Actually, this one was when we were heading out... somehow the order of things became disrupted...
Friday, 13 March 2015
Evening cruise
The tide was just right for a cruise out to the Gulf yesterday evening. Hardly a breath of wind, and warm. Here are some pictures that attempt to capture the feeling... Hope you enjoy.
Heading out into the bayou from the Weeki Wachee River
Someone's fishing dock. Property is vacant, with lots of no-trespassing signs. An ideal spot to build on. And the dock seems to be a popular place for boats to anchor and fish under.
Heading out to the flats
Heading out to sea
Me, in complete control of the sturdy vessel as the sun sets on the Gulf
Time to head back in for a refill. Should probably check the gas too...
Tuesday, 10 March 2015
Old Friends; new location!
On Sunday, we drove down to Tampa and picked up Terry Allen and Debbie and headed out to the coast highway to Tarpon Springs. Karen and I had been there a couple of times, and its the kind of place where you can just wander around, check out the sponge docks, get some pics, poke around in the shops and relax over an authentic Greek cuisine lunch. Which is exactly what we did.
We stopped at Mama's, where Terry and I chowed down a plate full of fried smelt. Awesome stuff, and dead simple. Karen and Debbie enjoyed spanikopida and giros, respectively. All washed down with cold beer and / or wine.
After enjoying Tarpon Springs, headed back to Tampa and sat out (and fried) on Terry / Debbie's balcony. The view over Tampa Bay was superb, but the heat, and lack of any breeze, drove us inside to an air-conditioned retreat.
We arrived back in Weeki Wachee just around sundown, and, given the wholesome lunch we enjoyed, opted just to graze of miscellaneous snack stuff before heading of to bed.
All in all, a great day, made even better by being able to spend a few hours with friends from north of the 49th!
I have some pics, but haven't uploaded them yet. Stay tuned...
We stopped at Mama's, where Terry and I chowed down a plate full of fried smelt. Awesome stuff, and dead simple. Karen and Debbie enjoyed spanikopida and giros, respectively. All washed down with cold beer and / or wine.
After enjoying Tarpon Springs, headed back to Tampa and sat out (and fried) on Terry / Debbie's balcony. The view over Tampa Bay was superb, but the heat, and lack of any breeze, drove us inside to an air-conditioned retreat.
We arrived back in Weeki Wachee just around sundown, and, given the wholesome lunch we enjoyed, opted just to graze of miscellaneous snack stuff before heading of to bed.
All in all, a great day, made even better by being able to spend a few hours with friends from north of the 49th!
I have some pics, but haven't uploaded them yet. Stay tuned...
Saturday, 7 March 2015
March 8/15; hard to believe its been 2 weeks since I last posted. Time passes quickly in margaritaville! The truth is that the past couple of weeks have been spent in utter relaxation; a combination of pool-side reading, fishing both from the pier and from the boat, and the more mundane aspects of ordinary life such as grocery shopping.
Last night we enjoyed a full (gibbous) moon. Here are some shots of our pool with the moon in the background sky, as well as our dock. Seems that moon really ramps up the mullet! There is this constant splashing from the canal, and its not unusual to actually see them airborne. Not sure if they are going after something, or trying to get away!
A few days ago, spent some time taking pictures at the fishing pier at Bayport. This is typical of many locations around this part of the coast, dedicated primarily to "shore-bound" fishermen. We came across a couple of women with some 20 plus crab traps here. They were baiting them with hunks of chicken. The wrapping suggested those chicken bits had just come from the local walmart; I guess crabs are not fussy.
Also got some nice pics of a Great Blue heron. Seems the ones down in this area are substantially larger than what we're used to seeing at home. A beautiful bird!
Tomorrow we are meeting up with my old mate Terry Allen and his lady, Debbie Dixon. They're staying in Tampa for a couple of weeks, and we'll be meeting up with them for a wee Tiki tour up to the Tarpon Springs area. Looking forward to that!
Last night we enjoyed a full (gibbous) moon. Here are some shots of our pool with the moon in the background sky, as well as our dock. Seems that moon really ramps up the mullet! There is this constant splashing from the canal, and its not unusual to actually see them airborne. Not sure if they are going after something, or trying to get away!
