It’s crazy how fast time away seems to go, and crazier still
how fast it seems like you never left once you get back.
This year Liz and I split up our time in Florida over two trips
so our normal May trip was cut back to just last week. We took off in the evening on Thursday night
and by lunchtime on Friday we had our toes in the sand. Shortly after arrival I decided to go for a
quick run on the beach to stretch out the legs.
It was hot so the run lasted all of a mile out and a mile back. I saw Liz was already at the pool so I
dropped by to grab the key and sat down next to her, ‘just for a minute’ though
since I had no sunscreen on yet. An hour
later I woke up…yeah, that was a bad call. Without looking I knew pants, not shorts, were
going to be the clothing for the week.
On Saturday morning we got up and drove another few hours
south to meet up with Capt John Meskauskas from Stuart Fly Fishing and The Flying Fish Paddle Sports to
pick up five paddle boards and paddles to add to the fleet Liz is putting
together. It was great to finally get to
meet him and put a name with a Facebook face.
Looking forward to catching back up with him to chase around some fish
in October. We would have stuck around
longer but had to get back to NSB for the wedding of our good friends Mike and
Daniella. The wedding and reception were
feet apart on the beach and in their yard, and it was a awesome night full of
laughs. The after party moved over to
Flagler Tavern which, as luck would have it, was right next to where we stay so
a simple late night walk on the beach back to the condo.
Sunday we woke up with the sun, as is the norm for us, and
were anxious to get the boards out as it looked like the best day of the
weeks. We got all of the gear loaded up
and headed south to the Canaveral Seashore.
Twenty minutes from the door we were paddling south. Once we hit the flats that I thought might
produce I hopped off, tied off the boards to me and proceeded to blind fish for
speckled trout and redfish. While I was
fishing Liz soaked up some sun and did some yoga on one of the new boards. It passed her approval and I caught fish so
the day was a win! We left after a few
hours smiling and headed back to town as it was time for me to get out of the sun
and head to Peanuts for some quiz game and Yueng. For those not in the know, if you have ever
seen TVs at a bar with quiz questions and people answering for points on little
blue remote boxes…that is the Buzztime quiz game and the Peanuts crew is the
number one in the country at it. Always
a good time when I head up there and usually keeps me from turning too crispy. After a bit Liz came to get me and off to
dinner we went. That is pretty much how
any day without a guide trip usually goes; short run, paddle/fish, lunch/pool,
Peanuts, dinner, sleep and repeat.
On Monday I had a trip set to hit the water. I normally go out with my good friend Capt
Mike Mann of Fat Fish Guide Service but it was his wedding on Saturday that we
went to and he had a honeymoon to see about, so I was on my own this trip. I touched base with Capt Justin Price of
Right In Sight Charters back at the start of the year to make sure I would be
able to get out. We met up early and
headed to the water. I started off with
the fly, and was blind casting a small popper in some small back flats. I truly mean blind casting as the sun was not
totally up yet and there was a thick covering of clouds so the visibility below
was at zero. It did not take long before
the first ‘almost-action’ of the day. As
I was retrieving the popper the telltale wake of a large redfish appeared right
behind it and was tracking. It all
seemed to happen in slow motion as the fish came on, tracked, moved in and the
fly disappeared…except maybe that it didn’t.
I thought I had seen the take and set the fly to nothing…pulling the fly
away from the now spooked fish. Exciting
start to the day but strike one was definitely on me. The sun was struggling to burn through the
clouds so after a while of no more action I agreed to throw a DOA paddletail
for a while and it did not take long to get on the board. Got in to some nice reds and trout,
including my largest speckled trout to date…and it was the smaller of the two I
had been sight casting to! Solidly on
the board and with manageable wind we went back to the fly and proceeded to
have shots to at least another half dozen Reds who promptly ignored multiple
well placed fly offerings. They really
can be uppity in the goon. All in all it
was a great time on the water with Justin.
The only day the rest of the week that did not fit the
formula (short run, paddle/fish, lunch/pool, Peanuts, dinner) was Thursday when
we headed across the state for the final two boards for Liz. The weather was forecasted to be really bad
so being in the car wasn’t such a bad thing.
Couldn’t tell how bad it looked when we took off since it was 4:30 in
the morning and dark but the lack of visible stars told the story well enough. The original plan had been to head over to
Madeira Beach and paddle the bay for a few hours before coming back. They have different water there than what we
normally see and it’s loaded with manatees and dolphins. The wind was too much to be out safely though
and the clouds were threatening so we basically picked up the boards and were
back in NSB by lunchtime. We tried to get
out for a walk on the beach and get the bikes out but there were some nasty storms
and rain that just wouldn’t go away. I
took a break in the rain as an opportunity to head to Peanuts while keeping
mostly dry. Sitting there I got the
flash on my phone that we were in a tornado warning so poked my head out and it
was really creepy…we could watch the eye wall rotating but thankfully never
come down. We were not spared the water
though…it came down so hard I could not see across the street. The weather was bad but it was the best run
of quiz game for the week with three consecutive national number one bar scores
and all three had me top ten personal scoring!
-mike schmidt
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