The Big Bend is an Awesome Place
Billy
ChassahowitzkaPosts: 2,724 Captain
I've only been fishing this area for going on six years but have fished many places over the good ole U.S. of A. including twenty years in the Panhandle of Florida. So I'm not a rookie to either fishing or this great State.
It seems that many go out and have great days in our area. Many reports back this up. The fishing in shore fishing is usually good and the offshore too, until the red tide, which we can't control.
My point is this area has captured what I feel I was meant to do for the rest of my life. Back country fishing, most times with no one around and plenty of fish, means letting one go to a place that we often need in this busy life. Often the scenery is worth the trip. And even the busier areas seem to allow most to fish without people stacked up side by side. I wouldn't even think of living anyway else.
The fact that the Big Bend forum shares so much is a good thing. I realize that it does open us up to "lurkers" but the trade-off is meeting a bunch of great fisherman. And learning from each other. One can argue we don't always share the same beliefs but we all share the love of the water and I haven't met anyone on this site that I wouldn't invite to the Garagebar.
Yeah, this is a little sappy, but it's a rainy day and I'm feeling a little sensitive today so thought I'd share my feelings on what we have and what we should try to preserve going forward.
Now...back to your regular scheduled programming.
Bill
It seems that many go out and have great days in our area. Many reports back this up. The fishing in shore fishing is usually good and the offshore too, until the red tide, which we can't control.
My point is this area has captured what I feel I was meant to do for the rest of my life. Back country fishing, most times with no one around and plenty of fish, means letting one go to a place that we often need in this busy life. Often the scenery is worth the trip. And even the busier areas seem to allow most to fish without people stacked up side by side. I wouldn't even think of living anyway else.
The fact that the Big Bend forum shares so much is a good thing. I realize that it does open us up to "lurkers" but the trade-off is meeting a bunch of great fisherman. And learning from each other. One can argue we don't always share the same beliefs but we all share the love of the water and I haven't met anyone on this site that I wouldn't invite to the Garagebar.
Yeah, this is a little sappy, but it's a rainy day and I'm feeling a little sensitive today so thought I'd share my feelings on what we have and what we should try to preserve going forward.
Now...back to your regular scheduled programming.
Bill
"And the ocean is howling for the things that might have been..."
Replies
We have every kind of water here ! Springs to saltwater , bluegill to grouper and close to everything else in between.
We may not have all the glamor species but we have plenty of the others. Take a jig and a spinning outfit ANYWHERE in the state and you will not have as much action as here on a decent day.
Do NOT tell anyone as this is only my opinion and should not be passed on.. :cool:
I may have said too much.
I often spend 4-5 hours fishing from my kayak - may not always find fish, but I always find peace.
Capt Louie - the Keys are pretty special.
Just in the last two weeks we've eaten trout, mango snapper, redfish, scallops (last package) and crab cakes. Only the scallops came out of the freezer.
Citrus county's done a nice job on their free parks, too.
seen a lot of change, some good, some bad.
always came back and have stayed this time 28 years.
Rest were Ozello early 60's starring me and my Dad
I've live in S. Fl N. FL and central FL, but when I brought a class of field biology students to Chinsegut Nature center, I fell in love with the landscape here. Sandhills, flatwoods, coastal forests, the black needle rush so predominant.
Oh yeah, i'm here for good. One day I'll even figure out how to tarpon fish out of my home port (bayport), which I rarely fish out of...I'd really enjoy a chance to get to know the Chaz area, but my boat just can't do it. I love Crystal river area. great fishing up there compared to hernando county. Although redfishing is good here.
What a cute kid you were!
My paternal great-grandfather was born in what's now Levy County before Florida became a state. He was, as far as I know, nothing more than an illiterate dirt farmer who raised a passel of young'uns. I'd like to think he must have spent some time crabbing or fishing too, because I'm pretty sure that I've got salt water marsh in my veins.
I feel at home in the marsh...and among the shallow creeks, the oyster bars, the mangrove islands.
ps - had a '94 same-color-red Chevy dually (is that a dually in your pic?) - sold it just two years ago when we sold the Grady. It was my daily drive for a decade. Loved it! - could park it easier than I park the much smaller suv spin-off I'm driving now.
The mullet boat reminds me of a now-deceased friend of ours. He was born and raised on an island (still bears the family name) near the mouth of the Suwannee. Had to take a boat to go to school, his father was a commercial mullet (I think) fisherman.