A few days ago, spent some time taking pictures at the fishing pier at Bayport. This is typical of many locations around this part of the coast, dedicated primarily to "shore-bound" fishermen. We came across a couple of women with some 20 plus crab traps here. They were baiting them with hunks of chicken. The wrapping suggested those chicken bits had just come from the local walmart; I guess crabs are not fussy.
Also got some nice pics of a Great Blue heron. Seems the ones down in this area are substantially larger than what we're used to seeing at home. A beautiful bird!
Tomorrow we are meeting up with my old mate Terry Allen and his lady, Debbie Dixon. They're staying in Tampa for a couple of weeks, and we'll be meeting up with them for a wee Tiki tour up to the Tarpon Springs area. Looking forward to that!
Sunday, 22 February 2015
This post is all about GUNS, ok? So, Beth Anne, shut 'er down now. For the rest of you, love it or leave it.
Twice annually, the good folks at the Hernando Sportsman's Club have a Machine Gun Shoot. Bring your own machine guns, or rent one for twenty bucks a throw.
For a Canadian gun owner and enthusiast, this was Full Metal Jacket nirvana. On arrival and exiting the car, I was immediately transported on an audiological warp to the midst of a small arms skirmish. Viet Nam, Kosabo, Iraq, Afganistan, the impact was the same, I'm sure. The sounds of semi-auto gunfire, machine guns, mortars and (the holy grail of automatic gunfire) the "gatling" minigun, the smell of gunfire and the heat, all combined to make this an extraodinary experience.
After about 40 minutes or so, the range officer called a halt so that all those gunner could check their targets (lol - accuracy of fire was not a priority here; rather, maximum damage to things like old cars, trucks, dish washers, propane cylinders, water bottles, etc.). I ventured out into the 'hot zone" for a look-see:
So, as you can see, it was great fun watching our US neighbor's having fun on a Sunday morning (Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus). I think I had this permanent smile the whole time. The coup de grace was the booth that sold tickets for $20 (US, of course) for a go with an MP5 machine gun. In my opinion, this is rather a wimpy piece; I'd have paid twice that plus for a go on the minigun. But, that's just me...
At the end of the day, I left with a robust sense of confidence in the ability of our southern neighbors to repel, with vigour, the most vile and treacherous threat from any enemy; regardless of their choice of head gear. Oh say can you see... Yup, I can see it.
Twice annually, the good folks at the Hernando Sportsman's Club have a Machine Gun Shoot. Bring your own machine guns, or rent one for twenty bucks a throw.
For a Canadian gun owner and enthusiast, this was Full Metal Jacket nirvana. On arrival and exiting the car, I was immediately transported on an audiological warp to the midst of a small arms skirmish. Viet Nam, Kosabo, Iraq, Afganistan, the impact was the same, I'm sure. The sounds of semi-auto gunfire, machine guns, mortars and (the holy grail of automatic gunfire) the "gatling" minigun, the smell of gunfire and the heat, all combined to make this an extraodinary experience.
 |
| A variety of machine guns, ready to take on ISIL! |
 |
| Locked and loaded |
 |
| There were a lot of dudes who took this very seriously! |
 | ||
| It took about 6 tries to get this MG to fire. Seems there was a problem with the feed mechanism. Which is ok, unless you are facing one of those 'Human wave" types of situations one of the boys was telling me about.
What got my number 1 vote was the "gatling" minigun. This sucker fires between 4000 and 6000 rounds PER MINUTE. Do the math; 100 rounds per second. Now, by any reasonable standard, that is serious fire power. In the Viet Nam conflict, they would install these baby's on C130s, firing out of cut-outs in the side of the fuselage. The grunts loved 'em. Referred to these as "Puff the Magic Dragon". I chatted with a vet who described the scene; "puff" would be called in to "neutralize" a zone. When firing commenced, there were simultaneous displays of, on the firing side a silver coloured hail, and on the other side, a yellow (brass) coloured spray of spent casings. Nothing survived this onslaught. It would cut a house, vehicle or person(s) in half in nano seconds. Here's a a pic:
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So, as you can see, it was great fun watching our US neighbor's having fun on a Sunday morning (Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus). I think I had this permanent smile the whole time. The coup de grace was the booth that sold tickets for $20 (US, of course) for a go with an MP5 machine gun. In my opinion, this is rather a wimpy piece; I'd have paid twice that plus for a go on the minigun. But, that's just me...
At the end of the day, I left with a robust sense of confidence in the ability of our southern neighbors to repel, with vigour, the most vile and treacherous threat from any enemy; regardless of their choice of head gear. Oh say can you see... Yup, I can see it.
