Windy

December 17, 2019—Not even the sunny, warm skies of south Florida are immune to cold fronts. One is moving in today, and with it has come a lot of wind and slightly dropping temperatures. Tomorrow the high will only be around 71, as compared to about 80ish today and yesterday.

Early this afternoon, we did some exploring and found the Venice fishing pier, as well as Caspersen Beach in south Venice. The wind, however, was problematic. The normally calm gulf created crashing waves that were not conducive to fishing. At Caspersen Beach, we thought we saw people looking for sand fleas (a crustacean) for beach fishing, but we discovered was they were looking for shark teeth! Apparently that beach is known for the teeth.

Our campsite at Oscar Scherer State Park near Venice, Fla.

It was much too windy to fish on the pier (maybe tomorrow), so we high-tailed it back to the creek at Blackburn Point where we fished yesterday. We had few real bites. I finally caught a toadfish, which we threw back. (Toadfish can be toxic if not cleaned properly, but we have eaten it before. It’s all in knowing how to clean the little beastie to make it safe to eat.) Because the fish swallowed the hook and we could not disengage it, we had to cut the hook off. Hopefully the little guy survived.

As the clouds continued to come in and the temperature dropped a bit, we called it quits for the afternoon.

Around 5 p.m., we decided to try fishing the fresh-water lake, using lures. It took Jim about 10 minutes to tie on a lure. (His fingers didn’t want to cooperate tying the tiny knots.) Finally, he took the pole and cast out into the still water. A few minutes later, as I was reeling in my own lure, he stood next to me. Why wasn’t he fishing? On his first cast, he caught a tree; the tree won.

Our “fish dinner” tonight consisted of delicious homemade spaghetti sauce, noodles, green beans, and salad. It was excellent.

Until next time,

Your Reluctant RoVer,

Linda