Lake Manatee SP (Jan 23-Feb 5)

Thursday - After A nice pancake breakfast at the nature center, and getting the last few things put away, we headed over here and got set up on site 48. We are on the outside loop which makes it more open and sunny. I don't think we will mind having plenty of sunshine to keep us warm. We headed over to O'Brian's Farm and had strawberry shortcake for before dinner dessert. We can do that because we are old. We also picked up some veggies so I guess that makes up for it. Two other couples saw us eating our shortcakes and decided they needed to be naughty as well. We thought maybe we should get ours free since we drummed up so much business for them.

Friday - We checked out a few launch sites today including one where we have been before called Jiggs Landing. We had our lunch and then fished from shore shortly for a while. We came up with a few bream, which were fun using our Tenkara rod (to see what they are, check out www.tenkarausa.com). We talked to a guy there named Doc Lee, who is a well known local figure here. He gave John some flies he ties and a lot of information about fishing this lake. We figure he enjoyed meeting others who love fly fishing. 

Saturday - We attended the coffee this morning that was at the hosts site and enjoyed seeing some old friends and meeting new ones. We also got a chance to talk to two of the rangers here.

Sunday - We attended another very nice contemporary worship service at Sun City UM Church. Skip and Shirley came in this afternoon to camp here until Friday. We enjoyed a fire on Skip's new fireplace this evening. 

Monday - The temperature in the afternoon was supposed to be in the 70s, so we were not going to let intermittent rain in the morning and forecasts of the same in the afternoon keep us from getting out on the water. Our only concern was with all the cold weather we've had, the water would be very cold and the fish would not be too active. S & S  peddled their Hobie kayak one direction and we paddled ours another and said we would meet up in a little while. We did not see very much activity and the fishing was pretty slow, however, J & J managed to catch two ladyfish and one Jack Crevalle, while S & S did about the same catching two ladyfish and one pompano. We drift and cast while they troll.

Tuesday - The four of us went over and launched at Robinson preserve. It is located on the other side of Bradenton. This is a beautiful park with excellent facilities including a way to clean the kayaks when we are done. John started things off today, on his first cast, catching a keeper sized sea trout. He prefers them to be a little larger, so he let this one go figuring there would be larger ones to come. Unfortunately, this was the only fish caught for the day. The water is still very cold, and two more days like today with the sun shining would be needed to warm it up. Unfortunately another cold front is coming in tomorrow so we will be starting over again.

Wednesday - Lousy weather. The four of us went to several thrift stores in Bradenton. We found a bunch of nice beeny babies to put in Operation Christmas Child boxes at good prices. 

Thursday - It rained all day today, so we watch recorded shows and took short walks when the rain let up a little.

Friday - It was supposed to clear today, but we woke up to more rain. 

Sarurday - Today we kayaked with 8 others through the Mangrove Tunnels at Lido Beach; led by Brad from Mote Marine who is with the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program. A great trip and the weather was just right with cloud  cover and warmer weather. 

Sunday - Great worship again. We will be able to return two more times when we are at Little Manatee River SP. We put the yaks in here on the lake and fished. Still slow with one bream and one small bass. What a gorgeous day. Thankfully the nice weather has returned. 

Monday - Back to Ft. Hamer Park. We went back into our secret spot, but nothing was happening there. Next we hit some areas where we have had some success in the past and hooked into hey bunch of ladyfish. They were fun, but not really what we were looking for. Our friends Dawn and Jeff arrived and are in a site a few down from us.

Tuesday - Today we tried down at a launch site on the Braden River off of Highway 64. There was no one there fishing, which should have been a sign for us. Nothing!
Wednesday - We have been looking forward to going to Palmetto to the Convention Center and attending the Bill Bailey Gospel Festival. They have afternoon free will offering concerts. We listened to a quartet that have been singing for 50 years. They were very good. Afterwards we stopped for Mexican at El Sombrero. We are ready to pull out in the morning and head to our next stay at Little Manatee River SP.


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