Perdido Key State ParkPensacola, Florida
July 2008
July 2008
SIGHTINGS/ IDENTIFICATIONS: Gafftopsail Catfish, Red Drum, Southern Stingray, Striped Mullet, Atlantic Sharp-nose Shark, Bottle-nose Dolphin, Blue Runner (Hard-tail Jack)
RUN: 11 miles paddling open water.
Difficulty: Moderate to Challenging
RATING: 8.25 for amazing wildlife and seclusion.
WEATHER: Rain, Strong Wind, 90º to 70º
TYPE OF TRAIL: Sand, water, slight chop up to 1 ft. waves, shallow grass beds to deeper channels.
WALK THRU: Chris and John S. were telling me about a new kind adventure I might be interested in, a canoe trip or an adventure where you have everything you need on you, but you travel by water. Fort McRee is where just such an adventure would take place. It is located directly across the pass from Ft. Pickens on a thin sliver of island known as Perdido Key. Ft. McRee was built to protect the natural harbor during war time and unlike Ft. Pickens, it is only accessible by foot or boat. I have heard that even when traveling by foot, if the tide is high than the hike can become quite wet. Up until this point, I had never participated in an outdoor adventure that involved me putting all my gear in a boat and rowing to my destination.
Day1- With all of our gear in tow, the Perdido Key Expedition Team headed for our sandy egress. We arrived at Perdido Key State Park in the early afternoon, paid our 3 USD per car and informed the Park Ranger that we would be primitive camping on the tip of the Key. Our kind Park Ranger explained that we would need to arrive back the next day before sunset to get out of the park before the gate closed and locked. He noted that crazy tropical thunderstorms strike often on the Gulf Coast, leaving seafarers with no shelter from the storm. I asked the ranger for a weather update and he informed me that there was indeed supposed to be a few light showers in the morning. When asked what to do in case of a lightning storm on the beach, the ranger told us to stay as low as possible and stay away from taller objects like trees and the metal fort. He added that they recently had someone struck by lightning in the Park.
The road that runs through the State Park only stretches about a quarter of the island. There is no parking at the end of this road, for this reason, our group had to drop the canoe off at the last wooden walk way to the Big Lagoon (left side) along with all of our supplies. We pretty much weighed the canoe down to capacity. We had camping gear for four people, along with fishing poles, equipment for catching a shark, food, copious amounts of water, and three adult human bodies. Chris said that he had put much more weight in the canoe on previous trips and that as long as there were no large waves we shouldn't sink to the bottom of the ocean floor.
John S. launched his sailboat at the boat ramp, which is located just past the park gate on the left hand side. His boat of choice was his tried and true Sunfish. This is a small 1-2 person sailboat, basically a large surfboard with a sail on it, only slightly more stable. John had to sail an additional 2 miles but the wind was good and he quickly gained on us as we paddled our barge of equipment 5 miles out to the pass. Quick note- the pass is an area of water between the two barrier islands where the Gulf of Mexico flows into the Big Lagoon and the Pensacola Bay. During the Gulf's high tide the water flows into the bay, during low tide it flows back out into the Gulf. For this reason, there is not only a variety of fish but high traffic in schools of fish. It's an amazing fishing spot, but many people cannot reach it if they don't own some sort of boat.
Along the way we encountered a scary moment where some large waves from a barge threatened a capsizing. It was exciting to be on such a small boat in the water. Our vessel was man powered, our strength and oars kept us moving as we paddled swiftly through the waters. With no buildings and roads on the land to our starboard side, it felt like we were the first ones to discover the eastern end of the key. It was certainly an adventure for me and Sharon as it was our first canoe trip with everything we needed for two days right there in the boat, and we were camping on gorgeous beach that most people never get to go to.
Chris, the captain of the canoe, is a master rower. He can move any kayak or canoe more quickly and accurately than any person I have ever met. With his strength and speed and a little help from Sharon and me, we glided quickly past grass beds, marshes, and lagoons. Soon we reached what I believe is called Dolphin Island. As we rowed through this tight channel we could see the dolphins herding schools of fish, which did not bode well for the fishing part of our expedition. At times, we got to see these marine mammals up close. These particular Dolphins were masters of the water, they had barnacles and shells crusted around their heads, they were decorated as chieftains.
