Hi
my name is Dean Pettit
and welcome to Space Coast Outdoors, your
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Memories and other Random Thoughts
just below,
a series of blog posts featuring Articles,
Trip Reports, whatever, check
it out!
Memories and Other
Random Thoughts
Shiloh
Swamp via Turnbul Creek
Posted March 25th 2018 Somewhere
in the collection of crap I call my stuff is
a 3 ring binder with protective sheets
filled with 35mm slides. One of them, I am
hoping is of the photo at left, because it
is of one of the coolest places I have ever
paddled a boat to. In this case the boat was
my first, a red 15' Coleman Canoe.
The place is called Shiloh Swamp and it can
be accessed by putting in at Turnbul Creek
where US 1 crosses the creek just north of
the Brevard / Volusia County line. Paddling
to the South from here will put you at
the very northern tip of the Indian River
Lagoon. However, by paddling North you the
creek narrows dramatically unti it is barely
wider than a canoe or kayak. About a mile up
the creek, after passing by a beautiful
stand of cypress and through what seems to
be a wilderness canopy you come to this
"pond" in the middle of the swamp. Even
though it was probably less than a mile from
the launch site, I felt as if I had traveled
to a primordial Eden. I remember sitting in
the canoe, just quietly taking it all in,
letting sights and sounds imprint a
photograph on my memory that no film or
digital file can do justice. That's why we
paddle!
(Click on photo for a larger version)
In
Memory of Lefty Kreh
February 25th 1925 - March 14th 2018 In
December of 2015 while representing ACE
Hardware Titusville at the Renzetti Fly
Fishing Show, I had the honor of meeting and
getting about a five minute one on one fly
casting lesson from legendary fly fisherman
and author Bernard "Lefty" Kreh. During his
lifetime Lefty fished on every continent
with the exception of Antartica, catching
126 species of fish in the process. He
fished with US Presidents Jimmy Carter and
George Bush, Baseball legend Ted Williams,
Author Ernest Hemingway, and even fished for
Marlin in Cuba with Fidel Castro. He also
was the Author of 32 books on fishing, all
of which are revered by anglers. He was also
the designer of one of the most popular
saltwater flies of all time,
the "Lefty's Deceiver" which was honored on
a first class postage stamp by the US postal
service in 1991.
I remember during my casting lesson he
chided me for breaking my wrist during the
cast. When I told him how hard it was trying
to break 30 years of bad habits he laughed,
"You aint getting no
sympathy from me, quit breaking your damn
wrist!" Watching this guy give a casting
demo at the age of 90 was like watching a
magician with a fly rod for a wand bring a
fly line to life and have it do whatever he
wanted it to. It seemed so effortless for
him, he was that good.
I will always remember the opportunity I had
to meet and talk to this legendary angler
and author.
He passed away on Wednesday, March 14th 2018
at the age of 93 and will be sorely missed.
Kayak
Red on Fly
Posted 03/17/2018 For several days previous to launching my Kayak at
Patillo Creek on the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge
the wind had built during the days, blowing
pretty hard from the north. But I didn't
want to let that stop me so my plan was
pretty simple. I would launch the yak in the
early morning before
the wind blew in and paddle to the north,
then when the wind came up I would let it
carry me back to the launch site. So it was
calm as I lanched my Native Watercraft
ltimate 12 from a spot neat the mouth
of Patillo Creek and soon was paddling north
along the eastern shoreline of the Indian
River Lagoon. The water clarity wasn't the
greatest as the wind had stirred the water
for several days but for right now it was
fairly calm, just a slight breeze out of the
south. It was one of those days where
baitfish activity was non-existent so I was
relegated to pretty much blind casting,
laying out a clouser minnow with my 8 weight
fly rod near creek mouths and mangrove
shorelines. Finally I found my approaching a
shoreline with the branches of a dead tree
protruding out of the water about 10 yards
from the shore. I stopped paddling, let the
boat quiet down, lay the paddle accross my
lap, picked up the 8 weight, and lay the
clousers minnow next to the tree. The
clouser minnow is tied so the hook rides up,
reducing the chances of a hangup. But its
not foolproof and I initially thought I had
hooked a submerged branch. I didn't feel any
hard strike, just a weight on the end of the
line. Then I saw a swirl and the line began
stripping through the guides of the rod,
then off the reel. Fight On! Each time I got
him fairly close to the kayak he would turn
and make another run, although each run
seemed to be getting shorter and less
powerful. After a few runs, I was able to
get him next to the kayak, cradle him into
the yak, take a cell phone photo of him, the
fly rod and my feet, and then spend the next
few minutes carefully reviving him for the
release by holding him upright in the water
with the water flowing over his gills until
with a rapid flip of his tail he informed me
he was ready to go.
