets the Gulf of Mexico.  Yep, typed that sentence straight from the internet.

In addition to it being a manatee refuge and a wildlife refuge, some people use the bay for meeting friends.  During scallop season, there would be 20+ boats in this area.  Today it was fairly tame.  However, it was the first time we had ever seen a shade structure placed in the water.

A little further away there are numerous sail boats and house boats anchored in the bay, once the water gets a little deeper.  We didn’t see anyone on the boat below, but it had  a fair amount of footage of living space – for a boat.

After getting our shrimp at Pete’s Pier, we headed down the seven miles to the gulf.  There are two (annoying) slow, minimal wake zones we go through before finally getting out of the river’s channel.  We always see lots of crab traps and occasionally dolphins that are going up the river.  But generally speaking, once you get away from King’s Bay, you pretty much see marshy land and palm trees.

We headed to our ‘honey hole’ that Eric heard about a few years back.  Two guys were in the bar at The Plantation boasting about their catch and shared with Eric where they had actually been.  It has now become our honey hole whenever we are at Crystal River.  Today proved bountiful. 

While both of us got keeper redfish, I had the touch and caught several more ‘short’ redfish which were thrown back.  Eric caught all of the seatrout today.  This time we were catching tons of Mangrove snapper.  We both equally caught the snapper, but I must say that one of mine was the biggest and that had to be held for the camera. 🙂  While we were still on the water, we got tired of catching snapper and headed a little deeper looking for trout.  We ran across a huge pod of dolphins.  It’s not uncommon to see pods of 4-6 dolphins, but obviously numerous pods had gotten together today and there were 50+ dolphins (our best guess) in the nearby water.

Just as we were packing to go back to the hotel, Eric saw a fish which has been his dream to catch……..a cobia.  They have to be at least 33″ to keep and this one was at least 48″.  Eric guessed it was a 60 lb fish.  The photo doesn’t do it justice. Kind of like the photos with the dolphins.  Just had to be there to get the full effect.

It was just casually swimming around and underneath our boat in 10′ of water.  He grabbed the closest rod, put a shrimp on it and dangled it right in front of its nose.  After the second try — BAM — the fish took the bait and the hook.  The fight began.

When he grabbed the closest rod, it wasn’t the best rod for the job.  It was one of our lightest and only had on 30lb line – not ideal.  The battle for the cobia involved both of us.  Eric would reel in the fish, the fish would get spooked by the boat and take off.  I ran the boat after him otherwise all the line on the reel would be gone.  It took us a little while to get our (his) spoken directions in sync, but after 45 minutes we were a solid team.  He didn’t even need to give me directions – lots of practice in 45 minutes.   Of course, the outcome was already guessed.  We didn’t have a gaff to pull the fish into the boat.  We only had a net and the fish was oversized for our net.  After Eric wore the fish out enough to pull him along-side the boat, I got the head in the net.  Eric tried to reach for the tail but it was too slippery.  The fish threw the hook and swam away as fast as his fins would allow.  Eric was stunned.  This would have been his ‘fish of a life-time’,an epic event (his words not mine).

We headed back to the hotel, got our room and Eric went to clean the fish. He came back 30 minutes later saying that another hotel guest (young kid) helped him after Eric cut his finger (badly).   He has first aid supplies in the truck but had his hands full with the fish.  The young kid helped him disinfect the cut and put some water-proof bandages on his finger.  He said later that the last few fish were some of his worst filleting ever.  He just wanted to get it done and get cleaned up.

We could eat at the hotel (and have done that numerous times) but we checked the internet for highly-rated restaurants in the vicinity.  Trouble was most were closed on Sunday or the highest ranked one closed at 6pm and it was 5:47 pm.  We weren’t going to make it.  I found an interesting one in Dunnellon, 6.8 miles away – Blue Gator Restaurant & Bar on the Withlacoochee River.

