Well, it wasn't so much of a "funday" for Dot, she had to drive all the way home by herself and wouldn't be staying to fish with us. We woke up Sunday morning and sat around the table eating breakfast, drinking coffee and talking about our fishing plans for the day. At some point during seminar on Saturday, the topic of hiring guides for Sunday fishing came up and alot of the women pooled their funds together and hired one. That included kayak fishing as well. When the event organizers found out that we hauled our own kayaks down for a day of fishing without the expense of a guide, they explicitly asked us not to follow the guides who were taking paid customers. Well, goodness gracious - of course we weren't going to do that. That would show just a plain lack of common sense and courteousness! But I guess it's happened often enough they had to say something about it. So, in order to avoid that scenario, we approached the kayak fishing guide and briefly explained our plans to him. He, in turn, told us that he had no problem with us launching at the same ramp but asked us to wait until about 9:30 a.m. He expected to have his group at their fishing destination by then. So between the time we got up Sunday morning and made our way to the launch site, we had to bid a fond farewell to Dot, load all of our gear in the truck, and try to remember how to hook the trailer back up. We did a pretty good job of managing our time that morning.
After Dot left us in the dust, we hitched the trailer and arrived at the Matlacha Community Park. As we circled around the parking lot to get to the launch site, Marilee made a mental note of how many trailer parking spots there still were available. One thing we hadn't thought about was available parking on a Sunday morning. The park only has 30 spaces for vehicles towing trailers and by Marilee's count there were only three left. A measure of anxiety crept in at that point. We had to unload in a hurry if we wanted one of those three spots. We didn't have a "Plan B" if we couldn't park the rig.
As we approached the ramp, we noticed that the kayak guide was still there trying to keep control of his group. He gave us the impression that they would've been long gone by now. Uh....not so much! All three of us did our best to get the yaks and gear unloaded in a hurry. I had a quick chat with the guide and he wasn't concerned about our arrival, just made a suggestion to paddle in a different direction once we were on the water. Our plan was to follow Capt. Swartz's recommendation from the day before so we hoped that there would be no conflict of interest. We'd just have to play it by ear once we were paddling out. I jumped back in the truck and was lucky enough to pull into one of the last remaining parking spots left that morning. Whew - that was a close one ! Props to Marilee for looking out!
I checked to make sure my truck was locked when a park official pulled up behind me. He wanted to make sure I was aware there was a $10.00 parking fee for the day (which I was). We ladies had noticed that on Friday when we were on our little "walk-about" of the island. He was very nice and kindly warned me that there was a strict policy of ticketing any vehicle who failed to pay and he didn't want to see that happen. He knew about the LLGF seminar and that the park would be full of visitors today who may not be aware of the parking fee. Not only did he tell me about it, he offered to make the $10.00 transaction and gave me my parking pass right then and there so I wouldn't have to walk all the way to the other side of the park to put it in the drop-box. I was appreciative. That would save me some time. So far things were going splendidly! We were just lovin' our little Matlacha visit.
Marilee and Liz were busy organizing their stuff and I began doing the same. It was in the middle of that set-up routine when Liz had a bit of a paddle malfunction. She had two sets of paddles at home and accidentally brought two left side paddles instead of a left and right, with no way to join them together. We spent the next few minutes channeling McGyver but just couldn't quite figure how to make it work. Liz finally gave up and decided she would just load her yak back in the trailer and walk back to the hotel. She didn't want to hold me and Marilee up any longer. But that solution presented a new problem. There was no way for me to hold my parking spot until I got back. It would surely be taken by then which would put us back at square one. Now what?
As we approached the ramp, we noticed that the kayak guide was still there trying to keep control of his group. He gave us the impression that they would've been long gone by now. Uh....not so much! All three of us did our best to get the yaks and gear unloaded in a hurry. I had a quick chat with the guide and he wasn't concerned about our arrival, just made a suggestion to paddle in a different direction once we were on the water. Our plan was to follow Capt. Swartz's recommendation from the day before so we hoped that there would be no conflict of interest. We'd just have to play it by ear once we were paddling out. I jumped back in the truck and was lucky enough to pull into one of the last remaining parking spots left that morning. Whew - that was a close one ! Props to Marilee for looking out!
I checked to make sure my truck was locked when a park official pulled up behind me. He wanted to make sure I was aware there was a $10.00 parking fee for the day (which I was). We ladies had noticed that on Friday when we were on our little "walk-about" of the island. He was very nice and kindly warned me that there was a strict policy of ticketing any vehicle who failed to pay and he didn't want to see that happen. He knew about the LLGF seminar and that the park would be full of visitors today who may not be aware of the parking fee. Not only did he tell me about it, he offered to make the $10.00 transaction and gave me my parking pass right then and there so I wouldn't have to walk all the way to the other side of the park to put it in the drop-box. I was appreciative. That would save me some time. So far things were going splendidly! We were just lovin' our little Matlacha visit.
