Fishing wasnt that great and almost got ourselves in BIG trouble! We got on the water at about 0700 with dense fog. No worries, forecast called for sunny conditions and highs in the low 70's, needless to say I dressed accordingly. Well the fog didnt lift until about 1530 and was DENSE all day, 300 yards viz max. Temps barely made it into the mid 50's. I came with only shorts, long sleeved shirt and a pair of crocs. I brought a hoodie and sweat pants for the run out, thank god cause I needed them all day but with no socks it was still pretty cool.
The Crystal River area is an area with two warm water discharges into the Gulf, the spring fed Crystal River itself as well as the discharge from the Nuke plant. The area is very shallow littered with oyster beds and islands.
We fished in my buddies 16ft Bass Tracker type boat. We had calm seas and headed out 12 miles in the Gulf of Mexico to some rocks to try for grouper. No dice, couldnt buy a bite! Besides, 12 miles out with no visibility and no radar gets spooky. We head inland thinking that due to the extreme cold we can find fish stacked up at the warm water discharge. We found plenty of boats but no fish. Then we decide to make the run up the Crystal river to the freshwater springs where the water is a constant 72 degrees! The fog finally lifts and we have bluebird skies!! We dont get much, TONS of ladyfish, and a few mangrove snapper, speckled sea trout and jack crevalle, all in 100% freshwater, it blew my mind! The warm water drew in the manatees as well, we had tons around us, saw at least a dozen in one small area. Had the one in the pic below come right up to the boat, could have given him a kiss on the nose if I wanted!
Anyhow, the sun sets and we start the six mile run back to the mouth of the river and then the half mile run or so from the mouth to the boat ramp. We have about 30 minutes of daylight left, clear blue skies and only a 15-20 minute ride. About a mile down river we hit some fog that made the fog earlier in the day look like a joke. This stuff was so dense it was eerie, maybe a 30 yard visibility. We had to idle out to avoid hitting other boats. Of course at idle speed or a little more, we ran out of daylight FAST. As we come up to the trickiest part where we have to navigate through shallow oyster beds with an opening maybe 25ft to fit through, we are now flying totally blind. All we could rely on was the back track feature of the GPS. However due to the dense fog it was hard to stay on course as you had no reference point to point the bow to and go in a straight line. We found ourselves feeling like we were going straight but instead the boat would be veering off course. Then the worse happens, out of fuel because we had to back track so many times to get off course! We had made it back into the Gulf and were heading back south east about a half mile from the Marina when we ran out of gas. We did have an electric trolling motor. For those of you that dont know, a GPS isnt like a compass, it does not tell you where you are facing, rather where you are going. This can be an issue when you have wind, tide, and a small motor pushing a boat. We thought navigating in a straight heading with the gas motor was hard until we had to do it with the electric. We spent over half an hour to just go maybe a tenth of a mile in the right direction and thank God we had an incoming tide, if not we definitely would have had to throw anchor and wait it out until morning. With an expected low in the low to mid thirties and no socks and little layers, we would have made it but been VERY cold. We finally make it through the trickiest part of the oyster beds and finally at just less then a tenth of a mile from the marina we finally see the first thing besides the glow of the GPS, the lights at the ramp! We did have a spotlight but the fog was so dense it just blinded us when we turned it on.
Ive NEVER felt so happy getting off a boat in life as I did that night. We learned some valuable lessons Saturday that is for sure. It took us over three hours when under normal conditions it would have only taken us at most, 20 minutes.
We did see some great wildlife though besides the manatees, a bald eagle, many different species of ducks, and gulls, brown and white pelicans, comerants and loons, and dolphins. The area is very natural, almost prehistoric looking, a beautiful place!
The Crystal River area is an area with two warm water discharges into the Gulf, the spring fed Crystal River itself as well as the discharge from the Nuke plant. The area is very shallow littered with oyster beds and islands.
We fished in my buddies 16ft Bass Tracker type boat. We had calm seas and headed out 12 miles in the Gulf of Mexico to some rocks to try for grouper. No dice, couldnt buy a bite! Besides, 12 miles out with no visibility and no radar gets spooky. We head inland thinking that due to the extreme cold we can find fish stacked up at the warm water discharge. We found plenty of boats but no fish. Then we decide to make the run up the Crystal river to the freshwater springs where the water is a constant 72 degrees! The fog finally lifts and we have bluebird skies!! We dont get much, TONS of ladyfish, and a few mangrove snapper, speckled sea trout and jack crevalle, all in 100% freshwater, it blew my mind! The warm water drew in the manatees as well, we had tons around us, saw at least a dozen in one small area. Had the one in the pic below come right up to the boat, could have given him a kiss on the nose if I wanted!
Anyhow, the sun sets and we start the six mile run back to the mouth of the river and then the half mile run or so from the mouth to the boat ramp. We have about 30 minutes of daylight left, clear blue skies and only a 15-20 minute ride. About a mile down river we hit some fog that made the fog earlier in the day look like a joke. This stuff was so dense it was eerie, maybe a 30 yard visibility. We had to idle out to avoid hitting other boats. Of course at idle speed or a little more, we ran out of daylight FAST. As we come up to the trickiest part where we have to navigate through shallow oyster beds with an opening maybe 25ft to fit through, we are now flying totally blind. All we could rely on was the back track feature of the GPS. However due to the dense fog it was hard to stay on course as you had no reference point to point the bow to and go in a straight line. We found ourselves feeling like we were going straight but instead the boat would be veering off course. Then the worse happens, out of fuel because we had to back track so many times to get off course! We had made it back into the Gulf and were heading back south east about a half mile from the Marina when we ran out of gas. We did have an electric trolling motor. For those of you that dont know, a GPS isnt like a compass, it does not tell you where you are facing, rather where you are going. This can be an issue when you have wind, tide, and a small motor pushing a boat. We thought navigating in a straight heading with the gas motor was hard until we had to do it with the electric. We spent over half an hour to just go maybe a tenth of a mile in the right direction and thank God we had an incoming tide, if not we definitely would have had to throw anchor and wait it out until morning. With an expected low in the low to mid thirties and no socks and little layers, we would have made it but been VERY cold. We finally make it through the trickiest part of the oyster beds and finally at just less then a tenth of a mile from the marina we finally see the first thing besides the glow of the GPS, the lights at the ramp! We did have a spotlight but the fog was so dense it just blinded us when we turned it on.
Ive NEVER felt so happy getting off a boat in life as I did that night. We learned some valuable lessons Saturday that is for sure. It took us over three hours when under normal conditions it would have only taken us at most, 20 minutes.
We did see some great wildlife though besides the manatees, a bald eagle, many different species of ducks, and gulls, brown and white pelicans, comerants and loons, and dolphins. The area is very natural, almost prehistoric looking, a beautiful place!
