Route #3: February 9, 2008
Cockroach Bay to E.G. Simmons Park

I had optimistic hopes this morning as I stood in my driveway around 5:30 am. I could feel a slight North breeze and if I can feel any breeze at my house, I know its going to be worse out on the water. So, with hopes of the wind dying down, I headed off to meet my paddling partners for this trip, Jay (SRQgator), my partner in all of this and Ken (KPMiggs) my regular fishing buddy. After taking care of some transportation problems, Jay and I arrived at the ramp at Cockroach to find it full of kayakers.

Once out on the flats, we tried to wade some potholes before continuing on towards Simmons. The stiff North wind was making it difficult to see anything moving and after working the potholes for what seemed like an eternity, I finally hooked up with what I had been looking for.

Continuing on to the north, we passed Big Pass and Marys Lake and finally stopped at Mags Hole. It was a good stop as the wind had picked up some. Ken and I both managed a couple of trout, but the bite was pretty slow, so we headed off in search of more fish. In a pass that leads into what is called Lil Cockroach Bay, I hooked a flounder, Jay caught a rat red, and then I caught one that had a ton of spots on it.

Jay has taken up the fly rod, so once we got out of the wind, he gave it a try.

We moved back out onto the flats, deciding that it would be best if we continued on towards Simmons when it started to rain slightly. Well, that was a blessing as the wind completely died down and the tails came out. I don’t know how many redfish we saw, it was quite a few.

Ken was the first to hook up with this beauty, 25” 8 lbs.

Mangrove Islands inside Lil Cockroach Bay

Shoreline at the mouth of the Little Manatee River.

I managed two more, but dropped one just as Ken was going to snap a picture. Oh well.

Since the wind died down, we paddled straight across the mouth of the Lil Manatee instead of hugging the shoreline, it took quite a bit of time off our trip. The calm conditions made for an easy paddle.

Pulling into Simmons around 2:30pm, I checked the GPS, we had gone 8.4 miles over the course of the day. The tally was 4 redfish, 1 trout and 1 flounder. Despite the shaky start, it ended up as a good day and I was glad that Jay and Ken could join me.