08/07/2010 - The Venice, Florida Kayak Fossil Dive Trip

Saturday August 07, 2010 - The Venice, Florida Kayak Fossil Dive Trip

We arrived in Venice on Friday afternoon and stopped by the Florida West Scuba dive shop to pick up a few tanks for the dive. The people at the Florida West Scuba School were very accommodating and helpful. Our plan was simple. We were going to load up the kayaks with scuba gear, paddle out a half of a mile or so, and do a fossil dive using the kayaks as a dive platform.

We had been by the Brownie factory in Fort Lauderdale on the previous day. We picked up a 60’ kayak dive hose kit there which Deanna had planned to use on the Venice dive. She removed the 1^st and 2^nd stages from her dive regulator setup and installed them on her new kayak dive hose. This allows her to leave the tank strapped to the kayak and do a fossil dive with just the low pressure hose. The only down side to this method is the air pressure gauge stays up on the kayak as well. Since we were planning a fairly shallow fossil dive in some 20’ -25’ of water and since I was around with a standard BC and regulator we felt this was an acceptable risk.

We arrived at the beach near the 3 condo buildings in Venice at 10:00 AM. We unloaded the gear from the vehicle and started hauling it down to the beach. We moved the kayaks, one at a time, and then carried the tanks down to the beach. This was no small endeavor as the beach was quite wide and sandy. When we had all of the gear stowed on the kayaks and were ready to hit the water we were already getting quite hot. The air temperature was climbing past 90°F on this beautiful summer day. There were at least 4 shore divers in the water, as was evidenced by floating dive flags that you are required to drag around when diving this fossil dive. There were also divers in the water a bit farther out who were using the Hammerhead dive boat as their dive platform.

The paddle out into the Gulf was amazingly easy. There were 2’ swells and the occasional boat wake to deal with, but it was no more difficult than our experience in the Wando River back in South Carolina. We were out among the shore divers in very little time and continued on toward the dive boats. When we were roughly half the way between the shore divers and the dive boat (1/2 mile offshore) we anchored our kayaks to gear up for our fossil dive. About this time my wife expressed concern about dizziness and high body temperatures. We thought about getting her into the water to cool down, but then decided that it would be most difficult for me to load her unconscious body back onto the kayak if things went wrong. We decided that it is always best to err on the side of safety and agreed to abort the dive portion of our trip. After all, we were successfully completing our first ocean kayaking aboard our sit-on-top kayaks at that alone would make it worthwhile.

We headed back to the shoreline with a little more haste than our leisurely paddle out. When we reached the shore we poured water over our heads and the cooling helped to keep the heat exhaustion at bay. Dragging the gear back up the sandy beach was an uphill battle. I had the lovely experience of dragging all of the gear back to the vehicle staging area by myself while Deanna recovered from the near heat stroke. This left me extremely hot as well.

We loaded the gear back into the vehicle in the hot Florida sun. Although the dive tanks were still full we did have a good time on the water. In the future, we should take Bonine before hitting ocean waters (although not much of an issue on this trip waves could create more of a problem) and we should start out earlier in the day before the temperatures reach their peak. We will definitely get our dive tanks from the nice folks at Florida West Scuba School.

05/30/2010 - The Hatchery Fishing Trip

Sunday May 30, 2010 - The Hatchery Fishing Trip

(Fishing report on Santee Cooper lakes)

(Map of The Hatchery from Berkeley Blueways)

We left the Hatchery Boat Landing on Lake Moultrie at 5:00 PM. There were a number of people fishing nearby, but for a Memorial Day weekend it wasn't overwhelming. We put in our kayaks from the unused little boat ramp to the right of the dock. It was a balmy day with high temperatures and humidity. We were joined by our friend Linda for this Memorial Day weekend fish-n-paddle.

We headed out to the right along the canal, parallel to the levee, and immediately faced a head wind. We thought being among all of those trees would stop the wind. We were wrong. Still, it was not as bad as the wind on a wide open expanse of water. We could comfortably paddle up the canal, but in the enclosed space we had rather large wakes from the passing bass boats. Almost immediately, I took a large wake wave over the bow that provided cooling water and required pulling the scupper plug to drain out water. My seat remained wet for the rest of the trip.

When we arrived at the first cut that leads out to the stump field, we stopped to fish for a while. It was drift fishing with the wind unless we dropped anchor to keep us in place. I caught 2 of the smallest bass known to mankind using yellow RoadRunners and released them (of course). We fished this area for a while and threw everything we had at them. We tried RoadRunners, top water baits, crank baits, RattleTraps, jigs, jigs with worms, and Texas rigged plastic worms. The fish were just not cooperating. We talked to several other groups of fishermen and all of them had similar stories. One group said that they had been there for 4 days in a row with no luck.

We did get to see an osprey family fly in with a fish to feed the youngsters in the nest near the cut. It was mesmerizing to watch them fly in from way up in the sky while screaming to the kiddos below. Ok, so who hasn't screamed at the kiddos from time to time? This was an awesome sight to see, but we had to move on down the canal if we wanted another attempt at catching the elusive large mouth bass.

