Picnic Trip to Ft. Desoto (January 28, 2008)

On Monday we met several friends who are in our dinner for eight group at church. Joan and John brought their kayaks, but did not launch them. We had a nice fried chicken lunch with extras near the water in the Arrowhead Picnic Area near North Beach. This is a very nice area with plenty of picnic tables. John fished some, but nothing was biting. We all took a hike after lunch and explored the area. Sally found some nice shells.

Fishing/Kayaking/Camping Trip to Ft. Desoto (January 14 – 18th, 2008)

Click to view map of campground

Click to view virtual tour of campground






Friday – Finally! Fish! For the first time since we arrived here, we were able to fish the area right beside our campsite. It has been too rough until today. It was still a little choppy, but we were able to paddle to the right and let the wind blow us across the bay. John was the first to connect with a small trout and small flounder. We rounded the point and tried the sheltered area on the other side which produced nothing. We then returned to where John had caught the two fish and made several passes over the same area. John caught three more trout, two of which were keeper size. Joan caught two trout one of which was keeper size and two lady fish. We decided not to keep the trout because we had food that needed to be used before we leave tomorrow.

There are a lot of families in the park now, but seems quieter than the party.

Update on the party next to us: The party continued way into the night and remained very noisy. We could hear raccoons fighting over food that was left unattended, girls screeching, and car doors slamming. We finally had all we could take so John called the sheriff about 2AM. The rangers came out and things quieted down.

Thursday – The wind finally stopped during the night, but was replaced by rain. Boy did it rain. They said we got about three inches. By morning, however, the wind started up again. We took our coffee walk down by the office and have actually gotten rather used to it. We went back to the campsite and had cereal breakfast. We made a few casts from the shore of our campsite, but nothing. Next, we went down by the camp store and fished by a small bridge. We could see a lot of baitfish in the water and John got a couple of hits on the fly rod, but nothing hooked up. After going back to camp and having a wrap sandwich, we decided to don our waders and go to the end of the west peninsula. We saw a lot of action, with mullet jumping just a few feet from us, but still again, nothing. We have concluded that the fish just are not biting. We returned to camp again and were greeted by new neighbors. There were many teens who were celebrating on of their peer’s birthdays. We can hear one of them playing the bongo. We think the quiet surroundings might be over for awhile.

Wednesday – This morning we took our coffee walk around the doggie loop. This is another really nice feature of this park. All pets are designated their own loop, thus sparing us from having to listen to other people’s barking dogs. It costs about $6.00 extra to camp their just as it does to camp in the RV loop. We also said goodbye to Jim, Virginia, Joannie, and David. We returned to our camp and fixed oatmeal for breakfast. After cleanup, we took the kayaks over to the canoe trail area and put in. It was still pretty windy, but we were much more protected than other places in the park. We were able to fish ok, but without success. The new rod holders that John made for the kayaks out of PVC worked well after getting used to them being behind our seats. We returned to camp, showered, then heated up some pot roast that we had made up at home. We then drove over to a bridge about a mile from our campsite and fished from there, again without success. It continues to be quite windy and the weather people are predicting a greater chance of rain the rest of the week.

Tuesday – We had a coffee walk around our loop and around the big RV loop. Even though the campground showed full on the reservation system, there were many empty sites. People must have backed out due to the weather reports. We returned to camp and had pancakes and sausage for breakfast. After we cleaned up dishes, we put on our waders and went over to fish the protected side of the peninsula where the campground is located. Joan only casted a couple of times and caught a nice little flounder. It was too small to keep, but removed the skunk from here fishing scorecard. Sadly, this was the only fish either of us caught for the day. We were not too surprised considering the cold front that we are faced with this week. We had a nice dinner consisting of BBQ beef done on the grill and fresh cut up veggies done in foil on the RVQ. It was nicer cooking tonight since the wind has died down some. We returned to our new friends for a few minutes of campfire, and then went back to the camper to catch up on computer stuff.