It had pretty typical fare for a water-front restaurant.  We sat at the outside bar and both ordered fried seafood (is there any other way to eat fish?).  I ordered the fried shrimp and fried grouper fingers (on the left) while Eric ordered the seafood combo with fried shrimp, grouper and frog legs.  It definitely is a place to enjoy outside seating with the right weather.  The weather was comfortable in June, they utilized numerous large fans around the tables & seating and there was no rain in sight.

We finished the night with a few drinks at The Plantation bar.  The sangria is their special concoction having blackberry liquor and pineapple juice before topping it off with red wine.

Monday’s fishing is another story to tell.

 

 

 

 

 

This is our last day of fishing, but we truly filled it with a variety of things.  We made a quick trip to the beach to see the surf.  Of course before going out, I had to start with my bagel breakfast – which is my norm on vacation.  Eric’s been sticking with his breakfast fruit smoothies.  We had hoped the rental had a blender but no such luck.  That was one of Eric’s first purchases when we got here last week.  We’re leaving it for the next guests.

We started our morning fishing in Blackburn Bay.  We didn’t want to go far since the weather could get dicey quickly.  It pretty much just looks like rain according to the radar.

I was successful at Blackburn Bay.  Got a keeper trout and a bluefish.  We fished both sides of the bay but only caught fish when we first got there.

Since the tide was slack, we headed in to get cleaned up for lunch.  While we keep eating seafood at the apartment, when we go out we try to find something different.  This time we looked for a Mexican restaurant.  We found a restaurant that was ranked 10th for the  Naples area, so we headed out to find it.

The salsa was good, the chips tri-colored (interesting – we ate the colored ones first, don’t know if Eric realized that) and the actual meal was okay when it arrived.  Afterwards we both brought up how the meal reminded us of the days when we ate at Chi-Chis.  Nothing wrong with that, just not very authentic for the type of Mexican food we’re accustomed to.  We both ordered enchiladas, while I added a chicken taco.

We were stuffed and once we got back we did a little packing and cleaning up around the rental.  Our upstairs neighbors stopped by and said they were going to go out into the Gulf to a nearby reef.  Eric had expressed interest earlier in the week so we wanted to try it.  We didn’t think we were going to fish any more before we left, so we had to get a few gallons of gas before departing.  We quickly got ready, jumped into the boat and got the gas and ice without our friends having to wait very long.

The reef was really close to the inlet.  I’m guessing it was about a mile from shore.  There was another boat already there, so we both motored around before dropping anchor.  Eric caught a snook that was too short, but I didn’t even got a drive-by bite.  We stayed a little longer since it was our first time, but we eventually gave up and headed back inside the intercoastal waterway.

So now we’re going to try bridge fishing since we’re out on the boat.  We anchored up with Eric putting out a second anchor so that the boat would stay put.  It was miserably hot.  The tide was right, but the sun was beating down on us and the T-top wasn’t giving us any shade due to the angle of the sun.  The breeze stopped and the air was still, heavy with moisture and just generally not fun.  We caught 3 short mangrove snapper.  They need to be 10″ to keep and these were 8″ or less.  We finally started noticing the storm that was coming.

This is one time that we didn’t follow the boating rules regarding the speed.  The storm was gaining on us and lightning strikes were showing up on Eric’s weather app.

After we passed the drawbridge for Casey Key, he got on plane and hustled to our boat dock.  Another boat (we guessed locals) were out-pacing us so we didn’t feel too bad about the speed.

We didn’t need much for supper so Eric cooked two fillets from fish we caught that day.  He used crackers for the breading, fried them in butter and topped them with a brown butter sauce with lemon juice.  It was absolutely delicious.  It was accompanied by a side of cheese grits – nice pairing.

 

 

We were supposed to leave this morning but since we have had such rainy weather and the fishing forecast looked promising for this weekend, we inquired about availability.  While we couldn’t stay in the same apartment, they did have another 1 bedroom apartment available and no one was currently staying in it.  As we packed up last night, we called the owner (Ben) and asked if we could put our fridge items into the new apartment.  He had already given Eric the door code………………..so he said yes.  Actually, we packed up whatever we didn’t need and moved a good deal of our stuff over Friday evening.

