Hidden Coast Paddle Festival - Part 10

The HCPF event organizers arranged to reserve some time for those participants who enjoyed fishing from their kayaks to do so.  Being new to the Steinhatchee area, however, Delores knew it would be best to buddy-up with another kayak angler for safety and navigation purposes so she recruited Bruce and they made plans to spend the day fishing together but as competitors in the HCPF's Kayak Fishing Tournament.


So on Saturday, October 4th, Bruce and Delores met at Good Times Motel & Marina at 6:00 in the morning for the free breakfast routine and collected their free bagged lunch before getting on the road to their selected launch site.  They had agreed earlier to fish the same waters that they had just paddled the day before:  Dallus Creek & Clay Creek, so that's where they were headed.

They arrived at the Dallus Creek launch site at 7:30.

Temp:  70 degrees
Weather:  Partly Cloudy
Winds:  5-10 mph
Bar Pressure:  30
Moon:  3/4
Tide:  Launch at low tide - high tide at 3:00
Lots of activity breaking up the smooth water at various spots during the paddle out.  Everything looked extremely promising. 

So many places like this that just looked great for holding fish. 

Bruce here, was the master angler of the day however, out-fishing Delores with flounder, jacks and trout all day long!

The winds picked up unexpectedly and just seemed to come out of nowhere.  Fishing continued by it was a bit more difficult to paddle and anchor in good position.  By 11:00, it was blowing at a minimum of 15 mph.  A group of 10-15 paddlers moved past and it was a wonder that they stayed on course with the wind as strong as it was.  Bruce and Delores decided to call it a day and were back at the launch site and off the water by noon and back to the condo by 2:00 to spend the rest of the day recuperating from activity overload.
Sunday, October 5th, would be the last day in Steinhatchee.