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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Oscar Scherer SP (Jan 9-22)

Thursday - All set up. This site (65) is very long and narrow. Our canopy is behind the M.H. We went to Ilias Greek Restaurant and had the best gyros ever. Next, we got gas and made a Walmart run. It is good to be back here.

Friday - We took the bikes on the Green Trail and checked on the eaglets. There are two and they are being well taken care of by both parents. One was on the nest and the other nearby. We did some errands and ended up at Scramblers Cafe for a Reuben and BLT. Excellent!  Our friends Mary and Dave just got in today, so it was good to check in with them. It was warm & humid today.
Saturday - We launched our kayaks here in the park with Mary and Dave to do some fishing. We fished spots where we caught fish two weeks ago, but never found them. John caught the only fish, a decent sized ladyfish. It was breezy, but nice. Later in the day the wind really came up, so we lowered the canopy and awning just to be safe. The four of us went out for very good pizza at Frankie's, then to the Jetty where we enjoyed watching a dolphin and John threw a fly without success. It got quite cool while we were there and really poured during the night. 

Sunday - Down day. 

Monday - We returned with our friends to Lemon Bay Park. It was a little breezy, but otherwise the weather was perfect. Be headed over to the other side of the bay towards Blind Pass and found it extremely nice there. There is a kayak launch there in a park, but no washrooms. We saw lots of fish activity with pelicans crashing into the water, but not much catching. John caught the only fish, a small trout. John has a theory that  the heavier tippet we began using is limiting the action of the flies. We will return to 10 pound tippet the next time we go out and see if that makes a difference.

Tuesday - We Had to get the blower motor replaced in the envoy so we took it to Sunset GMC in Sarasota. They also found a couple of other things like the throttle body and the evaporator that needed work so we had that done as well. All together it cost us $600, but not complaining the car has done very well for us. It is also running much better. 

Wednesday - We went to the Tampa RV super show today just to see what's new. We committed on not buying anything this year. We did see a Big Horn fifth wheel with a front living room that we really liked and also a Southwind class A motorhome that was nice as well. We also picked up a lots of good campground information, especially helpful will be the north east for our trip this summer.

Thursday - We finally got our lazy selves out of bed and went over to the nature center and enjoyed a pancake breakfast that the hosts prepare every week. Later in the day, we returned and enjoyed listening to a weekly music jam of mountain music. It is non-professional, but very good. It has cooled down a little more. 

Friday - Another cool day. Laundry, Walmart, fill the Envoy. John wanted to see if there are any tilapia here in South Creek. We tried the same tactic we used on the Myakka. Negative.
Saturday - Still cool and it has become windy, so no kayaking again. Instead, we decided to explore and find another place to launch. After some study of maps we have collected, we decided to check out the Nokomis County Park kayak launch. First, Joan was able to get her hair cut at a place recommended by our host here, Pat. Looks good. We drove to the park and found out that until some work is completed, we would have to wheel the kayaks about 100 yards to the launch. No problem. The area was quite shallow and covered with oyster beds, so we will have to watch tides. The area is beautiful and looks very fishy. We have decided to try it out on Monday if the weather permits. We also took a walk over at Casperson Park which is a great area with a kayak launch, hiking and biking trails.

Sunday - We attended the early contemporary service at Nokomis-Venice UM Church and had a great experience. The music was good and the people very welcoming. 

Monday - We launched the kayaks at Nokomis Park and dodged oyster beds until we got to Curry Creek. This is a beautiful area and according to a guy who was in his yard, told us that dozens of snook come around his dock every evening. John got a real surprise by catching an 18 inch juvenile tarpon on a chartreuse Clouser. This was a first for us. He also caught a small mangrove snapper. After, we stopped at Frankie's for excellent pizza. 

Tuesday - We checked out a park that is at the end of Laurel Road called Laurel Park. The park is situated on the Myakka River. There are some good areas to fish, but kayak access would be tricky, plus there are some very large alligators. We fished for awhile hoping for tilapia, and managed a few bream, one of which was decent size. Some small boys who were hiking with their parents, enjoyed holding and throwing them back.

The temperature is dropping again, so we went to Walmart and got some things put away around the campsite in preparation for moving tomorrow. In the evening, we went up to the nature center and listened to Carl Ross do a program of mountain music. 

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