So while the photo below doesn’t look promising, the clouds provide a nice cover and keep the temps a bit cooler.  Looking at the weather radar, we should be able to fish most of the morning.

After my bagel breakfast, we got everything on the boat and headed to the Gulf.  We are taking one of our upstairs neighbors with us, 14-year-old Blayton.  Their family boat is not as long as ours and usually their dad only takes one person with them when they go fishing.  Blayton was interested in going with us and it was fine by me.  Eric told him to be ready to go by 7:30 am.  We had to set our alarm to be sure that we were awake and ready since we gave him a timeframe!

We easily got to Sarasota Bay and Blayton caught something his first cast – 18″ trout.  My second cast I caught a 20″ trout!  His next cast he caught a 18″bluefish.  We were on fire.  But then the fire died 😦  We didn’t catch any other keepers while we drifted this bay.  We headed down to the ‘middle grounds’ for several drifts.  We each caught at least 1 trout, but they were all shorts.  About this time we checked the radar and needed to head back.  Just then we got a text from Blayton’s dad giving us a heads up about the weather.  We should have left earlier.

Eric stopped at a marina to see about taking cover and they suggested a restaurant across the channel – we got there as quick as we could to tie up.  It’s nice having a young man with us so that he could help Eric.  I went inside the restaurant while they were getting the boat tied up before the storm truly hit us.

We barely made it and both of the guys got wet right at the end.  We were sitting inside when Eric remembered the GPS wasn’t protected.  Blayton ran down to give it some protection from the elements – what a good kid. 🙂

I wasn’t that hungry and got an appetizer that was hunks of chicken accompanied by a sweet chili sauce – delicious!  Eric ordered fish & chips.

 

The weather finally blew past us and we could get back on the boat and head home.  Of course, once there, we had to take photos.  One minor mishap before we got off the boat at the dock……….a treble hook lure got stuck (really stuck) into my shorts.  It took me 1/2 hour before I could get it separated.  My shorts aren’t too worse for wear and can still be worn.  Eric said he enjoyed having Blayton on board for a multitude of reasons, but one of the first things he mentioned was the fact that Blayton took off all of the fish that I caught that were not keepers – gave him more time to fish. 🙂

Since the storm was over (for the moment) we walked to the beach to check out the surf.  Eric had been hunting off and on all week for shark teeth.  Blayton found one within the first few minutes.

The surf was fairly quiet this afternoon, even though we could see more storms to the south of us.

Blayton brought some food with him, which was a good thing.  However, not  he or his dad had ever heard about the ‘banana thing’.  Never bring bananas onto a boat if you want to catch fish! We once had a fishing captain lecture us 10+ minutes before leaving the dock about bananas.  Eric already knew about that superstition before-hand and we have never brought any with us.  Blayton questioned the wisdom of the superstition since we had caught several fish today.  Eric’s response “Just think how many fish we could have caught!”.  Eric was sure to tell his dad that after the day was done, Blayton thanked him for bringing him on today’s fishing trip – a nice respectful young man.

 

Friday morning dawned bright and clear.  The wind has died down so we will be able to travel through the Gulf to head north, but first breakfast!  Eric made me something different this morning, a cheese omelette, with a side of bacon of course  :).

It took about 1/2 hour to get to Sarasota Bay.  We were probably a little bit later than we should have been to arrive, but we did get some fish.  I caught a keeper trout (with multiple short ones) and Eric got an good-size Jack Crevalle.  He also got a nice blue fish which he plans to smoke and use for fish dip.

When the bite stopped, we headed south, staying in the intercoastal waterway and came upon a pod of dolphins.  They’re just so hard to get a good photo.

