Route #15: August 17, 2008
Gandy Bridge to Demens Landing

“Nervous Feelings” – Have you ever had that nervous, uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach before doing something? That’s how I felt when I awoke at 4 am this morning. Perhaps I was worried about the weather. Maybe it was the distance I had to travel today, or it was just plain old nervous excitement. With just a few legs to go, I’m looking forward to finishing this trek and the anticipation of the last few days is kind of nerve racking. So after dropping off the truck, Peter, myself and John from the Paddle-Fishing forum headed out from the Gandy towards Weedon Island.
Just past the channel that runs in front of the beach on the Gandy, I noticed a swirl just in front of my kayak. All of a sudden, WHAM. I’m lifted a couple of feet in the air, water floods over the bow of my kayak and I’m thinking “OK here I go for a swim” Yep, I had spooked two huge manatees. Went right over them. You know, those things can really move fast when they want to. When it was all over, Peter looked over at me and said “Well, you know that nervous feeling you had? That was it!”

Sunrise at Weedon Island. Photo courtesy of Bill

I did manage to catch a small Jack first thing in the morning. Photo courtesy of Peter

John working some the mangrove shoreline that lines Weedon. Photo courtesy of Bill

One of the many coves that lead into the nature preserve. Photo courtesy of Bill

In between not catching many fish today, I got some shots of the shore birds hanging out along the shoreline. Photo courtesy of Bill

We were waiting for the tide to change and when it did the action picked up. Several Ospreys were out and about grabbing a quick meal. Unfortunately, the fish didn’t. Photo courtesy of Bill

I was keeping an eye out on the weather all morning; so far we had been lucky with the weather. Today would be iffy. I was watching a storm that was south of us, moving towards the east side of the bay that looked very ominous. Photo courtesy of Bill

As I kept on eye on this storm, all of a sudden out drops a small funnel cloud. Photo courtesy of Bill

After this storm had moved across the bay, the winds shifted and gave us a really tough time as we paddled on towards St. Petersburg. Photo courtesy of Bill

St. Petersburg. Photo courtesy of Peter

Peter arriving at the St. Pete pier. Couldn’t get a shot of John, he didn’t want to lose any momentum by stopping. Photo courtesy of Bill

Like I said earlier, we have been lucky with the weather, that is until today. No sooner did the bow of my kayak hit the boat ramp at Demens landing, the heavens opened up and we got soaked. I’m just glad it waited until we were done before it started. Here we are pulling into Demens Landing in downtown St. Pete. Photo courtesy of Peter

We paddled 10.1 miles today to bring the total up to 115.9 miles paddled around the bay. Besides catching a jack very early this morning, I got 2 trout and a small ladyfish. Man, I’m in a serious slump as far as fishing goes.

As usually, I really enjoyed the company today and look forward to another leg of Paddle Around the Bay.