Second IRL Paddle Adventure Report
Gray sky, howling wind. The whitecaps were breaking over the gunwales of the canoe. The shoreline was only inching closer. The “adventure” part of the IRL Paddle Adventure made its presence felt in an all-too-real way.
The IRL Paddle Adventurers left Samson’s Island after a pleasant two night stay. A pair of great horned owls serenaded us to sleep each evening while we were there. We observed that they were a mating pair. Apparently the actual act of mating occurs very quickly in great horned owls, taking approximately three seconds in this particular case.
These owls serenaded us.
I thought I might find owl pellets at the base of the tree they were in. What I found was an active beehive. I left the area as quickly as possible.
The Trip to Lagoon House was uneventful. There was not a lot of camping space there and several of us were literally at the water’s edge, But the Lagoon-Palooza was well attended and MRC garnered several new members. The IRL Paddle Adventurers would like to sincerely thank everyone who came out to see us.
On the next day’s paddle we stopped at Honest John’s Fish Camp and ate our lunch. Honest John’s represents the finest of what’s left of old Florida- funky, laid-back, gracious, a cool place. We chatted with Elliot, who worked there, and Barbara Arthur, a wonderful lady, one of the owners. She has several IGFA world record seatrout to her credit, quite the woman.
Honest John’s Fish Camp
Our next stop was Long Point Park, near Sebastian Inlet. The park graciously donated two campsites to us for our stay. It was sad getting there in a way because that’s where Dee Kaminsky was leaving us. Mike Conneen’s brother Matt came by with two pots of vegetarian chili with all the fixin’s and fed the lot of us, the sort of kindness that has made this trip so outstanding. The IRL Paddle Adventurers would like to sincerely thank Matt Conneen for his delicious contribution.
The storks hoped for handouts that never came.
On the bright side of this particular stop, Karen of Karen’s Kayaks joined us for the overnight and the next day’s paddle and Brian the kayak fisherman joined us for three days.
Brian brought a cheering section.
A half-dozen wood storks hung around waiting for handouts. Since we had hardly caught any fish (a recurring theme on this trip) we had nothing for them. Feeding the wildlife is never a good idea anyway.
We paddled through miles of stinky water the next day. The seagrass has been replaced by a red alga that collects in depressions on the bottom where it rots. The rotting algae stinks. It was like that for miles.
This stuff collects and rots, raising quite the stink.
We thought we would catch some fish in the vicinity of Sebastian Inlet but no one did. Nearing Wabasso Rodney managed to get a slam- redfish, two snook, seatrout, and a crevalle thrown in for good measure. All the fish combined maybe would weigh two pounds.
The larger of Rodney’s two snook.
Our best redfish of the trip- so far.
Evening found us at the Environmental Learning Center at Wabasso, the nicest of this type of facility that I’ve seen. They allowed us to camp there, take showers, and wash our nasty clothes. Then, Lou and Laurie of Chive in Vero Beach came out with a portable kitchen and cooked us an amazing dinner- steak, shrimp, three-beans and rice, condiments, sauces, truly amazing stuff. The IRL Paddle Adventurers would like to sincerely thank Lou and Laurie for their delicious contribution.
I got confused navigating the next morning and missed the route I wanted to take. Because of that error we got to meet Dr. Grant Gilmore, who had come out to see us. We stopped and conversed about IRL fisheries and their protection. Apparently the county wants to put in a boat ramp at the location of the best seatrout spawning habitat remaining in the south end of the Indian River Lagoon. Dr. Gilmore does not think this is a good idea, and I agree with him.
Dr. Grant Gilmore makes a point.
Just north of the north causeway in Vero Beach the most amazing thing happened- we began seeing seagrass again. With the seagrass came all kinds of bait, too. Crabs, no. Large fish, no. Rays, no. But there was still grass there, and we’ve seen it more or less all the way to Jensen Beach.
Rodney’s son James and two of his friends joined us on the south side of Vero beach. They camped with us that night on the best spoil island of the trip. There was a pocket of deep water on the north side of it and we caught jacks and ladyfish there, most of us catching at least a few. I even broke out the fly rod and caught a ladyfish.
James was happy to see us too.
Sunset was spectacular, a gorgeous, calm evening.
James photographs the sunset.
Dusk at Home Sweet Home.
Morning broke gray and windy, a solid 15 from the north. Mim, a kayaker from Sebastian, joined us for the duration of the trip.
Mim truly is epic.
Rodney and I tied our canoe to Nick’s and we put up sails. We made great time to Fort Pierce and without thinking it through too well kept right on going. We stopped at a speck of dirt south of the causeway. Suddenly the wind doubled in intensity, pushing up big, ugly whitecaps. We had to leave- our speck would be underwater at high tide. So we made for the nearest shore. It was a tense, scary ride but fortunately everyone made it safely.
But now we had to find a place to stop.
The entire shoreline there is mangroves behind which are mosquito impoundments. There is no place to stop, much less camp. We got to Little Mud Creek just before sundown and that’s where we spent the night, wind howling, surf crashing.
There were miles of mangrove shorelines south of Fort Pierce.
We got going as early as possible the next morning. Our destination was Jensen Beach.
Both Caribbean Shores and River Palms Cottages offered us donated lodging. We ended up at River Palms, from where I type this. The IRL Paddle Adventurers would like to sincerely thank both facilities for their generous donation. My only regret is we couldn’t manage to stay at both places.
Mim bought all the Paddle Adventurers dinner last night. The IRL Paddle Adventurers would like to sincerely her for her generous donation!
Speaking of donations, you can still sponsor a paddler and donate to the MRC Education fund at this link…
We are scheduled to give a presentation at the Florida Oceanographic Institute in an hour. Tomorrow we recommence our adventure.
Life is short- go fishing.
Life is great and I love my work!
John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com
All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2013. All rights are reserved.
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