Darden Travels

So there’s a lot of prep work in the Parks before a hurricane arrives, and obviously a lot of planning.  My team has been cleaning up the backstage areas all week, then just keeping them clear when others dropped things off.  😦

 

 

We stayed open until 9pm on Saturday and had a ‘soft’ close.  Actually, there were few guests in the park so that was an easy task to accomplish.  Everyone assumed that guests would want one last day of freedom before hunkering down in their hotels, but not so much.  Last year guests were unhappy due to limited food items in the resorts, so my team had extra carts displaying consumables for guests to purchase – most did not.  The Guests I talked with had bought food before arriving and purchased extra activities & toys for their kids to do if they were cooped up in their hotel room.

Since the majority of my team was together for last year’s Hurricane Matthew, this storm was much easier to prepare for.  It was hurry up and wait………which gave me time to walk the Park during my lunch.  Interesting.

Lamps were secured before the winds came:

F&W Merchandise kiosks were stripped and the sides rolled up by Saturday.

Tables and umbrellas were ready for tropical storm and hurricane force wind gusts.

While some of the smaller kiosks/carts were closed early.

BTW – all photos were taken while the park was open.

One of the coolest things I saw, was the utility trucks being staged.  I had heard that quite a few were staying on property since we were centrally located, but it looked like they were being dispatched from our parking lot.

Next post will be our plans at home…………and riding out the storm.

 

 

We headed over Monday morning to Crystal River, launching the boat at Pete’s Pier.  The boat ramp definitely looks a lot different than last week, mostly because schools have started AND we are going on a weekday.

Since Eric drove, he backed the boat down the ramp before I took over and he got on the boat and got it off the trailer.

Hmmmmm, seems like he’s taking up both lanes of the ramp – just saying.

The tides seem perfect for fishing in the morning and scalloping early afternoon.  The tide should start coming in around 9am with high tide being at 2pm.  It definitely was low as seen at this slow motor zone.  It would have been tricky to get a kayak up some of the creeks.

Of course it was much different when we returned – high tide.  I didn’t get the photo at the exact same spot, but close.

There is a new bait boat at the last slow zone before heading out the channel.  This one seems to have some permanence since they have a holding tank on the shore.

I can’t believe the FWC allows it – maybe they haven’t seen it just yet. Ha!

The morning was busy catching Jack Crevalle fish – lots and lots.  They’re fun to catch since they pull hard, pull out the drag and are a good fight…………………but not really good eating.  Eric kept one during our fishing trip in June and cooked it – not something that needs to be repeated.  It was edible, but not really ‘eat-able’.  Why waste the energy and the calories.  I stopped counting the Jacks that I caught, once I got up to 10.  Eric caught a fairly big one and it was a photo moment.

My first keeper fish was a Mack.  (The photographer doesn’t generally get in the action shots.)

My next keeper was a nice 21″ Redfish.

Surprisingly Eric caught a sheepshead, but it was returned to the water to grow up.  Within a few years he should be eating size.  We have never caught one of those in this area.

Eric’s face lit up when he brought in this next fish……………………

………..a flounder.  They are one of my favorite fish to eat.  I’ve gotten lucky in the past and caught several, but not for some time.  This one was almost 17″ long.  Interesting thing about flounder.  Since they generally settle on the bottom in the sand, camouflaging themselves, their eyes migrate so both are on the same side.  You can see their eyes on the left of the photo below.

All in all, we had a productive fishing day.  Eric caught several snapper, but after catching the macks, redfish and flounder, they seemed kind of puny.  We kept them since they are good eating.

This tale wouldn’t be complete without some food photos.  Monday night we made sushi with our freshly caught fish.

He used the fresh snapper, mack and flounder in the bowl.  No need to repeat the flounder sushi – it was tough and chewy.

Tuesday night we had blackened redfish, dirty rice and creole cole slaw.

He made enough for leftovers to take for work the following day.  He still needs to smoke the remainder of the mack so we can have smoked fish dip.  The remaining filets were vacuum-packed and put in the freezer.

This is one Christmas gift that has been used a lot and very handy – thanks Anna & Lance.

We (Eric) had planned to go scalloping after fishing, but it was too darn hot.  Even though we were on the water, the breeze dropped and the afternoon turned into typical, muggy Florida.  We headed back home for an early day.

Oh, by the way………………..I only took up 1 lane of the boat ramp when I backed the trailer into the water- just saying  🙂

 

So the following day after this was posted, I remembered an event that happened on the road…we got stopped by a state trooper.

