NRD: Homosassa FL trip

Carl

Carl

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Spent the week of our Mardi Gras break in Homosassa, FL. Got to kayak with the manatees, take our son on a couple of college tours and enjoy the warm weather. Only drawback was the no-see-ums that were thick in our campground. We all got bit up, them little buggers can even get through the screens of the camper.
Did see quite a few scaup out on the river while paddling and on our manatee tour. Guide said the hunting down there for scaup and redheads is actually pretty good.


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One note to anyone thinking about going down to that area to see the manatees, if you have the ability to paddle a kayak, don't bother with a guide. Rent kayaks and wet suits (or bring your own) and you can do it yourself. We paddled out of Hunter Spring Park over to the Three Sisters Spring area on our own as well as paddled the Homosassa River out of our campground and saw more manatees & had a better experience than we did with the guide.
Also, campgrounds down there book up fast, we booked almost a year in advance and the campground was full (mostly snowbirds) all week. Campgrounds in the area really pack them in, campers and RVs are 15' apart. They have to make money in the winter when its snowbird season. Nice facilities, but don't expect a "wilderness experience" at any of the private campgrounds.
Also, the Homosassa Wildlife State Park is worth the cost of admission. Lots of cool critters, all rehabs or non-releasable native wildlife.



And we bought an inexpensive Fujifilm waterproof camera (Fujifilm FX-XP95BL) to take on the trip, all pices were taken with it. It worked great, i was pleasantly surprised.
 
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looks like a fun trip. Manatees are definitely on the list of things to see

there are very few people up here at he campgrounds if you want a "wilderness experience," no bugs either!
 
It's been a while, but I was always impressed with the quality of camping facilities at Florida State Parks when I was doing trips down there. The campground at Myakka River State Park was a real highlight. Some nice facilities up in Ocala National Forest, too.

I never managed to see a manatee. Guess I should have been in Homosassa . . . . .
 
We are used to staying in Alabama State Parks, where, depending on which park you are in, there is 50-200' between camp sites. With all sorts of critters to be seen too.
So being packed in like sardines was quite a shock.

We will have to check out the state parks down there next time.
 
I highly reccomend it.
If you ever decide to go, let me know and I can offer some advice!
 
Yeah, it's definitely NOT wilderness camping. And the kids tossing marshmallows and tuna fish sandwiches at the gators were a little distracting. But the snook were fun!
 
How cool Carl. I have done the swim with the manatees thing several times. I have enjoyed it every time. Manatees are neat critters. When are you moving and have you guys decided where you will head to?

Noseeums are awful...hate em worse than mosquitoes. Steve has a spray that works pretty well but something in it REALLY attracts honey bees and very quickly.

Believe it or not, snook are being caught up here. No keeper sizes yet but if we continue to have one or two more mold winters, there will be keepers up here. And I saw a post and confirmation of someone having caught a bonefish up around panama city beach i believe it was. The ocean is so neat....never know what you might pull in on a line
 
Looks like we will be moving to the interbay area of Tampa, north of McDill. On this recent trip, we toured the middle school and looked at houses in the area. Really neat area. Lots of older (1940-50's) homes with good size yards, which is what we are looking for. The middle school has a great advanced curriculum, as does the local high school. And there is a Trader Joe's less than 2 miles away!

1 year, 3 months, 5 days and 16 hours to go to state retirement, but who's counting??? [;)]

I saw plenty of keeper size snook in the spring at Homosassa State Wildlife Park! Along with a mess of redfish, sheepshead and small grey snapper. And a mess of big mullet, which apparently is not considered food-fish like they are in the Panhandle, AL & MS.

I heard about the bonefish caught over in PC last summer. Permit are also showing up more and more along our coast. Lots of guys confuse them with pompano, you have to look closely to tell them apart.

Speaking of turkeys, I talked hen turkey to these 3 boys at Homosassa SWP, after that they followed me down the fence, strutting, drumming & gobbling every step of the way!




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Thanks for the pics, we need to do that trip one winter or spring break. Do they rent harpoons?
 
yes, but you have to be a resident to get in the lottery for a tag.

[shocked]
 
Carl,


Homosassa Springs is a neat place. I try to talk friends who are going to Florida to check it out. I don't think anyone ever has. Their loss!

Tom
 
Neat on your relocating to Tampa. Hope y'all enjoy it lots. And your retirement :)

Those are some beautiful gobblers. My neighbor has a yard gobbler that has been gobbling pretty fierce for about two months now. Morning and evening. I take great pleasure in getting him fired up as often as possible
 
We had manatees in the canal by our apartment in the winter. Really cool to see. Between Homosassa and Tampa is Tarpon springs. Lake Tarpon covers a lot of ground from Tarpon Springs in the north to Palm Harbor to the south. Caught a lot of bass on that lake when I lived down there. You need two fishing licensees down there one for salt and one for fresh. You probably already know that and you probably already know this. http://ocean.floridamarine.org/wma/entrances/. Dani, Steve and Hitch can get you into some good waterfowling. Not much waterfowling around Tampa but when your ready I'll show you a couple of places on the map you have to know about or you'll look right pass them. Information in the area is kind of hard to come by but get on the Florida Waterfowls site http://floridawaterfowler.com/forums.html. I met some great people willing to help when I was there.
 
Unfortunately, the floridawaterfowler.com forum has shut down. I wouldn't hold my breath at it coming back...
 
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