Days in the Glades

[Ted]

The below link recounts a trip through the Glades from April 11 to the 14th.  This trip confirmed the winter camping season is over. 

 

www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=3...

 

[Swamp Hunter]

Enjoyed the photos

[Flex Kayakfari.com]

T'was a great trip (if we don't talk about the bugs) ~ !

For the moment I have a couple of panoramas to share:

Camping in Hell on Pavillion Key (total darkness) :

and there's Ted cooling off in the water at the Rabbit Key low tide crossing aerial :

http://kayakfari.wordpress.com/360-vr-panoramas/

[Jay]

Nice SPOT Trip Report and photos.  I am still hoping for one more cold front....

[Flex Kayakfari.com]

Idk about another cold front .. I think it's OVER~  :(

Here are a few more BUG FREE from the trip .. 

(CLICK image)

Totch Brown's Liquor Still:

Ted going crazy from the bugs at Darwin's Place in Everglades National Park, aerial edition:

Superwide on the Calusa (Indian) Mound at Gopher Key:

Aerial view camping on the north tip of Pavillion Key:

[Terry]

The 6-7 April weekend was the last weekend of the

2012-13 paddling season.  Starting early in October 2012

it was right on 6 months.

[vivian]

Yep, that weekend of the 6/7 was the last trip we did. All our gear is packed up for next season :-(

 

Ted and kayakfari, some great pictures and trip report.  How was the water level at Charlie creek so late in the season?  And the still is still there! 

[Terry]

However, the end of one season is the beginning of another, check out Keith's video at:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/23/2963662/divers-targeting-lion...

[Keith W]

And you get all the credit!!! I'm going over to Jupiter in May to kill some more lions, they're delicious!

All this talk about the 'end of the season' makes me laugh. I'll be camping and hiking in the BCNP for 8 days the first week of July, and I'll probably do a 2-3 night canoe run out to Tiger Key or Camp Lulu in August, leaving from Collier-Seminole. I'm much obliged to all you softies for leaving the wilderness to me and a very few others who ain't all skeered of a little heat and a few bugs. The solitude will be heavenly!

[Terry]

Sunday we shot 8 in a 20 minute dive, 4 were big, the record last summer was bagging 1 per minute per diver

on a 15 minute dive.  A month ago one of the BNP biologists shot one that measured 17 inches.

It's a shame, underwater and out of sight lionfish are taking over our waters yet pythons get so much more attention.

I was in the Everglades every Saturday and a few weekdays during the season yet never saw a python,

when I'm at Biscayne it's not a matter of IF but how many lionfish we get every time we go out.   They eat

everything smaller than them and with no predators nothing is slowing them down.   We're also finding them

all over the park - shallow, deep, in mangrove roots and out to open water.    Yakmaster and I were trying

to beat one to death with a paddle while we were canoeing in Jones Lagoon 2 weeks ago.    At least pythons are

slowed by a harsh winter.  

[Keith W]

Too bad the NPS won't open up lionfish hunting in Biscayne the way they opened up python hunting in the BCNP. They are literally protecting the area to death. Don't be too sure about cold water slowing them down. We're starting to see them over here in the Gulf in winter - water temps in the upper 50s.

[Kim Gass]

All this talk about heat. Hope none of you have plans to canoe in Minnesota soon. Ice out might be late May. There still is five feet of snow some places.  In Ontario (Algonquin Park) massive rains on top of snow have washed out some roads and sent them who knows where. Lakes are still iced over.

Its nice here though. No ice on the lake and 38 and sunny.

[Terry]

Opened up lionfish hunting?

Biscayne and Ricky Scott have done about everything they can to promote lionfish killing.

Biscayne has encouraged (yes, encouraged, it was always allowed) the taking of lionfish

using any safe method, no permits, no questions, dead or alive.

In the meantime our buddy Ricky has removed the requirement for a fishing license

if fishing for lionfish.   Hook and line, spears, nets, no limits and any size.  Biscayne is even open waters for

lionfish rodeos where the scientists place well.  About the only thing that hasn't been done yet is a bounty but

I'd bet that wouldn't go over well with the taxpayers.  Biscayne and the state of Florida have removed every

obstacle for the taking of lionfish yet the population continues to grow.   It's good they're good to eat

because there won't be any other fish to eat in the Straits of Florida.

So, calling all killers, forget pythons, permits, bugs and searching under the heat of the day,

jump in the cool refreshing ocean waters and kill, kill, kill.