It was then that I realized my plan had
failed. I was thinking I could paddle north
and then coast home when the wind picked up
from the north, like it had for the last
several days. This time however, it picked
up from the south, making my trip back to
the launch site a bit more challenging. Time
to start paddling home to end another great
day.
Shark from the Ocean Obsession
Largemouth
at my Feet
Posted 03/17/2018 As
Fox Lake is only about a mile from my home
in Titusville I tend to make alot of quick
one to two hour fishing trips there. One
thing I have always noticed though, People
who fish from the shoreline will stand right
on the shore and cast out into the lake as
far as they can, while people in boats will
cast to the shore. Why? Those fishing from
shore are just trying to cover as much water
as possible, while those fishing from a boat
are casting to where the fish actually hang
out, at least in the spring and early
summer. Indeed on many occasions I have
walked up to the shoreline, spooked a fish
right at the water's edge, cast out and
caught nothing. Then I revised my
"approach", literally, and it has definitely
helped to improve my catch rate.
First of all, Park away from the water and
rig up at the car or truck, not at the
water's edge. I pack light when I fish,
carrying one small soft tackle bag that
holds a few plastic boxes with a few lures,
and the rod so I can walk-n-fish. I know
braided line is all the rage but I am still
fond of Stren monofilament, 8# on a light
spinning outfit. I tie on a 2 O' wide gap
worm hook, no weight, and string on a 6-8"
plastic worm, rigged weedless and
usually purple in color. It's what I have
always fished with. What has changed, as I
mentioned before is my "approach". Instead
of walking to the shoreline and casting out,
I stop about 20 feet from the shoreline, and
then cast 5 to 10 feet beyond the shoreline,
working the worm back to the shore. When
before I was lucky to catch one or two bass
in an hour or two of fishing, since adopting
this approach I have had days where
I have caught 5-8 bass within the same time
frame. While most of them
are in the 1 pound range, a few have been
larger, including the 3 pounder pictured
above, caught 1 ft from shore.
Scrub Jays at the Dicerandra Sanctuary,
Titusville
Stalking
Winter Seatrout Posted
03/17/2018
Sometimes it is just too damn rainy, cold,
and windy to go fishing and these are some
of my favorite days to do just that. It's
days like these where instead of paddling a
kayak, wading, or setting up "fishcamp"
along a shoreline and soaking a live shrimp
or other natural bait, I prefer "stalking"
along mangrove lined canals and creeks, and
fishing in whatever small openings to the
water I can find. In the winter, cold snaps
will drive the seatrout off of the flats to
the often deeper, and warmer waters of the
canals. These areas can be fishing hotspots
in the winter. Using a medium action
spinning outfit, I rig a 2-3 O' wide gap
worm hook with no weight, and rig weedless a
soft plastic D.O.A. Shad lure. My favorite
colors are either the white with a red or
chartreuse tail, or the "Electric Chicken"
color, a combination of green and pink. Rig
befor you walk, carry eveything you need in
a small soft tackle bag with a sholder
strap, and go Walk-N-Fish. In many places on
the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge there are
trails running along canals and creeks just
behind the mangroves lining the canals.
However, there will be a few openings where
you can cast into the canal. However before
you step into these openings for a cast into
the canal, approach the opening as quietly
as you can. Fish have a lateral line running
along each side of their body. These serve
as an early warning system to the fish as
they pick up vibrations in the water,
including, I believe, the vibrations of your
footsteps along the bank. Think of it as
Trout Stalking or Hunting rather than
fishing. Also don't present a visible
profle. Stay off to one side of the opening
behind the mangroves or back away from the
water's edge if possible. The shad bait
rigged weedless and weightless allows you to
flip the bait quietly into the water. I try
to flip it just beyond the outer edge of the
mangroves on either side of the opening,
then slowly twitch it back to you. Rigged as
mentioned just above this bait represents a
small baitfish, semi stunned by the cold,
and easy prey to any seatrout holding up in the
mangroves. Oftentimes, you can see the lure
in the water as you're working it, and
hopefully it will disappear in a flash as a
hungry trout engulfs it, right at your feet!