Tells the story of he and his dad going to a fish house to sell their hard-won boat load of mullet - and the buyer offered such a low price that the dad got mad and dumped the whole lot overboard. Stan says that was the last time he ever helped his dad fish, and to the day he passed we couldn't even get him out on the boat. (that's the story to the best of my memory)
House was built in the 20's and sits on Butler road. Part of my summers were spent here and is one reason I ended up here.
Maybe next week Dave...weather and tides look good.
Bill
The b&w are of the cabin my father built in Ozello early 60's, before that (and me) we had a place on the Homosassa somewhere around Ward's Resort (not sure if it's even there now).
I've been told the old home place in Levy County is still standing but being used to store hay now. My immediate branch of the family moved to Tampa in the '20's. My dad sold his interest in the land sometime back...but I believe at least some of it is still in the family. My sister and I have often talked about researching the place - after all, it's just the next county up!
Capt. Louie - for all former Keys critters!...one of our favorites by Micah Gardner, Barstool Sailor - Last Keys Critter. :grin
Pineapple hands and flip flop feet...raccoon eyes and barracuda teeth...
...'livin' life at 6 knots...
I love that line - 'livin' life at 6 knots'.
As a long time sailor of many sizes of sailboats I have always used that line...that and the illusion of speed.
Bill
Priceless old pictures. Do you still have the cabin? What water were you on in the boat?
I don't know what it is, but Cedar Key, Ozello and parts of Homosassa 'really got a hold on me'. The waters of Tampa Bay used to be a great place to go crabbing at night with a washtub, a lantern and dip nets...and to wade fish for trout.
We're not here full time yet - and it'll be tough to leave behind the woods, the cypress swamps, fields and lakes where our babes were born and raised...where the closest neighbors are turkey and deer - even if it is only an hour and a half inland.
Speaking of childhood pictures - '58 or '59 in Tampa - all little girls had a Seminole skirt and blouse.
Don't venture south of Homosassa or you really will be hooked. :wink
Bill
Friday would get here, and I would be waiting at the base of the stairs come 5, by 5:15 or so he came rolling up the drive and would back the old station wagon into it's parking place. We would load up the groceries for the weekend, a few changes of clothes, water, and then we would be on our way out to Suwannee. Stopped at the Lighthouse in Fanning for dinner, then down to the old mobile home in Suwannee. It would be pitch black by the time we got there, so we would unload the car, take the dog for a walk, get in a game of Uno and then bed. Spend Saturday and Sunday fishing unless it was lighting out, then I would just sit in the boat shed staring at the sky hoping it would clear up, play cards with Grandma, or do one of the seemingly endless puzzles that Grandma worked on while she was out there while we fished. When we finished up for the day with the boat, I would sit on the sea wall with a cane pole and fish till grandpa would say it was time to call it a night.
The wife wants to retire somewhere northward. If I ever get to it, I want to retire and spend at least my winters in that old mobile home on a canal off the Suwannee. More people down there now, but it still feels kind of like it did back then. Everybody waves, those who are rude or do something stupid generally aren't from around there. It's not a big deal to go sit down with your neighbor and spend the afternoon just jawing and complaining about how **** hot it is. :grin
This forum has opened up my eyes to more of the big bend. I'm falling in love with the diversity and quality of fish you can catch inshore in CR. CK is neat, just don't leave anything not bolted down unattended. HB.... Wow, flats for MILES. And one of these days I'll get out to Steinhatchee and west, but I'm learning and loving more and more of this area of coastline. And the friends I've made here are some of the most genuine I've met in a LONG time. Man I love this place.
Actually it's "I love this Place"...:).
Many come here and have no idea what a gem it is and they complain about no good restaurants, nothing to do, all the old people...you get my drift.
I moved here and said "how do I change to allow me to fit in with those who have lived here for many years" and not try to change them to what I might have experienced elsewhere. I might not have completely succeeded at doing so but it "ain't" for lack of trying.
Bill
Many don't.
Bob had a piano repair shop in Tampa, he and his wife retired there in 1980 or so and lived in the cabin until the 93 storm wrecked it.
They then built a stilt house which their daughter owns today.
The cabin was on a bay off Black Creek and roughly 1/2 mile north of the double bridges on Ozello Trail.
This little cabin was built on the same bay around 1960 by Frank Thrift, a banker from Ocala.
It's still there.