We found another place to fish, the ‘middle grounds’, which looked decent.  We got several bites, but no keeper fish.  The tide’s wrong so we might be back at a different time this week before leaving to go home.  We located a place to eat where we can dock the boat.  It’s called Casey Key Fish House.  One of the Venice shopkeepers mentioned this place and it had good reviews.  But before we got there we had to go through one of Florida’s last swing bridges.  With our T-top, we only had inches to spare when going underneath.  We took the rods out of the holders, laying them down and also adjusted the antennae.  Good things the tide is going out and not high tide.  This is our second time going through it and we actually saw it in use for another vessel that was too tall.  Interesting to see it work.  The bridgekeeper comes out of the office, walks onto the middle of the bridge, then works the mechanism to get it to swing out – while they are in the middle.

Just past it is the Casey Key Fish House at Marker 32.

We both had sandwiches.  Eric got fried grouper (left) while I got a fried snapper (right) sandwich.  Both were good, along with the fries and the cole slaw.

There was a large group celebrating someone’s birthday and by 3pm they were feeling no pain (and being rather loud).

It was so nice to see the sun, I had to throw in another blue sky/white cloud photo.  Unfortunately, with all of this sun, I got a bit too much of it and have a sun burn.  Clouds are nice when they don’t have any rainstorms inside of them.

Since we ate lunch so late, there wasn’t really a need for dinner.  We snacked on munchies we had around the house and it was plenty to eat.  Eric still had to clean the fish we caught earlier in the day.

We tried our hand at surf fishing again as the tide was coming in.  Unfortunately it is a late tide so we didn’t go to the beach until after 8:30pm.  It got dark quickly.

 

We got to fish today!  While it is still very windy, there are no storms in sight and very little rain.  We woke to blue skies and white fluffy clouds.

Eric fixed my breakfast bagel (bacon, egg & cheese) and I enjoyed eating it on our covered porch.  Our upstairs friend, Blayton, was chatty as ever and joined us downstairs.  We went back to Blackburn Bay but even though we fished hard, we only came back with one trout that Eric caught.  He also got another Jack Crevalle and put it in our cooler.

By 11:30 am we were tired and hot and ready for lunch.  We wanted something different and pizza fit the bill.  Eric found a highly rated Italian restaurant in the downtown historic section of Venice and that became our destination.  We got there at 1pm and there was only one other table occupied.  We sat outside under cover and enjoyed the breeze that persisted even away from the water.  We started with a glass of wine as we enjoyed a tomato & olive oil dip with fresh bread.

I ordered a caesar salad and Eric got a cup of minestrone soup to start our lunch.  I still wanted pizza and they had several types available by the slice.  Eric ordered Eggplant Parmigiano.

His meal also came with dessert and we tried a limoncello cake – it was delicious and was dressed with a strawberry coulee.

We planned on fishing this afternoon, but it was just too hot.  Instead, we napped.  After all, we are on vacation.  🙂

Late afternoon we tried a different type of fishing for us – bridge fishing.  Our upstairs neighbors are well-versed in this type of fishing and having been doing it every day  AND have a large cooler full of mangrove snapper, black drum and a few redfish.  We weren’t really sure which bridge they were fishing from, but we headed south.  We tried one bridge and was turning around when we ran into them.  We followed them to a different bridge, observed their technique, made a few casts then headed back.  I got a good hit, but it bit off the line once it got close to the boat.  We decided that learning how to do this in the dark/dusk was a Darden recipe for disaster.

Dinner was a spicy seafood soup that Eric has made before on one of our other fishing trips.  He has been working on it for several days, adding bits and pieces of seafood that he has been gathering.  Along with shrimp there was crab meat (from the flame streak box crab) with the soup base being a fish stock using the Jack Crevalle he caught earlier.  On top of that was layered fennel, saffron and lemon juice.  It was very tasty and the artisanal bread from Publix was a nice accompaniment.  We spent the remainder of the evening on the back porch listening to country music and enjoying the quiet of Casey Key.

