Suncoast Florida

April 2009

 

I needed a serious break from work and on finding out my mom and several Other family members were converging on Bayonet Point to visit my uncle Bill I booked a ticket to Florida for a short family trip. of course I packed a fly rod and decided to explore the area a bit on my own as well as booking my final day on Tampa Bay.   I flew into Orlando, got my rental car, hit the road and traffic but finally arrived at the Inn on the Gulf on Hudson beach, my base for the next three days.

Pine Island (near Weeki Wachee)

On Saturday morning I awoke to a nearly perfect morning, ate a quick breakfast and headed north t o Weeki Wachee then turned west and up to the tiny Pine Island. At the beach park there I waded across the channel Ata fairly low tide and made my way to some grass flats on the other side. For the next 1 1/2 hours I had a blast catching some pretty nice ladyfish on a #1 Prince of Tides. I also got one seatrout out of the weeds. I kept an eye out for redfish coming in on the tide but dirt see any and finally as the dry sand I'd started on turned into mid-shin high water I decided it was best  to get back to the beach before it got much deeper.

After finding a local Starbucks and getting my morning latte I headed to Bill's condo and spent the afternoon visiting with Bill and Jan, my mom,  cousin Rudy and wife Georgenne, and second cousins Dace and Carey plus Carey's fiance Scott. I'd met Carey on a previous trip where we went fishing for jack crevalle in the late winter while I was en-route to Exuma.  After dinner at the Inn I took my mom back to Bill's then hung on the beach for the sunset. The band at Sam's played oldies badly until 11:30 p.m. and then once all the noisy motorcycles left I was able to sleep.

Family - from L to R:Me, Carey, Jan, Scott, Bill, Mom, Rudy, Georgenne, Dace	Sunset at Hudson Beach

Honeymoon Island

Honeymoon Beach - a bit blown out by the wind	Carey & Scott
Back lagoon at Honeymoon Island, very nice secluded flats

On Sunday morning everyone met for brunch and then most of us took off for Honeymoon Island. I had been wanting to fish the beach there since visiting it several years ago. the beach had other plans through as the wind had whipped it into  a milky mess, especially UP the beach beyond the swimmers. I met some other fishermen and a flyfishing woman who were giving up but I kept walking and found an opening to the leeside lagoon. I had a huge expanse of fiats all to myself and a few birds.   After a few hours and having only one grab and seeing only mullet I realized it was too much to myself so I headed back out and joined Rudy's family on the beach for a few hours.

Bayport

Bayport at the county park

On Monday things looked more like Seattle than the suncoast of Florida. It had clouded over and rain looked imminent. I wanted to check out Bayport though so drove up anyway. This looked like mostly dock fishing but I waded across a small canal and worked the shore of the park fishing the weeds and potholes. In an hour and a half and no hits or sign of anything at all I worked my way back to the car.

Rain it did later around noon. It poured so I stayed hunkered down at Bill's visiting until about 3:00 then said my "good byes" and took off heading to St. Petersburg for the night.  I got a bit mixed up getting to the marina cove hotel and ended up on the Sunshine Skyway bridge but it was well worth the $1 toll to drive over this bridge. Funny thing is that I was finishing "Tampa Burn" by Randy Wayne White and the end of the book centers around this bridge, Maximo Park, and the Bay.

Tampa Bay

Sunrise at Marina Cove	The Sunshine Skyway bridge

I awoke to perfect conditions on Tuesday, blue skies with just a bit of breeze.  I watched the sunrise at the marina, had breakfast, and drove to Maximo Park to meet Capt. Dan Malzone to fish Tampa Bay for the day.  After a short ride out we aimed toward Ft. DeSoto State Park and the shore flats there. In pretty short order we were spotting fish but the glare and murky water there meant we were mainly seeing them as we spooked them. a few times I'd spot a fish before they spooked and got off a cast. Had my first grab from a red but didn't get a good set-up on it.   Next we headed to a set of small islands in a no-motor area where the water was much clearer. Fish were plentiful, both redfish and Snook. with the calm, clear water they were spooky. I had a few follows but putdown quite a few fish just casting. These were spring creek style fish.  

Around the north point of the islands we got into a school of reds, a huge school of big reds to be exact. By now the wind had gone from light to 15 mph and these fish seemed to know my casting range and wind direction. At first I got some cross-wind shots and had a bunch of follows and a take. Finally the next fish took hard and was on. This was definitely the biggest redfish I'd hooked into and he just began swimming away pulling line.  No blistering bonefish run, he pulled to the bucking, came in a bit, pulled again and so on for 10 minutes. Finally I got him in close and spent a few minutes getting him head UP and to the boat. We finally landed a 33" red, snapped a few photos and released him. After that fish I had very few shots as they mostly stayed about 100' up wind of us, flashing and eating bait just out of range, argh.  The wind continued to build so we called it a half-day and headed in which worked well because it meant I could avoid traffic.

Margaritaville Orlando	The Lone Pine & Jimmy's seaplane

I left St. Pete and headed onto I-4 for Orlando . Since I was early I stopped at Universal's City walk to visit yet another Margaritaville. At the Lone Pine bar, sitting next to Jimmy's seaplane I enjoyed a famous frozen concoction and some shrimp to put a good end to a fun trip.