Friday, 20 February 2015
Heating up
Time for a quick update. For you picture junkies, sorry, no pics on this post.
A mostly quiet week, mainly because of the unseasonably cool temps (I know, I'm not complaining, I'm sensitive to what family / friends are enduring back home, etc.)
Yesterday we drove down to Tampa / St. Pete's to visit a local icon; Haslam's Books. This place has been around for decades, and sells new and used books as well as some extremely valuable old books. The latter are kept in locked wooden cabinets, with glass front, and its not unusual to see price tags of several thousands of $'s! Our purchases were considerably more modest, needless to say.
On our way to this mecca, we stopped at Gander Mtn., a sporting goods retailer along the lines of Basspro. Picked up some 20lb test braided fishing line, and then of course had to buy a reel to put it on, heh heh... What really caught my eye was the store's flyer. These are similar in every way to those we get at home from Basspro, except that the first 4 pages were devoted to, get this, all types and caliber's of handguns! What a great country! The right to bear arms and all that good stuff.
Today, despite forecast highs of only 9C, I waited for the tide to come in before heading out to sea for another attempt to catch fish. The wind had died down some, but still, by the time I got out to the Gulf was glad I'd taken along my down vest and windbreaker. Did some gunkholing along the coast just to the north of where our river exits into the Gulf, and found another osprey nest. Could hear them clearly, but failed to spot them. Spotted large numbers of large fish including snapper and jacks, but they were not interested in what I had to offer. The crabs, on the other hand, devoured my shrimp with much enthusiasm. Skunked again!
Tonight we went out for dinner; our first dinner out since arriving here more than 2 weeks ago. The Bonefish Grill (for a chain restaurant, one of the best), but the lineup suggested we fall back to plan B. This was a local (Weeki Wachee Gardens) Italian place. There always seemed to be a lot of cars in the parking lot, and, as we discovered, for good reason. The place is called La Bella Napoli, and we enjoyed some of the best Italian food ever! Karen had the Osso Bucco, with a pork shank. It was gustatory heaven! I opted for the linguine with a tomato / conch sauce. For the life of me I can't recall the name of the dish and I couldn't find the menu on line. Suffice to say it was outstanding!!!
Tomorrow calls for temps in the low 20's, so I will head out for some more fishing, while Karen enjoys her book poolside.
Gotta say, if you have to work almost 50 years to get to enjoy this lifestyle, its worth every minute!
A mostly quiet week, mainly because of the unseasonably cool temps (I know, I'm not complaining, I'm sensitive to what family / friends are enduring back home, etc.)
Yesterday we drove down to Tampa / St. Pete's to visit a local icon; Haslam's Books. This place has been around for decades, and sells new and used books as well as some extremely valuable old books. The latter are kept in locked wooden cabinets, with glass front, and its not unusual to see price tags of several thousands of $'s! Our purchases were considerably more modest, needless to say.
Today, despite forecast highs of only 9C, I waited for the tide to come in before heading out to sea for another attempt to catch fish. The wind had died down some, but still, by the time I got out to the Gulf was glad I'd taken along my down vest and windbreaker. Did some gunkholing along the coast just to the north of where our river exits into the Gulf, and found another osprey nest. Could hear them clearly, but failed to spot them. Spotted large numbers of large fish including snapper and jacks, but they were not interested in what I had to offer. The crabs, on the other hand, devoured my shrimp with much enthusiasm. Skunked again!
Tonight we went out for dinner; our first dinner out since arriving here more than 2 weeks ago. The Bonefish Grill (for a chain restaurant, one of the best), but the lineup suggested we fall back to plan B. This was a local (Weeki Wachee Gardens) Italian place. There always seemed to be a lot of cars in the parking lot, and, as we discovered, for good reason. The place is called La Bella Napoli, and we enjoyed some of the best Italian food ever! Karen had the Osso Bucco, with a pork shank. It was gustatory heaven! I opted for the linguine with a tomato / conch sauce. For the life of me I can't recall the name of the dish and I couldn't find the menu on line. Suffice to say it was outstanding!!!
Tomorrow calls for temps in the low 20's, so I will head out for some more fishing, while Karen enjoys her book poolside.
Gotta say, if you have to work almost 50 years to get to enjoy this lifestyle, its worth every minute!
