Marci and I paddled from Fred Howard Park to Anclote Key as part of our birthday extravaganza this year. The morning started out very overcast and we were afraid we would get rain. The paddle consisted of a 3 mile open water crossing, which was calm this monday morning. We arrived after about 45 minutes of paddling with a short break to do some fishing from the kayaks and found that we had the island all to ourselves! We took a brief walk to the lighthouse and found that the mosquitos were very hungry. Since we had not applied bugspray, the time spent at the lighthouse consisted of a quick picture and a much faster walk back to the beach.
After setting up a makeshift sun shelter, Marci found a happy spot to read her Kindle and I found a fishy looking spot by the dock to do some fly fishing… it’s what we do. 🙂 The overcast conditions meant great fishing in the morning and I caught several grunts and a nice sized trout.It seemed that the white on white clouser minnow tied on a size 2 hook with 5/32 dumbell eyes was the fly of choice today.
I also saw tarpon attacking bait and even a manatee right off shore. Marci spent her time reading “The Yearling” and was quite content reading and taking pictures of the sandpiper who had a home in the roots of a downed tree nearby.
The wind picked up and knocked down the tarp shelter while I continued casting in to the bait pods. Marci took it upon herself to rig up a much better shelter which was soon needed as the sun burned off the low lying clouds. With the high sun and tidal shift, the bite soon died down and I found myself ready for a beer and a dip in the cool water. We brought snorkeling gear, but found the area off the beach in front of the lighthouse to be pretty merky. We enjoyed a nice swim while watching sea gulls dive in to the bait pods.
We retreated from the sun under the shelter and had a wonderful lunch that consisted of chicken salad, cheese, crackers, jerky, and of course another beer. We figured it was around noon as we listened to the coast guard radio looking for a vessel that had made a Pan Pan call, a call that we did not originally hear. We decided to check the time and found it was actually around 3:00! Time flies when you are relaxing.
The breeze had died down as we started our crossing back to Fred Howard. It was blazing hot and Marci and I both kept dipping our hats in the water to try to keep cool. The paddle back seemed to take a while longer, but, we made it and decided to take a dip at the park before packing it all up and heading back to Innisbrook.
Check out more pics HERE