Another five minutes of paddling and we made land just past Ft. McRee at the tip of the island. To the east we could see Ft. Pickens, to the South was never ending blue, the Gulf of Mexico. We unloaded the canoe, caught some bait with our cast nets, and got right to the fishing. Our goal for the trip was a dream of Chris', to catch a gigantic shark. He immediately put some good sized bait out in the water, set up his poles, and waited. The fishing was consistently slow for most of the night though. John S. caught a very large Sail Cat, probably around 2 pounds. As the sun began to set, Chris caught a small Atlantic Sharpnose Shark, which he returned to the sea. Although I say "small shark", it was still 2-3 feet, big enough to bite a hand or a couple of fingers off, which leads us to "How to Handle a Shark"!
HOW TO HANDLE A SHARK: When you first catch the shark be sure to noose the tail with a rope. You don't want to grab the tail because sharks are flexible and can twist and bite you. You want to grab the shark just behind the dorsal fin and remove the hook. You should use some kind of long pliers to remove the hook, usually 6-12 inch extension. Avoid touching the sharks gills, touching them causes bleeding in the gills and is harmful to the shark.
-I have heard you can turn sharks upside down and this will put them into a calm state where they will not bite you. Please comment if you know anything about this.
Big sharks should be returned to the water quickly as larger sharks use up all their energy during the fishing struggle. Small Sharks should be placed into the water, not thrown, as this will kill them. Move the shark back and forth to get water moving through the gills until they become responsive, try not to get bitten.
Night 1- The night slowly came without any of us really noticing and after we quit getting bites we decided to get some shut eye. We didn't want to waste the opportunity of possibly catching a fish during the night so we cast our lines once more, plunged our rod handles into the sand, and set our drags low so we would be able to hear fish taking out line from our tents. At one point in the night, Chris had something take line out, and if I remember correctly, it must have been a beast because it snapped the line right off. Maybe that was a dream.
Day 2- We woke up early and in a mad dash we set out to catch a monster. Chris and I headed over a couple small dunes to another stretch of beach while Sharon lingered in camp and made some coffee. John S. was still passed out in his tent. Sticking out of the pristine beach was a rock and cement jetty, it was here that we decided to fish for the morning. Little bait fish were swimming in and around tiny ponds made by the rocks. Sharon joined us on the jetty after a while and tried to catch more bait. Catching fish takes a little bit of work though. You have to constantly catch bait with a cast net and keep that bait alive by changing out the water in your bait bucket. You have to make sure the line on your poles stays tight and check the bait on your line every once in a while to make sure nothing has stolen it. In the middle of mastering this process, the sky on the horizon behind us turned an ominous dark gray. Ten minutes later we were in the middle of a serious storm. Huge rain drops started hammering down on our heads and we all rushed to get our camping gear into our tents and out of the rain. As we did this, the wind picked up and the thunder and lightning came with it. Having a natural fear of lightning I decided to return to the jetty to bring my poles in. Then I sat in a low spot in the sand where I figured I could wait out the storm. Sharon decided to join me.
As we sat there we looked to the top of a nearby dune and sighted a very odd object through the hard rain and wind. It looked like a gigantic kite of sorts blowing in the wind. A large yellow and gray plastic bag was tightly wrapped around what looked to be some sort of figure. "That's interesting," I recalled my tent being the same gray and yellow. CLICK. I immediately realized that the colored kite now approaching me was in fact my tent. Then I thought, "Why is John using my tent as a rain jacket?". Apparently, without sand spikes my tent had uprooted and started to blow away into the water. Furthermore, it would have drifted out into the middle of the Gulf of Mexico with all of my camping gear in it, but luckily, John S. was nearby and had grabbed the tent. Since a tent is basically a giant wind flap, it had turned John into a human kite and he was walking slowly to keep from blowing away. Once we realized what the situation was, we quickly disassembled John from the tent and stuffed it into my hiking pack. Sharon and I then continued to sit in a low spot by a dune, terrified of the electric spark discharges happening in the atmosphere. The rain was somewhat painful on bare skin due to the hurricane force winds and the drops left millions of tiny craters in the sand.
Chris and John S. decided to keep their poles out while there was lightning all around, and not only keep them out, but hold their fishing poles in their hands, often turning and yelling over the sound of the rain to me "we're not scared, you have nothing to worry about." Meanwhile, I was bragging about how well my rain jacket was working and using Sharon as a human shield from the lightning, praying that the storm would pass soon. The lightning and thunder passed and left us with a light but steady rain that continued the rest of the afternoon.