Eric is always very respectful and the trooper let us off with a warning – this time.  We need to correct 3 things:  (1)  Fix the trailer license plate so that it can be seen when driving down the road.  Currently the wind causes the plate to be aerodynamic and flies with the wind as we are driving.  (2) Purchase safety items (flares or triangles) in case we stop by the side of the road for any reason, alerting others of our location.  He said the length of our boat required this item.  (3) Get a strap to secure the boat to the trailer, don’t rely upon the weight of the boat to keep it stable.  All good suggestions – I guess not really a suggestion since he wrote that on the warning ticket.  Before we left Crystal River to drive home, we stopped at West Marine to get a boat strap.  Definitely by the next time we take the boat to the water, we will have all items fixed.

 

It all starts at the boat ramp.  You never know what you will find once you pull up to launch the boat……………..

Rich and the boys came over for the weekend to go scalloping.  Since it was kind of last minute, we couldn’t find an acceptable hotel room (on the water).  This meant getting up fairly early – especially for high school teenagers – to drive the  1 1/2 hour journey to Pete’s Pier both days AND hopefully find nearby parking.

Luckily for us, there were morning showers and it seemed to have pushed back some of the boaters.  We only had a short wait at the ramp, but after we were heading out, there were 5 boats in line.  Eric was able to find a parking spot in Pete’s parking lot, but boy does it need some work.  The trailer almost got hung up in the potholes!

Rain was around us, but no thunderstorms.  On Sunday, we had to go through a rain shower as we were heading out the channel.   It wasn’t pleasant.  Connor and I huddled under a beach towel to keep the rain from pelting us since we were in the front of the boat.

The boat traffic was wasn’t bad, we have seen a lot worse.  Sunday had less boaters than Saturday.

After exiting the Crystal River channel, we headed south and searched for a cluster of boats – usually a sign that scallops are prevalent.  After a few scouting forays in the water, they found an acceptable spot.

Here’s what they are looking for.  The shells are usually 2-3″ in length and the actual scallop is about the diameter of my thumb.

Since Eric’s had the lasik eye surgery, we joke about his ‘bionic’ eyes.  He does seem to find a lot of the little buggers along the bottom in the sea grass.

Upon anchoring, a dive flag is needed to let other boaters know people are in the water.

Throwing out the anchor is not something I love, mostly because I’m not very good at it.  It was nice giving up that duty to someone else.  Rich or Connor took over this responsibility on the trip.

Eric did really well.  Each time he came back to the boat, he had a healthy amount of scallops in his mesh bag.

 

Here’s a bag of scallops that Eric gathered on Sunday.

Both of the boys got into the water, but Connor spent a good amount time on Sunday finding the scallops.

 

Rich also was successful at finding the bi-valves.

There was some down time while on the boat.

At the end of each day, we had a live well of scallops to share.  Between the two days, we probably ended up with 5 gallons unshelled.

Saturday night’s dinner started with two appetizers. First was a raw scallop with a bit of soy sauce, crunchy cabbage and a drop of hot sauce.

And who can resist broiled scallops with cheese and bacon.

We did a little fishing after scalloping both days, but only caught a few silver trout and one sea trout before heading back to the ramp on Sunday.

We always need a selfie before the end of the trip.  🙂  We may not look our very best, but after being on the water……………..who cares.

Yep, that’s right.  Not a single photo of me with a snorkel.  Had a bad experience back in the 1980s during a snorkeling trip in the Keys and putting on a mask brings back that time.

Funniest story on the trip…………………..

The guys always miscounted the number of scallops in their mesh bag, usually having more than they expected.  The scallops were then counted as they dropped into the live well.  On Connor’s last snorkel, he gathered 13 scallops.  Eric had one.  Connor asked if Eric had any trouble counting!

I saw this sign as Rich was waiting to back the trailer down the ramp.  While it specifically calls out airboats, the code of ethics applies to all.  Too bad that most boaters have probably never seen this let alone read it.

Glad we were ale to get in a weekend of scalloping. This is uniquely Florida.  And, it’s always more fun with friends & family.

Eric and I haven’t been here in a while, especially together.  I went at the beginning of the boys spring break this year, but haven’t returned since then.  😦  It was time for a road trip.  Driving up after work on Saturday, we arrived in time for dinner together.  Pizza from a nearby restaurant was picked up and devoured by the group.

Before it got too dark, Rich suggested a quick trip to the beach and Connor & I jumped into their vehicle for the ride.  Wow – there were lots of people.  Of course, what else would you expect at the beach in the summer………..but the last time I visited their beach, it was on Christmas day – a cool, chilly Christmas day.

