Route #9: April 26, 2008
Gandy Bridge to Cypress Point Park

“Frustrating Miles” – Well, another day of Paddle Around the Bay has come. Joining me today would be the biggest crew yet, my normal fishing buddy Ken and his friend Matt, Chuck and Norm, who have both paddled on another leg with me and first timer Chris. The plan was for everyone to meet at the North side of the Gandy Bridge, drop the kayaks off and then we would preposition a few of the vehicles up at the Cypress Point Park. Upon arrival at the park, we found it was not open yet. It is supposed to open at sunrise, but evidentially someone with the city of Tampa has no idea what time sunrise was, because we waited a frustrating 30 to 45 minutes for someone to come, which they never did. Finding an alternate parking location, we hurried back to our kayaks, only to find the rest of the crew already fishing. Well, I can’t blame them. With glassy smooth conditions, we headed off.

The Gandy Bridge. The old bridge was left in place and is now part of the Friendship Trail.

There was a school of jacks hanging around the launch area, I think everyone of us had a shot at them, but Ken came away with the grand prize, two on one lure.

That Ken sure can fish, just ask him!

This stretch of the trip would offer us a mixture of mangrove coast line as well as residential docks to fish. Combine the two with some really nice deep grass flats and it promised to be a potentially good day for catching some nice fish.

The gang coming around one of the many residential points that we came across on this trip.

Some of the local kids cooling off.

This is view of the Howard Franklin Bridge, which is the middle bridge of three that connects Tampa to the St. Pete, Clearwater area. We had to paddle quite a long distance out towards the actual bridge before we could cross under it.

We took a little break for some lunch before heading out.

L to R, Norm, Ken, Bill, Chris, Chuck, Matt

Despite the great conditions, the fishing was not all the great. A couple of us did manage to catch a few though, mostly trout. Chuck did lose a nice snook early on that left him shaking for awhile.

Norm with a nice fat trout.

Chuck fighting a mystery fish.

Once again, this leg of the trip offered up some good wildlife photos.

Chuck working an area around Cypress Point. This area happens to be at one end of Tampa International Airport, so we had passenger jets taking off all day long.

For the most of this trip I have not really commented on the condition of the bay, as it has been pretty good I think. You see some debris along the shore from time to time, but no real big piles of trash to speak of. However, on this leg of the trip we did run across some areas that really could use some attention. On one particular shoreline, we ran across a portable generator amongst other things. One of the things that really stands out are the plastic drink bottles. In a spot right by the Howard Franklin Bridge there is an area where the tide and wind must push them up on shore, there must have been thousands of those drink bottles all piled up there. Thinking back, I really wish I would have taken a picture of that.

Well, another leg of Paddle Around the Bay is in the books, we did 10.17 miles today, bringing the total up to 65.25 miles paddled. It seems like a long way and every time I start thinking about how close I’m getting to the finish, I look across the bay to where I have to go and it seems even further away.

Thanks to Ken, Norm, Chuck, Chris and Matt for joining me.