Kayaking the Econlockhatchee River
Eddy Creek's
Hidden Channels
Posted 03/17/2018 One
thing I like to do before kayaking a
location is to scout the area online at
Google Earth, allowing me to locate and
study features that I would otherwise miss
from a kayak on the water. Shortly after
purchasing my kayak, a Native Watercraft
Ultimate 12, I found myself studying the
Eddy Creek area of Canaveral Nation Seashore
online at Google Earth. Now I have paddled
there in a Coleman Canoe I previously owned
and have enjoyed every trip, but I had never
studied the area via Google.
Upon closer inspection you see that the dirt
for the dike road was pulled from the side
of the dike opposite the actual bay or
"creek", creating a shallow channel that
paralells the shoreline. The dike is old and
has been worn almost to the water level by
years of erosion. In a few locations along
the dike, erosion from wind and rain has broken through the worn
dike creating channels between the main body
of Eddy Creek and the sorrounding channel,
allowing the passage of a kayak betweeen the
two.
Even
more interesting though are the
thin natural channels that radiate outward
from the surrounding dike channel, and
venturing into the surrounding salt
marsh wetlands to the north. Just as I had
noted when scouting these areas on Google
Earth, many of these side creeks are very
narrow, just barely wide enough to push a
kayak through. Even then it took a little
effort with the salt marsh vegetation
brushing against both sides of the kayak. I
had to use the paddle as a push pole to
force my way in.
However,
as I noted on Google Earth, some of
these narrow openings opened into a wider
impoundment surrounded by salt marsh. One of
the great things about exploring an area
like this via kayak is the ability to get an
intamate viewpoint of an ecosystem. Its very
easy to imagine that you may be the first
person to venture into an area like this.
This is the beauty of kayaking, the ability
to get close to the incredible ecosystems
most people never get the opportunity to
experience.
Eddy Creek at Canaveral National
Seashore
Deep
Sea Fishing on the Ocean Obsession
Kayaking
Fox Lake Park
Posted 03/12/2018 Fox
Lake in Titusville is relatively unknown
outside the Titusville area but is a really
beautiful kayaking and freshwater fishing
location located just to the west of
Titusville in Northern Brevard County.
From the launch site at the Fox Lake
Park boat ramp you can paddle north across
to a kayak landing dock that allows you
access to the hiking trails of the Fox Lake
Sanctuary, or you can follow the shoreline
east then north as the paddling trail
extends about four miles through a canal
connecting Fox Lake to South Lake. Once you
get to
South Lake, which is larger than Fox Lake,
by following the western shoreline you come
to the mouth of a creek which if you follow
it to the south east will eventually open
into a pond within Fox Lake Sanctuary. The
mound along the shoreline of the pond is
actually an Ais Indian Shell Midden dating
back to Florida's pre-columbian history.
Possible wildlife sightings include Sandhill
Cranes, Limpkins, which feed almost
exclusively on freshwater snails and
mussels. Osprey, Ducks, Gulls Herons and
Egrets are commonly seen, as are Alligators.
In the woods of the Fox Lake Sanctuary
bordering Fox and South Lakes, Deer and
Turkey can be seen along with songirds and
raptors. In fact there has been at least two
instances of Black Bear images being
captured by Game Trail Cams operated by the
Brevard County EELs Program, which owns the
property. Fishing is a popular sport here
with catches of Largemouth Bass, Bluegill,
Crappie, and the occasional Chain Pickerel
all possible.
To get to the launch site at Fox Lake Park
from Interstate 95, take exit 215 heading
east on State Road 50 for about 0.3 miles.
to the stoplight for State Road 405. Turn
leftand head north for 2.2
miles to the stoplight for Fox Lake Road.
Turn left (west) and follow Fox Lake Road
until it ends at the park. Note that all
watercraft must be launched from the boat
ramp.