We were able to get a photo with the moon just starting to rise.  Their beach was hit hard with Hurricane Matthew and the city is adding back sand to keep the tourism going and the locals coming back to their beach.  It’s nice, but it feels and looks different.  Right now there aren’t many shells mixed in with the sand as seen in years past.

Typical first evening is the guys are outside talking and sipping bourbon, while Karen and I are inside sitting on their couches catching up on the latest events.  Not tonight.  The guys said they were getting eaten up bugs so they joined us inside.   Hhhhhhhhmmmmmmm.  It just wasn’t the same.

Plans on Sunday were for the guys to go shooting and we were going to work on jewelry.  Since we’re only there for the weekend, I didn’t have any clear plans for making jewelry unlike on some of my other trips.   I snagged a necklace from home I made several years ago that needed to be re-imagined.  I tried to wear it recently and the strands were all tangled up.  By the way………putting it in a baggie for the trip didn’t help the tangles.  Karen was insistent that she could get it straightened out.  After 45+ minutes, she finally agreed – at my urging, not because she gave up – to cut some of the strands.  I didn’t have a vision of what changes I wanted, but going to Michaels was always on the horizon.  It was a given (on my part at least) that we would go out for lunch during our Michaels run.

I wanted to go back to the biscuit restaurant she took us to during my last visit.  Pulling into the parking area, it was pretty obvious that we were the only ones at the place – it wasn’t open on Sunday.  After driving through the adjoining area looking for somewhere else to eat, I saw a fast-food place called PDQ.  The only thing I knew was that it specialized in chicken tenders.  While this was a definite step down from our original goal, it was close in proximity to our location.  I enjoyed my meal, Karen was ambivalent.  I loved the options for dipping sauces, ordering 3 out of the 11 (made from scratch everyday!) choices:  chipotle BBQ, sweet sriracha and ranch.

The French fries were the weakest part of the meal, just ho-hum.  One point in the restaurant’s favor was the free-style Coke machines where you can customize your soft drink to your own liking.  After a semi-productive stop at Michaels and drive-thru  McDonalds run for Hunter, we were back at their place.

Meanwhile, the guys had gone to shoot clays.  After that they shot one round of trap where they all did comparable.  They also shot a round of sporting clays in the nearby woods where Rich dominated.  Like his brother, Connor is also an excellent shot and did well today.  Driving the golf cart at the range was a definite bonus for Connor.

Before coming home they had lunch at the ‘Schnitzel House’.  Connor ordered chicken schnitzel and spatzle.  Rich ordered veal schnitzel while Eric ordered pork schnitzel – both of theirs covered with hunter gravy.  The gravy only being mentioned because of the next sentence.  Connor declared that the veal schnitzel was the best after eating his meal and portions of theirs. Gravy isn’t something that I would normally associate when thinking of Connor’s eating habits.

Eric and Rich met up with another friend of theirs after dropping Connor off at home and passed what remained of the afternoon drinking a few brews.

The guys did the cooking for that night’s meal, even involving Connor.  🙂  He was in charge of the cubic fries.  Eric gave him direction for cutting the potatoes and also imparted some ‘scientific’ info concerning potatoes and their starch content and how it affects the finished product.  So okay, understanding about the starch in potatoes is not really important but I could over hear them from the living room and being a food snob (Eric and possibly me)  this technical issue does affect the finished product.

The result was a much-anticipated part of the meal.

Rich was the fry-master and had the oil and fish outside on their back porch.

Which is the same place that Eric cooked the blackened redfish.

The cooking team stopped for a photo when everything was done.

It was a delicious meal and the group let me get a selfie before digging in.

We ended the night watching a movie that Eric had been talking about for a while, ‘The Big Lebowski’.  Do not, I repeat do not go out and buy the movie.  It has a following, mostly male and is definitely under-appreciated by the female population.  If you must, look it up on the internet, but don’t invest any $$$ with a purchase.

I saw it while I was in Shanghai, for a friend’s birthday and she was also unimpressed by the movie.  Just saying!

Breakfast on Monday was an individual affair and after eating some sausage balls that Karen cooked for Connor (his favorite) we went back upstairs with the goal of finishing the necklace that morning.  The finished product was different from the version envisioned, even changing several times Monday morning.  By noon, it was done and now wearable.  Most importantly, I love it now and how it turned out.  This will definitely get worn, probably this week.

Eric had taken the boys out for lunch to give us uninterrupted time for finishing up the necklace.  We left shortly after 2pm and made it home by 5pm.  I can’t believe we got Eric to stay that long.  He’s built a reputation for packing everything up immediately after his morning shower and pushing me along to leave by mid-morning.