 

It is really windy today!  It was blowing 30 knots when we looked out the window in the morning.  It’s going to be too windy to fish, but we’ll find something else to do.  We walked to the beach first thing (after drinking my coffee)  and it looked like we were on the Atlantic side with the waves roaring in, not typical of the Gulf at all.  When we got back, Eric fixed me some French toast from our leftover baguette.  Since it was my birthday, he wanted to fix me something special.  🙂 We didn’t have any syrup but I had bought some strawberry-margarita jelly from the Farmer’s Market and after thinning it, it became a good syrup.  Quite good actually, we’ll have to remember that trick.

There are some big storms going to come ashore later this morning so our plans are changing and we’re going sight-seeing.  Since we’re so close to Sanibel Island on this trip, we’re driving down to check it out.  I went there many, many years ago on a trip with Tom & Beverly when we stayed on the island.  I think I may have driven on the island another time since I moved to Florida, but it was a long time ago.

By the time we got there, it was lunch time.  We found a place called ‘The Island Cow’ which had good reviews.  Thank goodness for the internet.  It’s so easy to find places to eat and also check out the reviews to read about others’ experiences at restaurants.  While many places on the island sounded interesting, we wanted a more ‘simple’ (read cheap) place to eat.

They had an extensive menu and all kinds of things you could order.  We started with fried pickles (Frickles).  They tasted great but we had WAY too many for the two of us.

We both wanted something different than seafood.  I ordered BBQ pulled pork and Eric ordered a cheeseburger.  Both were okay, but not anything that I would go back for.  It was mostly about the atmosphere.  They had a very ‘eclectic’ decorating style – perfect for an island beach vacation restaurant.

There was seating outside, but with the weather being so dicey we sat inside.  By the time we left, it had started raining and they pulled their plastic tarps down for protection.  Don’t know if that really protected them later (15+ minutes) as the rain and wind were blowing sideways and lightening & thunder were all around.

We drove almost to the end of the Captive Island (during the height of the storm) when it was coming ashore.  We got only so far and then finally turned around.   Really – no need to drive further in this driving rain.  We passed the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge so we thought we would wait out the storm and see their exhibits.  It was pretty interesting.  He was originally from Des Moine, IA and became a big conservationalist for his time in the 1930s.  H was a cartoonist for the Des Moine paper and many of his illustrations lamented the disappearing habitat for wildlife.  His major contribution was to create  a Duck stamp where sales went toward purchase and creation of wildlife areas for migratory duck.

On a former trip, I remembered going on a drive through their wildlife acerage and and as we left, we saw the entrance and decided to make the drive.  It won’t be anything that we have to do again.  Seeing Black Point drive near Titusville puts this to shame.

By the time we got back to Casey Key, the rain had stopped (but not the wind) and the sun was out.  We walked to the beach and picked up a few shells before heading back.  Lots of people were out walking since the rain had finally stopped.  Eric kept looking for shark teeth but couldn’t find any.  We needed Connor (2nd Godson) and his eagle eyes to find some.

 We also walked past some markers for turtle nests.  I didn’t realize they were in this area.  We always saw them on SGI and saw lots of communication about keeping lights off during the hatching season.

Most of the evening was spent sitting outside on our porch and talking to our neighbors youngest son (Blayton), a bright young kid.  Reminds me of Connor – very polite, respectful and entertaining.    His family is from Polk county and he is proud to share that he is the 5th generation that has been visiting this key.  His older brother (Hunter) is upstairs on the phone.  Their parents are fishing – crazy.  They didn’t leave the house until after 8pm and are still fishing when I went to bed at 11pm.  Eric showed me their cooler of fish the next morning – lots of snapper and another redfish.  Today was

 

We woke up to cloudy skies and rain around us, but was pretty sure that we could get some fishing in before noon.  Luckily, the place we’re fishing is really close to our rental.