Monday – We left home at 10:30 and arrived at Ft. Desoto at 12:30. We take a little longer route that is more scenic, and goes down Rt. 39 to Hwy 62. It was very windy and cool when we got there, so we decided to not set up the tarp over the camper or the awning. Being on the water is great, but not when the wind is blowing across it. We got set up and took a walk around. We met a very nice couple named Jim and Linda. They have been camping around the country in their pop-up camper. We enjoyed seeing their pictures of areas we intend to do a year from this summer. We stopped at a site when we spotted a camper exactly like ours. The people there were very friendly and anxious to exchange stories about the campers. It was fun to compare notes with Virginia and Tom and their neighbors David and Joannie. We returned to their site after we had dinner and enjoyed cake and conversation around their fire. Their site was on the other side of the campground loop and more protected from the wind. It was windy all night, which kept Joan awake for a part of the night.

Fishing/Kayaking Trip to Weedon Island (January 9th, 2008)

We took a day trip to fish and kayak at a beautiful place that is in the middle of a major metropolitan area, but you would never know it. It is just off the St. Petersburg side of the Gandy Bridge. The down side is the traffic you encounter on the way there and home. We put the kayaks in at a very nice launch at the park and it wasn’t very long before John caught the first of three ladyfish he managed to land that day. Ladyfish are not at all good to eat, but they are great fighters and very acrobatic. For this reason they have been given the name “poor man’s tarpon.” John caught the last one on a fly rod, which is really a kick. The day was beautiful with many bird sightings and three dolphins that were not very far away. We stopped just outside the park at the Crab Shack to let traffic die down before heading home. The food there is very good, and pretty reasonable.

Camping, Fishing/Kayaking the Chassahowitzka River (December 30 2007 – January 1, 2008)

Sunday – We arrived at our campsite about 10:30, checked in, and set up. The site (#46) is very nice and provides ample room to set up the tarp. We had some lunch and headed out on the river to fish. The weather is rather unpredictable this week which almost caused us to cancel. There is a cold front headed in which promises to drop the temperature like a rock. We decided to cut a day off the end of the trip and come home on Tuesday instead of Wednesday and avoid the worst of it (we hope). Things started off pretty slow, but once we got a good ways down the river, John caught a nice channel catfish. On the way back, he caught a 16 ½ inch spotted sea trout. He was holding it by the gill plate and Joan was trying to get in position and hold the bag open to put him in, but just then he shook and got away. Aw, the joys of landing and trying to negotiate fish from kayaks. John also caught a small bass on the way back in.

We got back just as it was getting dark and got the kayak back on the truck and went back to camp to shower and have supper. We enjoyed reheated chicken that we had cooked and froze at home and vegetables done in foil on the RVQ (the outside propane grill).

We had just gone inside for the evening when the rain let loose. We are very happy to be dry and warm.

Monday – We got up about 7:30 and had coffee and breakfast and headed for the river. We fished on the way out to the flats and John caught a small bass and a small mangrove snapper. We fished Johnson’s creek without any success so decided to fish our way back. Both of us had large fish attack our lures, but would not hook up. We ended up by going to a short creek with a spring at the end. John brought a 16” largemouth bass to the boat. Since we had hamburgers thawing back at camp and this is our last dinner here, we decided to let him go. The weather today was beautiful. There was a fairly stiff breeze out of the East that helped push water out of the river. Boats were having trouble in the shallow water. We had to work to move against the current, but found it much easier going than it was in the canoe. We are hoping that the New Years revelers are not too noisy tonight.

Tuesday - It rained again during the night, but was not very cold yet. It was nice and sunny in the morning which made packing up smooth. The weather people are talking freezing temperatures for tonight, so we're not too sad about going home. Our young neighbors are going to stay tonight and head down to Ft. Desoto park tomorrow. We pray they stay warm. They have been fun to have as neighbors as they are learning how to deal with whatever comes their way when camping. So far they have kept their sense of humor.