We moved down to the next cut in the left side levee and while I changed bait the ladies paddled through the cut. I soon followed, of course, so as not to be seen as a girlie man. There was a 3 foot path through what was a solid expanse of lily-pads. This looks like an awesome place to pull out a few bass using plastic worms or other weedless hooks. It also looked like an excellent place for the local alligators to hang out while waiting for a tasty kayakker to drop in for dinner. Not wanting to be dinner, I paddled out the other end of the lily-pad field into the lake. The ladies were at the other side of the lily-pads casting away in an attempt to snag a big fish. We fished for about 1/2 an hour before the rapidly setting sun made us head back through gator country and back towards the takeout point.

The wind stopped blowing on the way back to the boat ramp. The water was flat as a pancake and we had to fight the urge to stay here fishing all night. The sunset was around 8:20 and we were on the water at that time with a bit more paddling before us. We kept up a nice leisurely pace as we paddled back and enjoyed the sunset at The Hatchery.

We arrived back at the landing around 8:35 PM. We were able to take out the kayaks at the same boat ramp that we had left from. We packed up the gear and loaded the kayaks with the headlights from Linda's vehicle. Although the fish were largely uncooperative, we still had a lovely time at The Hatchery! In the future, we need to come back around the April time frame and tear up those bass on the nest in the stump fields. There are no lights at this boat ramp!! It gets VERY dark after sunset and even the people in bass boats were having difficulty finding the dock after dark.

05/29/10 - Wando River Redfish Trip

Saturday May 29, 2010 - Wando River Redfish Trip

(Tide listing for Big Paradise Island on Wando River)

Low Tide: 4:30 PM (0.0 ft)

High Tide: 11:32 PM (7.6 ft)

We left the Claude M. Blanchard, Jr. Landing, (aka Paradise Island Landing) on the Wando River at 2:00 PM. There were less boats here today than 2 weeks ago. There were about 6 or 8 teenagers swimming from the boat ramp out to the sand bar nearby while their mother fished from the shore. We were able to put in our kayaks from the center of the boat ramp. It was a beautiful 87 degree day for a Memorial Day weekend fish-n-paddle.

There was a strong tail wind as we paddled with the ebbing tide. This made the paddling easy, but it created issues whenever we wanted to stop and fish the inlets of the tidal creeks dumping into the Wando River. Deanna brilliantly solved the problem when she whipped out her anchor and parked herself in the mouth of the creek inlet. The anchors proved to be the thing we were most happy to have brought along on this trip!!

There were a number of recreational boaters and jet skis based out of the docks on the opposing shore, but this was Memorial Day weekend. We were in the more shallow waters and this allowed us to get a great view of the dolphin that was feeding nearby. The dolphin swam right by us on his/her way back out to sea!!

We ended up near the mouth of the tidal creek marked on the map at low tide. We fished this area for about an hour. I tried brown jigs tipped with crawfish colored Zoom plastic baits and black jigs tipped with Gulp shrimp, but the redfish and sea trout were not biting either today. Deanna was using a silver RattleTrap. Deanna caught 2 flounder here with one coming in at 13", just one inch short of the legal minimum. He was a nice fish and looked yummy, but Deanna reluctantly released him back into the Wando.

The paddle back to the boat ramp was more work than we anticipated. The head wind was very strong and would push us down river if we stopped paddling. However, the rising tide was a beneficial thing and we did make the paddle back. We stopped at a few spots along the way back, but the baitfish weren't jumping much after the hour since low tide had elapsed. We did spot a redfish in the marsh grass when we neared the boat ramp. We were unsuccessful in getting him in our boats.

We arrived back at the landing around 7:30 PM. The boat ramp was deserted except for a few vehicles left with boat trailers attached. We were able to take out the kayaks in the center of the boat ramp with no company around. We packed up the gear and loaded the kayaks with plenty of daylight left. It was a beautiful day for a fish-n-paddle and we loved it!! In the future, we should always take the anchor on kayak fishing trips and we should recheck our lines after catching fish with teeth to avoid losing our tackle.

05/15/10 - Cat Island Trip on Wando River

Saturday May 15, 2010 - Cat Island Trip on Wando River

(Tide listing for Big Paradise Island on Wando River)

Low Tide: 4:26 PM (-0.3 ft)

High Tide: 11:17 PM (7.8 ft)

We left the Claude M. Blanchard, Jr. Landing, (aka Paradise Island Landing) on the Wando River at 3:30 PM. There were more than twice the normal number of fishing boats here because of the new moon, the associated astronomical low tides, and the redfish. Numerous boats were being taken out at the landing, but due to the new moon the tide was lower than many expected. I’ve never seen people struggle so much to take out boats in what was 12 – 18 inches of water. The end of the boat ramp was above the water line, so the boaters were backing their trailers down off the sides of the ramp. Trailers and vehicles were getting stuck in the pluff mud around the ramp. Of course, in our kayaks we were able to throw the boats in and paddle off with no trouble.

