Route #10: May 24, 2008
Cypress Point Park to Ben T. Davis Beach

“Back in the Saddle” – After being out of commission for a couple of weeks, it felt great to get back out on the water. I recently under went surgery to remove a cataract from my right eye. Yes, I am quite young to have had a cataract, I heard that from everyone involved with my surgery, but be that has it may, I had one and it could no longer be corrected with glasses. So, with my new 20/20 vision I set out this morning to put some more miles in.

Joining me this morning was one half of my regular paddling partners, Ken . The other half and second cameraman Peter, was busy with a charter. I certainly hope Peter did better than Ken and I did today. While the weather started off perfect, the tide and the fish did not cooperate.

The morning started out with absolutely no wind, combined with the lower tide, Ken and I took the opportunity to do some wading.

Not the best leg of the route for picture taking, but we did have some local wildlife. Seems like the last two times out, my camera has been giving me troubles, therefore this picture seems a little bit blurry. This Heron or Egret, don’t remember which one it is, watched us for quite some time. My mom would be disappointed in me for not remembering; she loved the birds of Florida and used to drag me along on bird watching expeditions.

We intended on stopping at Ben T. Davis beach, which is a small beach on the Tampa side of the Courtney Campbell Causeway, but it seems they do not open the gates until sunrise, so we had to make alternate plans.

Ben T. Davis beach.

We dropped off a vehicle at the Courtney Campbell boat ramp and planned on paddling around the bridge to the ramp.

As we paddled along, Ken mentioned the fact we had not seen any big bait schools, when all of a sudden there they were, right smack in front of us. These were big threadfins.

Ken tied on a Gotch Plug and on his first cast it was fish on!

I got in on the action as well. This would be my only catch of the day.

As the wind started picking up, the distance to the bridge seem to increase and since we were just across the causeway from our vehicle, we made the treacherous portage of our kayaks up across the breakwater and up on to an access road.

We called it a day around lunch time. As I waited for Ken to go get my truck, I sat in the shade and contemplated my adventure so far, why I started and what I have yet to accomplish. I just hope I can. A month or so ago, after a trip to Sea World with the family, I started having trouble with my blood pressure. I’ve had high blood press for about eight years and have been able to control it with medication, but lately it’s gotten out of hand. Three years ago I had some similar problems that led my doctors to find some issues with my heart and renal arteries. Eventually they went away, but after the last few months, I fear they have come back. How ironic is it that I will be seeing my cardiologist again in the coming weeks?

Ken and I paddled 7.5 miles, bringing the total for the trip to 72.8 miles. My next leg will be from the Courtney Campbell boat ramp to Double Branch Creek. This is one of my favorite places to fish and I’m really looking forward to it.