Friday, October 14, 2011

Friday, October 7, 2011 – Big Lagoon, ICW mile 177.0 near Pensacola

It was 6:45 am when we left Ingrams Bayou with a sunny sky and a northeast wind. The inland waterway was a little choppy and the wind increased from 6 knots to 19 knots over the 13-mile trip. By 10:00 am we had chosen our anchoring spot in Big Lagoon and settled ourselves in about 25 yards out from the beach. We were able to tuck in close enough to gain some protection from the wind and waves.
 


Perdido Key is one of our favorite beaches with the white sand and beautiful dunes. After taking care of a few chores on the boat, Gale threw a line in while Maureen put some lunch together. The lizard fish he pulled up wasn’t too appealing.

 

 
 
 
 

After lunch, we took the dinghy to shore and started walking. We could see two ships towing a large piece of heavy equipment into and through the inlet at Pensacola Pass. Neither of us knew what it was to be used for, but it was certainly impressive to watch it come in off the ocean and down the waterway.

We continued walking all the way to the inlet on the Gulf side of Perdido Key and then around the corner to the inside where there is a favorite anchorage at the old Ft. McRae site. We watched some fishermen pulling in huge redfish with every cast and when we quizzed them about it, they told us the fish had just come in and they were running like crazy! Enough said – we continued our walk with Gale thinking about getting back to Blue Heron to pick up his fishing pole and tackle.

We had walked at least two miles already and had to go back the way we came, so it was after 4 pm before Gale headed out to the pass to see if he could get in on some of the action. When he arrived, the redfish were still running and he had an exciting time of casting, hitting and reeling them in. In fact, he caught five redfish and one large flounder within an hour’s time. Since there is a possession limit of one on the redfish, he had to release four of them.



 Our dinner of fresh flounder was delicious! We cleaned the redfish and froze those fillets for another day. One redfish was enough to feed at least four people.

 













Just before sunset, three small pleasure boats came zooming in towards us and pulled up to the beach. Soon there were three families with their kids unloading camping gear and getting set up. It wasn’t long before the tents were up and the campfire was going. The evening was lovely, there was a light breeze and the water was calm.

 

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