We’re still fishing with shrimp and while we didn’t catch as many as yesterday, we did come back with some keeper fish.  I got a keeper trout (16″) and Eric kept a Jack crevalle.  He read that Andrew Zimmeren had convinced a fishing guide on his travel show to keep one and cook it, saying it was an unappreciated fish and quite tasty.  Eric had to try it for himself.  By the way……….fish selfies don’t really work.

Looking in the background of the photos – above and below – it’s still raining.  We got caught out in the rain just when we were thinking of coming in.  Good thing we’re so close to home!

Most of the day it was a nice, soaking rain and we need it.  Florida is in the middle of a drought, much like in 1998.  The really bad weather is north and south of us.  The hailing channel has a small boat advisory for all of the Gulf coast of Florida.

We went out for lunch again. This time Eric found a place that served Chicago-style dogs.  Once there he changed his mind and ordered a beef sandwich topped with green peppers & cheese, but I stuck with my original lunch plans – chili slaw dog.  Eric added an order of cheese fries.

Before heading back we drove through the historic downtown part of Venice.  We saw a ‘Florida Olive Oil’ shop which interested Eric and I went next door to a clothing store.  We both made purchases – ha!

Eric wants to cook the fish on the grill tonight.   The rental has a charcoal grill and Eric pulled it under the porch for some cover to get the fire going and keep himself dry.

He thought the Jack tasted great.  It’s nothing that I would request to eat again.  The trout fillet was much better.  He also made a nice, refreshing summer salad.  He ate something similar yesterday and this is his version.  It contains cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and the carrots we picked up at the Farmer’s market last Saturday.  It was very tasty and something we will repeat again.

So the next family that moved in yesterday, caught a crab and brought it back with them.  They didn’t want it, so Eric said he would cook it.  He did some research and found out it was a flamed-streaked box crab.  It has a special adaptation that allows it to spurt water out the top of his head – you can just barely see it below.  They’re not usually found and even the internet didn’t have a lot of info.  Seems like it is mostly a southern crab species.  He also read the claws were better than stone crabs to eat – he agreed.

Earlier today, I had flashbacks from Shanghai when my laptop wouldn’t work.  We had a few close lightening strikes and after multiple restarts of this computer, I guessed that we must have a problem with the router.  I couldn’t find it so Eric texted the rental guy.  Our router is in the nearby laundry room, who knew.  After shutting it off, I finally got connected – about 30 minutes later.  AArrgh, it’s frustrating.  Love it when technology works, not so much when it doesn’t.

Saturday:

Explored south of us, Dana Bay, cast a few times before coming back.

Sunday:

Mostly explored, in the morning went up to Sarasota Bay via the Gulf, few casts before coming back the intercoastal.  Scouted a few spots for future forays.

Monday:

Weather was mostly cloudy and overcast, minimal breeze.  Fished Blackburn Bay, being on the water by 8:30am, used live shrimp on circle hooks.

Ginny: 2 keeper trout (15+  & 16 3/4″) also shorts

Eric  3 keeper trout (sll 15+)  also shorts

Tuesday:

Weather was cloudy and overcast and a good breeze was blowing.  We fished Blackburn Bay, being on the water at 9:00 am.  Used live shrimp for bait on circle hooks.  Light rain got us off the water at 11:00am.

Ginny:  2 trout, 1 was a keeper (16″), sail-top cat fish (didn’t keep)

Eric:  short trout, 1 jack crevelle

Wednesday:

Rained and stormed most of the day – no fishing.

Thursday:

Very windy, but no rain to speak of, definitely no storms.  Still using shrimp as bait. Went to Blackburn Bay, then a bit further north.

Ginny: 1 blue fish, we let it go (read – lost it at the boat)

Eric: 1 keeper trout, 1 nice Jack Crevalle

Friday:

Sunny day with winds 5-6 mph.  We were able to head out into the Gulf going north towards Sarasota Bay.