Driving through the Ocala National Forest on the way home takes longer, but is a nice drive and we avoid the vast majority of rush-hour traffic.  We made it home in time to see Beverly before she went out to play cards.  While it was a pretty quick weekend trip, it was nice seeing all of them and getting away from Clermont.

 

 

 

We should be in for another good day of fishing.  The tides are right, coming in late morning/early afternoon which is exactly the timeframe we will be fishing.  We have eaten breakfast at the Resort’s restaurant, but it’s nothing special, fairly traditional, expensive and cuts into our time for fishing, so therefore we’ve changed things up a bit.  On our last few visits, Eric has brought some yogurt smoothies from home and then goes out to get me a breakfast sandwich from some nearby restaurant.  This time he went to a close Greek restaurant and I ended up with a bacon and egg bagel.  Not what you would expect from there, but it suits me perfectly.

The weather looks good for another day of fishing and after buying more live shrimp from Pete’s Pier bait shop, we head down the river.  LOVE fishing on Mondays!  Having our current days off suits us just fine since we have a great day for fishing with minimal boat traffic.  Also, the ‘weekend’ boaters are not out joy-riding and drinking on the water – which is always a plus. We don’t plan on fishing all day since we checked out of the hotel and have to drive home, unpack and get ready for our workweek.  But I digress.

We went to our honey hole and started fishing.  It was slow fishing in the beginning but eventually fish got hooked.  Eric’s first fish was a bonnet-head shark.  We’re not keeping him, but he was fun to catch.  He hooked another one later in the day, as did I.

Redfish were our first keepers.  I got two nice size fish within the slot and they went into the cooler.  While I couldn’t keep the redfish pictured below, the spots made it an interesting catch.  I didn’t count the total number of spots because while I wanted a photo………………..I needed to get it back into the water ASAP to increase his chances of living.  He’s swimming in the Gulf as we speak (type).

Eric caught a redfish before we headed home – a nice one.  He is getting to be a much better photo model.  He never wanted any photos before and all our tangible fishing memories were of me (I’ve been at Disney way too long.  Who else uses ‘tangible’?)  If I could just find a place to use ‘plethora’………

Seems like today was all about different species.  Eric got a snook,

and also this ugly creature below.  At first I thought it was going to be a puffer fish and wanted a photo.  Once Eric landed it……….it didn’t puff. Ha!  After a quick photo, he went back into the water.

At one point we had a double hook-up and we both caught Jacks.  On our last fishing trip Eric wanted to cook this fish since he had seen something about Jacks on a Andrew Zimmern show, but really, it’s not worth the time or effort.  It was just a fish with no taste.  Again, fun to fight but not to eat, just saying.

(By the way, Eric caught the bigger one.)

I finally hooked a trout and got him to the boat.  Earlier in the morning I had a ‘nice’ size trout, but obviously not hooked well since he got off before we needed the net.  😦  Eric kept reeling in the trout both yesterday and today, while I kept bringing short redfish to the boat.  I got a porgie that was in the size limits and we both continued to bring in Mangrove Snapper today.  Like I mentioned earlier, the weather hinted that it would be a good fishing day and it was.

My last fish was one we had hoped for during the entire weekend……….a Spanish mackerel.  They are fun to catch, not always a sure thing and a good fish for sushi.  Yep, who would expect a girl from the Midwest would be eating sushi.  Right after that, Eric hooked something that tore off a good deal of his line before he held the spool breaking off the leader line (he thinks it was a tarpon).  That ended our day.  We packed up and headed back to the boat ramp.  The fish photo waited until we got home.  Total fish count today was 5 mangrove snapper, 2 redfish, 3 seatrout, 1 porgie and the Spanish mackerel.

True to form, the boat ramp at The Plantation was unable to be used for our boat due to the low tide.  So after the trailer was hooked up, I drove to the ramp at Pete’s Pier AND did a fine job backing the trailer into the water.  Actually only took up one lane of the 2- lane ramp – one of my best boat (trailer) backing jobs ever.  It definitely helps to not have a audience, too much pressure.    Once we got home Eric processed the fish, using his vacuum sealer to preserve them in the freezer.  We had a sushi poke bowl for dinner.  Rats, forgot to take a photo.  Just when I thought I was getting good at that, I forgot.  Anyway, it tasted amazing and Eric did a fine job ‘stylzing’ our dinner.

No immediate travel plans are on the horizon, but you never know.   Great weekend for a fishing couple since we definitely caught a plethora of fish within two days (did it!).  🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.