Fishing/Kayaking/Camping Trip to Ft. Desoto (February 11-16, 2008)

















We left home at 10:17 and arrived at Ft. Desoto Park at noon. We set up, including putting up our new tarp and had lunch. We then launched the kayaks in the area adjacent to our campsite and pretty quickly got into some ladyfish. These were pretty good sized ones and gave us a good fight. John managed to land a couple of nice trout. One was 16" and the other 17". He also lost a couple at the kayak. Joan also caught a couple of her friends, the lowly saltwater catfish. We fished until dark and enjoyed a great sunset while we fished. The batteries died on the camera while taking pictures of our setup, so no pictures of the fish or sunset. John filleted the two trout and they will be dinner tomorrow night. A great start for the week.

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Tuesday - Today we woke up to a very cloudy morning that looked like it could rain at any time. We took a coffee walk around the loop and then down to the bridge by the store. We talked to a man there from Michigan who was very thankful for not being home now and able to enjoy the warmth. We had breakfast then took the kayaks out for a while with a close watch to the sky. We encountered rain after about an hour, but putting on our ponchos allowed us to keep fishing. Joan had the hot hand today with a few trout, a flounder, and one catfish. John finally got on the boards when he decided to switch back to Berkley Gulp like Joan was using. He too caught a few trout and a flounder. Most of the trout and the flounder were just a little short, but still fun. We got back to camp just in time to beat the storms that rolled through. The rain was very heavy and was accompanied by some wind, but not too severe. We are praying that there is no dangerous weather tonight. John has alerting turned on to his cell phone from the Weather Channel. For dinner we had veggies done in foil on the grill and the fish from yesterday. Both were outstanding and we commented were better than most meals we have gone out and paid a lot of money for at a restaurant. Because it is still raining some, we will have a quiet evening in the camper and maybe watch a movie.
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Wednesday - This morning we woke up relieved that there was no sever weather during the night. The calm quickly passed, however, when the wind picked up quite a bit. We resecured everything and the wind let up allowing us to wade fish for awhile. We were unsuccessful working the shoreline around the camping area. When we returned to our campsite the wind picked up again, with some light rain. The wind continued all evening and at times we were not sure that it wouldn't take our tarp and canopy. It is still blowing pretty hard while this is being written at about 7:30.
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Thursday - We woke up this morning and everything was still nailed down. It was still windy, but beginning to shift more to the east. By 9:00 it had slowed down considerably. We talked to the campground host and another man named Pete and his wife Marylin at the dayroom. We enjoyed the fire and chatted with them for quite a while. After a very late breakfast, we took a walk down the beach and over to the camping area that allows pets and talked with another couple. About mid afternoon, we put the kayaks in and fished for awhile. We each caught a trout, and John caught a couple of catfish. We travelled over to the other side of the penninsula and fished there. John caught a flounder and a nice trout that was 19" long. We brought him back for supper. It would be hard to get a fish any fresher. We had dinner then took our rods and walked down to an area near the office and fished from the shore. John had a nice fish on, but it broke his line and got away.
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Friday - What an awesome day. After our coffee walk with breakfast bars, we put in the kayaks and headed over to the other side of the bay that is just off our campsite. We began fishing the edges of holes and were quickly rewarded with ladyfish, redfish, and flounder. We lost count of how many fish, but we could have easily had a couple more meals, plus. This was the best day of fishing we have had for a long time. The weather was perfect, with just a light breeze and only a few fluffy clouds. We had dinner then biked the trail that goes from the campground to North Beach. It is a beautiful trail. The campground has really filled up with families and a lot of kids. Hopefully there will be no loud parties tonight. We are both really tired and needing a good night's sleep before packing up and heading home in the morning. We would really rather stay. Only two weeks and we will be back here, however.





Fishing/Kayaking Trip to E.G. Simmon's Park, Ruskin (January 31, 2008)

We put the kayaks in and started fishing to the left of the road leading towards the boat launch and then worked our way to the back section of the channel. John caught a large ladyfish that gave a good fight. They are not good to eat, but fun to catch. They jump a lot and pull pretty well. John ended up catching about five of them, then caught a 20 to 21 inch black grouper that put up a great fight. He thought he had a saltwater catfish on because it wanted to go to the bottom, but it turned out to be a nice grouper. They have to be 22" long to keep, so it had to be returned. It was a gorgeous day, but the photographer forgot the camera, so alas, no pictures.