Ginny: 1 keeper trout (16″), multiple short trout, gaft-top sail cats, hard head cats,

Eric: lady fish, blue fish (2, only kept 1), Jack Crevalle, short trout

Saturday:

Ginny:  1 keeper trout (20″) plus short trout

Eric:  1 trout chewed off

Blayton:  1 keeper troutXX” plus short trout, blue fish,

 

 

 

 

There are storms out in the middle of the Gulf but we believe we can get in a few hours of fishing this morning.  We’re going to Blackburn Bay, only a 10 minute boat ride away.

This fishing is different than our norm on the Gulf coast.  Places we fish are usually in the middle of nowhere, with nary a person or house in site.  Much different here.  With the weather being so dicey in the Gulf, we’re sticking with the intercoastal waterway and there are houses everywhere along the water.  We are also fishing with live shrimp and our norm is artificial soft baits. But that didn’t keep us from catching fish this morning!  We found an area that had good looking bottom (grass with sand patches) and once we found some baitfish, we were in luck.  We ended up with 5 keeper trout.  Eric caught 3 while I got 2 (mine were the biggest ones).

We kept hearing weather warnings on the radio channel so around 11am we headed back.  While Eric filleted the fish, I went to go check out the beach before bad weather hits.  We are 1 block away from the beach and have access through a narrow passageway across the street.

Not many people on the beach.  Yesterday there were people everywhere.

Today we’re treating ourselves to lunch at a local restaurant:  Captain Eddie’s Seafood Restaurant & Retail Market.

We sat outside at their tiki bar, even though it was raining.  Since we planned to have fish tonight, we made sure to order a different type of seafood.  I had fried shrimp while Eric ordered broiled Mangrove snapper.

Since the rains have settled in for the afternoon, we found some bait & tackle stores in the area and checked them out.  We also drove by a Tervis outlet and I picked up another Tervis mug.  My first one (SGI) is getting stained and it’s time for it to be replaced.

After having my original life vest for 16 years, I decided to invest in a newer one.  Eric said it was so old, it probably had no buoyancy anyway.  We did get a kick out of one of the ‘features’…………

The rest of the evening was spent relaxing.  Since we had so much for lunch, dinner was cheese, bread, meats and almonds.  Good first day of fishing.

 

 

 

The rain has finally come to Florida – just in time for our beach vacation.  Doesn’t matter, we will still get some fishing in and hopefully catch something to eat.  We enjoy the time together, time away from work and the time to be near and/or on the water.

We motored the boat half an hour north of us heading towards Sarasota Bay this morning (sunday).

We had checked the weather and radar before leaving and while we knew we would get chased from this area eventually, we were able to get some fishing time in before leaving.  Unfortunately, we didn’t catch anything. 😦  This snapshot of the weather radar eventually convinced us to head back south before it came on shore.

Going there we went out the nearby inlet and headed north in the Gulf since it wasn’t too rough.  Coming back we stayed in the intercostal waterway and scouted for trout fishing areas to hit later this week.  We found several that looked promising.

My breakfast bagel could only hold me so long and we were both getting hungry on the ride back.  Lunch was items that we picked up yesterday at a German market (Geiers).  Eric had heard about this place from friends and Disney chefs and he was VERY excited when we drove past it and after making a U-turn, we were there.

Items purchased included: bratwurst, frankfurters, sauerkraut, cucumber & dill salad, veal bologna, spicy bologna, goose liverwurst and German beer.  These turned into our lunch for today (not all of it and not the beer).

It was a lazy afternoon – after all, we are on vacation.  Eric napped while I read.  Later we did some exploring, checking out the jetty at the end of this key.  We made some stops, eventually ending up back at Publix for more groceries.  We passed by a fish market and while all of their fish looked fresh, we only came home with some smoked mullet fish dip.

To end the day, we did some surf fishing with Eric rigging up this special deal.  While we both got bites on our respective rods, no fish were brought to the beach.  However, we did see many things right off the surf:  dolphins, tarpon and a manatee.