Tuesday, 17 February 2015
Some perspective...
To make some of you ice bound people feel maybe just a wee bit better, the weather today totally sucked! High wind, rain, and cool. Just thought I'd mention it...
Connecting with Mangrove Snapper!
Well, having been here two weeks and having purchased the boat, it was high time to put my equipment and expertise to the ultimate (well, for me) saltwater fishing test. Mangrove Snapper! That elusive, gray / orange, fang-toothed chunk of local gamefish that you spot by the hundreds in the clear waters of the local rivers, but are difficult to catch.
Sunday was the perfect day. Clear, 70F, and only a moderate breeze. We headed out around 11 am to take advantage of the incoming tide which was scheduled to crest around 1 pm. Karen settled in her deck chair with her book.
I tried trolling a surface bait in the river, but it proved too difficult to manage that and steer the boat through the winding channels.
So we continued on into the mouth of Weeki Wachee, where it begins to open up into the Gulf. Here, the wind was noticeably stronger. I opted to anchor near the windward shore of some marsh grass and baited up with some live shrimp. Now, I really had no idea what kind of features I should be looking for, except that mangrove snapper tend to, co-incidently, hang out around and in mangrove roots. The marsh grass was as close as I could get to ideal. The mangrove swamps would have meant a trip out into the Gulf, and this could have caused spray to dampen the pages of K's book.
Anyhow, after about 5 minutes, there was a tug on the line, and shortly after that, having put up a terrific battle, I boated my very first mangrove snapper!
Ok, I agree, its not a trophy size, and a closer look is warranted:
It really is a pretty little fish; the minimum size limit here is 10 inches, so these guys went back to grow some more. It seems that the vast majority of these fish were in the "under size" category. You can see schools of hundreds, dare I say thousands, in the rivers. They spend the first few years of their lives here, and then head out to the off shore reefs, were they grow to several pounds. Guess I've got to fine tune my navigation skills and get myself out there for some real challenges!
Anyhow, it was a lot of fun, and at least I know I can catch 'em. Now I just need to focus on catching keepers, as they are excellent eating.
On the way back, we ran into a weekend-category of kayakers and snorkellers in the river checking out the manatee. We'd forgotten this was President's day and a national holiday. After trying to dodge some incredibly stupid swimmers and paddlers, I finally had to announce my presence in a most authoritative fashion, taking into account that 95 % of residents in this state have concealed carry permits, and gingerly threaded my way through and back to our dock.
Another adventure brought to a successful conclusion! The bar is now open!
Sunday was the perfect day. Clear, 70F, and only a moderate breeze. We headed out around 11 am to take advantage of the incoming tide which was scheduled to crest around 1 pm. Karen settled in her deck chair with her book.
So we continued on into the mouth of Weeki Wachee, where it begins to open up into the Gulf. Here, the wind was noticeably stronger. I opted to anchor near the windward shore of some marsh grass and baited up with some live shrimp. Now, I really had no idea what kind of features I should be looking for, except that mangrove snapper tend to, co-incidently, hang out around and in mangrove roots. The marsh grass was as close as I could get to ideal. The mangrove swamps would have meant a trip out into the Gulf, and this could have caused spray to dampen the pages of K's book.
Anyhow, after about 5 minutes, there was a tug on the line, and shortly after that, having put up a terrific battle, I boated my very first mangrove snapper!
Ok, I agree, its not a trophy size, and a closer look is warranted:
It really is a pretty little fish; the minimum size limit here is 10 inches, so these guys went back to grow some more. It seems that the vast majority of these fish were in the "under size" category. You can see schools of hundreds, dare I say thousands, in the rivers. They spend the first few years of their lives here, and then head out to the off shore reefs, were they grow to several pounds. Guess I've got to fine tune my navigation skills and get myself out there for some real challenges!
Anyhow, it was a lot of fun, and at least I know I can catch 'em. Now I just need to focus on catching keepers, as they are excellent eating.
On the way back, we ran into a weekend-category of kayakers and snorkellers in the river checking out the manatee. We'd forgotten this was President's day and a national holiday. After trying to dodge some incredibly stupid swimmers and paddlers, I finally had to announce my presence in a most authoritative fashion, taking into account that 95 % of residents in this state have concealed carry permits, and gingerly threaded my way through and back to our dock.
Another adventure brought to a successful conclusion! The bar is now open!
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