Marilee and Liz were busy organizing their stuff and I began doing the same. It was in the middle of that set-up routine when Liz had a bit of a paddle malfunction. She had two sets of paddles at home and accidentally brought two left side paddles instead of a left and right, with no way to join them together. We spent the next few minutes channeling McGyver but just couldn't quite figure how to make it work. Liz finally gave up and decided she would just load her yak back in the trailer and walk back to the hotel. She didn't want to hold me and Marilee up any longer. But that solution presented a new problem. There was no way for me to hold my parking spot until I got back. It would surely be taken by then which would put us back at square one. Now what?
Then, like an angel from heaven, along comes George, the same guy that collected my parking fee a few minutes earlier. He had swung by again to see how we were getting along. Little did he know what we were about to lay on him. We explained our dilemma and told him that we were in desperate need of a kayak paddle. He was hesitant at first, I'm sure he's heard a lot of sob-stories over the years and has been burned a time or two but he seemed to be genuinely concerned about our plight and made a phone call on our behalf. After a few minutes of conversation with a co-worker / supervisor, he got permission to loan us a set of paddles that belong to the county. He was back in five minutes and we were more than grateful. He really saved the day for us - no doubt!
And we're off.....
Our Fishing Route
A Good Sign
Baby Trout EVERYWHERE
We paddled across the channel that is Matlacha Pass and directly toward the rising sun, according to Capt. Swartz's advice and found ourselves in a cut of water that led behind a barrier of mangroves. By the time we made it across the Pass, the water became as slick as ice and we fished for hours.
Liz hangin' out
Mangrove Shallows
My (Delores) First Snook
As we meandered around the back side of the barrier mangroves, I discovered an unexpected deep crevice that ran along the mangrove line and noticed a particularly unusual tree formation. Most of the other scrub on either side of this tree was lush and green. This was a dead tree surround by healthy trees. A cast up under there rewarded me with this little Snook and so as Liz and Marilee continued to move farther down the line, I hung out a little while longer and pulled out a few more small Snook. Good Times !!
Yeah, I know it's not a Snook, but it was the biggest pinfish I've ever caught
1/2 of Snook #2
Snook #3
A sunken boat turned upside down
An old shack tucked away in the vegetation
Curious bird on the lower branch
Liz caught a sheepshead & puffer fish
By 2:00 that afternoon, we'd had pretty much all the fun we could stand out there and decided to pack it in and paddle on back to the ramp. The boat traffic in the channel had picked up throughout the day as well along with a bit of wind making for a few choppy waves but nothing we couldn't handle. We saw a father and toddler son fishing from the small wooden platform next to the ramp and offered them the rest of our shrimp. They were dead (the shrimp, not the father and son), but they were free (as in no cost, not emancipated) . We shared a few fish stories with them while we loaded our kayaks and then drove back to repark the trailer before heading back to the hotel room.
Birds Everywhere
Got a little too close for comfort
We made it back to the hotel, took a shower and relaxed for a while. Only one more decision to be made and that was "where to eat?" Again, there were just so many good options to choose from. Dot picked Bert's the night before and Marilee was really wanting to check out the
Olde Fish House Marina. She had been eyeing that place since we arrived so that's where we went. It was still early by Island Time so there were only a few other folks there. We had worked up quite an appetite, though, and our eyes were bigger than our stomachs so while we waited for our meals to arrive, we ordered a beer and made a "wish-you-were-here" toast to Dot and then we chowed down!!!
Olde Fish House Marina. She had been eyeing that place since we arrived so that's where we went. It was still early by Island Time so there were only a few other folks there. We had worked up quite an appetite, though, and our eyes were bigger than our stomachs so while we waited for our meals to arrive, we ordered a beer and made a "wish-you-were-here" toast to Dot and then we chowed down!!!
Hey Dot, This Bud's For You!!
We drug our tired, exhausted butts back to the hotel and went to bed early. We had a long drive ahead of us Monday morning.
A beautiful Monday morning arrived and while most everyone else was heading to work, Liz, Marilee and I were taking in our lasts views of the little town of Matlacha in all its glory. We packed and loaded our luggage, cleaned up any mess we had made, and thanked Bob and Diane for their hospitality while we were there. We took a few more last-minute pictures and then sat on the deck and finished our last cup of coffee before hitching the trailer back up for the long drive back to Citrus Co.
We had an absolutely wonderful extended weekend in Matlacha and can't wait to come back here!
RSS Feed