There was a strong head wind and it created a challenge getting down river. We looked forward to returning with a tail wind on the return trip. The baitfishes were jumping all around us in the shallows as we skirted the edge of the river. There were many fishermen on the water and they were having a great day catching large Redfish. One boat also reported catching a few Sea Trout. The local DNR officer said the reds love to be caught in the low tide. We saw the local DNR officer towing 2 kayaks up river because they were kayak fishing without PFDs, whistles, or even fishing licenses. We thought that this would be an easy, if not expense, way to get a tow back up river if we got into trouble.

We arrived at Cat Island at around 5:30. This was later than we had hoped, but with the head wind and the changing of the tides near the end of our trip this rate wasn’t too bad. There were about a dozen boats, jet skis, etc on the beach at Cat Island when we arrived. Some even had tents pitched above the tree line. We were a bit disappointed at the party going on at the site we had worked so hard to get to, but we still hit the beach to check out the fossil scene.

We went to the far end of the beach on Cat Island (towards Hwy 41) and began our search. We quickly started finding shark teeth, fish vertebrae, and pieces of stingray grinding plates. With only about 30 minutes to search the beach, we each found a handful of fossils. Of course, Deanna found twice as many as I did with some outstanding micro teeth. We had to tear ourselves away to make the trip back to the landing before darkness set in.

We left Cat Island at 6:30 PM and started back to the landing. The rising tide made the trip back much easier. The shifting winds sometimes came around to the side and front of us. Along the way we saw a boat near a dock on the East bank with a large Redfish they just caught. They were taking pictures of the angler and his fish from every possible angle.

We arrived back at the landing around 8:00 PM. The sunset was phenomenal and we still had plenty of light to get the gear packed up and the kayaks loaded before the mosquitoes started biting. All in all it was a great day out on the water and we had successfully scouted out Cat Island. In the future, we will leave a little earlier to let the ebbing tide help us get down river a little better. We will avoid extreme winds whenever possible and spend more time on Cat Island fossil hunting.

05/08/10 - Edisto River Trip - Springtown to Weeks Landing

Saturday May 8, 2010 - Edisto River Trip - Springtown to Weeks Landing

(Tide listing for Canaday Landing on Edisto River)

Low Tide: 4:16 PM EDT (0.39 ft)

High Tide: 9:04 PM EDT (0.84 ft)

Sunset: 8:08 PM

(USGS Gage at Givhans Ferry State Park on Edisto River)

Gage Height: 2.81 feet

Discharge: 735 ft3/sec

The tides don’t really affect your trip much this far up the Edisto River, so we decided to make this a one way trip down the river. Our friend Linda went with us on this trip. We staged her vehicle at Weeks Landing, our take out point, across the river from Colleton State Park. We left the boat landing in Springtown on the Edisto River at 3:30 PM. There were only two other vehicles parked there at the time. We launched our kayaks off the end of the ramp with no trouble at all. The river was low, but still flowing at a nice pace for a leisurely paddle down the river. A check of the USGS river gage at Givhans Ferry State Park showed the gage height at 2.81 feet and the flow at 735 ft³/sec. It was a balmy 90° F with a nice breeze cooling us on our trip.

We took our fishing gear and paddled (or floated) down the river in search of the mighty Sunfish. A short time down the river one of us got our fishing line tangled in the overhanging trees and the line would not break. We found out quickly that the line tension will pull you right up under the branches of the trees lining the banks of the Edisto. We managed to get the line to break and soon were on our way. We all ended up casting into a tree at some point along the trip. The yank hard and hope for the best method seemed to work best. We freed our fishing lure better than half the time this way. We did manage to catch the elusive Sunfish on this trip!

We stopped at a sandy bank along the way and ate the sandwiches that we brought with us. There were actually several sandy banks on this stretch of the river and we stopped to stretch on two of them. There were a few submerged logs and stumps to avoid since the river was low. The sweepers (low hanging tree branches) along the river banks could also be challenging if you end up under them and in swift current. Staying to the middle of the river was generally the best plan of attack.

Near the end of the trip, we passed by the SCE&G plant that was close to Colleton State Park. The river banks were a lovely rust color through this section of the Edisto. We stayed as far from the banks as possible. We also stopped fishing, because we didn’t want to catch any 3 eyed fish with feet.

We arrived at Weeks Landing around 8:00 PM. We paddled up to the dock on the upriver side and climbed out onto the dock. This was not an easy task. The dock was at least 2 -3 feet above the water level. We pulled the kayaks up onto the dock because the boat ramp was crowded with motorized boaters who might have had a beer or two. The light was beginning to fade as the ladies went back to get the other vehicle. We loaded up in the dark with the lights from Linda’s vehicle lighting the way. This was a very enjoyable trip with minimal effort expended in the water. In the future, we want to check the river gauges at Givhans Ferry again and to bring plenty of water. We might want to reconsider leaving the fishing gear at home if the river discharge level is higher, because it was challenging enough at 735 ft³/sec. We should also exit the boats on the ramp, instead of the dock.