Fish On!

 Tarpon are magnificent 100+ lb, incredibly powerful , silvery sea bullets.   Each one has it's own personality when caught.  All fighters, some are jumpers, while others just bend the rod double and pull  so hard you don't think you can possibly hold them.    Our adventure began on Monday, meeting Captain Sandy Melvin at his shop, Gasparilla Outfitters, for pre-fishing introductions and a reunion of sorts.  Becca and her sister Kiki, who had both joined us for the day,  had worked for Sandy in the store and it was obvious that they were like family to him and his wife, Robin.    Carl had met Sandy once before, but really got to know him on this trip.  Tom, Carl and I were to meet Sandy at Whidden's Marina on Tuesday at 3:45 to dip brown bait crabs, tarpon candy.   Hard to believed  that a tarpon would go for a crab smaller than the palm of your hand.   Sandy gave us instructions on size, holding, and the top pincer breaking technique, quickly learned after a few mistakes.  On strong out going tides, these crabs swim and are pulled from the harbor out into the Gulf to spawn, then return on the incoming tide.   Between the boats dipping them and the tarpon, these crabs have a quite gauntlet to run.   Once in place for the correct drift, Sandy described "battle stations" - the correct position  to place the rod for him to bait the hook, and for you to lower the line (to the yellow ribbon) positioning the reel to strike.   We were not to give on this position, no matter what, until his instruction to insure that the hook was set.    Over the next two evenings we  successfully brought in four tarpon.   Tom and I each fought one with Carl getting two - the last an epic battle with at least six jumps - several right next to the boat.  The pictures say it all.  We were also treated to a storm, a rainbow, an incredible suset and a dolphin show, in the wake of the boat.  Thanks Sandy,  and Happy 21st Birthday Carl.    

Boca Grande

Our condo is on the north end of Booca Grande or Big Gasparilla Island, on a small key, between the second and third causway bridges.   In other words,  we are right in front of Little Gasparilla Pass and feel that we are sitting right in the middle of it, boat channels on either side.   This is the perfect staging ground for our explorations.  The kayaks and SUPs arrived by boat and can be stored right on the small beach for our stay.    Our main destination each morning is the Bird Island flats, to our right across the channel.   Paddling over at dawn, we await the fish just like the ospreys in the tops of the mangroves around us.    The DOA shrimp has been our most successful lure for trout, snook, and jacks on the grass flats, the water so clear, the abundant sea life is very visible and wary of our presence.   Gorgeous sunsets over the Gulf grace our fresh caught dinners enjoyed on the porch.

Flats Fishing

Shark's Teeth

At Caspern Beach, just south of Venice, hunting for shark's teeth is big business.   Not only were we suprised by the black sand beach, but everyone here had scoops and sieves, buckets and floating baskets for their haul.  We felt unprepared with only our hands.   Developing our own technique in the shallow water waves,  we found some of the smallest shark's teeth that I have ever seen - and many smooth back shiny "faux" teeth, that I  later learned were indeed very old ones, unlike the Atlantic coast teeth with their sharp, well defined edges and borders of bone and tooth.

De Soto National Memorial

The De Soto National Memorial is almost directly across the Manatee River from Emerson Point Park.  Here, near Bradenton, is supposedly the spot where De Soto landed, hoping to find gold in Florida.     Four years later, along the Mississippi, he was dead from a fever,  his men exhausted and persued,  leaving  a path of destruction and disease in their wake  that would decimate the millions of Indians inhabiting the land.  This memorial leaves you with mixed feelings.   Life size Indian cut outs  can be seen along the trail, some free, some enslaved, forced to carry De Soto's gear and herd the pigs, which he also left to spread throughout the South.    There is a huge cross and stone memorial overlooking a beautiful bay with dolphins, fish, and an abandoned sailboat.   Much food for thought here.   

    

Anna Maria Island

Bradenton was our access to Anna Maria Island.   Very laid back and residential, we took right to this island.   Harrington House, our B&B, made us feel right at home, making our dinner reservations for the next two nights.   Now that the work was done, we set off to explore the beach.    This was the white sugar sand beach with clear green water I had imagined and that we can see from our room.   Before dinner we drove around the northern point, stopping to walk the Rod and Reel Pier where we shot a few pictures, the sun on it's way down in the background.   The Waterfront restaurant was on the bayside near the city pier.   A relaxing meal of mussel saltimboca, wine and a stroll down the city pier sharing a cup of decadent chocolate ice cream finished off our evening.

The Point

This is a magical place which photographs just can not capture.   The white sand extending way out into the pass, the shallow clear green water, teaming with life, the tall pine swaying in the breeze all combine to create this paradise.   Tom wading out can cast into the channel.   We watch a fisherman in a boat near him hook a tarpon, and begin the fight.   Schools of hand size fish swim by me as I wade out and  realize that I am surrounded by tiny silver blue minnows.  Tom catches a Spanish mackeral -- his third fish of the day.   This morning walking/ fishing the beach in front of Harrington House, we followed the schools of fish jumping and scattering as something larger pursued them.  From underneath the schools, Tom caught two Jack Cravalles as we heard a boat just at the green/ dark line call out fish on.   We watched that mightily tarpon leap into the air and began to imagine.   

Beginning

We have made the trip to Tampa many times during Carl's three years at the University of Tampa, so I am usually reading or remarking on our favorite roadside attractions like the AirStream museum with vintage AirStreams half buried on end.   But when we turned left onto 75 South we were in new and unexplored territory.   Our destination was Emerson Point Park and the Pontevant Temple Mound, west of Palmetto on Snead Island.    Here the Amerindians, prior to the Timuncuans,  had amassed a huge shell mound on which they built their temples prior to 1000 AD.   Of course the settlers had built their home on top of the mound with a commanding view of the Manatee River and a royal palm lined walkway to the shore.   At the actual point there was another large mound and a birds eye view of Tampa Bay.   Climbing to the observation tower level with the osprey nest we could see the 275 Skyway Bridge from St. Pete, Tampa in the distance, and the barrier Anna Maria Island on the left.   In the mangrove byways we spied a yellow crowned night heron and ospreys galore.   What a gem of a park!