When the lightning let up I got back to fishing. We saw fish attacking the water and at times saw what looked to be a large shark attacking schools of fish by the jetty, but we had no luck. We were still having fun though. Chris played on the rocks in the jetty and admired the aquatic wildlife. He showed me a small damsel fish called a Sargent Major. The fish had beautiful bold yellow stripes, they are normally found in coral reefs. Chris explained to me that he sometimes scuba dives for these small fish and other similar species for his saltwater aquarium at home.
By this time we were all starting to get hungry. We went to start up the stove to cook some pasta but found that our equipment had been soaked in the mini hurricane. Our cooking equipment was dry but all of our lighters were wet and we couldn't get one to light a spark. After nearly mashing our thumbs raw on the lighters we decided to check out the old fort. The four of us marched inland over the hills of sand. We came across the fort's exterior wall and climbed onto it. The wall had sand on one side and bramble bushes on the other. We walked atop the wall until there was a gap in the thorns, there we jumped off and headed uphill towards the fort. After we explored all around the abandoned historic building, we set up a tarp between a couple trees. Sharon had found a dry lighter and under the makeshift shelter we lit the stove and cooked up some pasta.
The rain stopped. As we were sitting up near the Fort we had a great view of a cove below. It was half way between our campsite and the fort, visible on the map below. Chris and I noticed something tearing up the water and we grabbed our poles to go check it out. When we got down to the water it was complete chaos. Along the whole shoreline of the beach and cove was an ENORMOUS undulating school of minnows. They were being herded into the shallows by predator fish that kept the tiny fish constantly running for their lives. It was an amazing sight. I don't remember exactly what happened next, but I cast my line and madness in sued. I know I had a series of large fish on and then off the lines, getting big hits from presumably large game fish. Chris yelled to me to reel in slow and that's when I got a big hit. I hooked into a small monster. As I reeled it closer to the shore I realized it was a red fish. I had to land this fish. I hadn't caught a red fish of legal keeping size before and about a minute later I pulled it ashore. It measured in at 19 inches, a keeper! We continued to fish, not wanting to waste this golden opportunity. Looking down at the water, I noticed the humongous body of small brown to red minnows. This moment was similar to a scene in the movie Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, where he sees the huge school of Fluorescent Snapper before the Jaguar Shark kills Esteban. Large fish were flying in from the deeper areas of water and taking multiple minnows at a time. Chris at one point jumped into the water and had a gigantic speckled trout at his feet. All I could see was Chris yelling loudly and freaking out followed by obscenities. Later, I found out that he almost grabbed the biggest Speckled Trout he had ever seen with his bare hands but just missed it. It was a lunker for sure. After this we stayed high from the catch for quite some time not realizing that we had to row back in the canoe before it got dark.
The adrenaline rush eventually wore off. All of us were still soaked to the bone from the constant drizzle, our fingers and toes were a little pruney. We began to fix the damage that was done to all of our equipment during the storm. Tents were dried off, hiking bags were emptied and we laid everything out in the sun to dry a little before we departed. It was nice to get a little sun but during these summer months after it rains it becomes very humid and the bugs become quite bad, so that was a small downside. I fished a little more before we headed out and caught a few Hard Tail Jacks, which Chris used as shark bait. Excited about catching some more fish I kept casting in hope of another big one, but ultimately we needed to get back to the car.
At the end of the day, Chris practically had to drag me back into the canoe. We began to paddle back to the car but this time the tide was moving against us, making it a little more difficult. John, using the power of wind, tipped his hat to us as he sailed past as if to say, "ha ha, you poor bastards." Most of the trip back we paddled over sea grass beds and the water was surprisingly clear. We could see everything. As we moved further into the Big Lagoon we would approach large marine wildlife and it would explode in the water, swimming away quickly before we could identify it. A couple of times we encountered gigantic 2 to 4 foot stingrays. It was crazy when they spotted us rowing over them, they would panic and the calm silent water would break as the fish scattered away. Once we passed the grass beds the wind really died and we made our way more quickly to the loading beach. Unfortunately, John S. was still stuck out on the water and what before was a calm sailing day turned into a row-a-thon as he raced the setting sun to the loading dock. Chris helped him row the sailboat back to boat launch. Also, knowing that we would not make it out before sunset, Chris acquired the combination number to the locked gate so we would not be stuck in the park for another night. Great Job!
We loaded the cars up and headed out.
 |
| The Eastern End of Perdido Key. |
The road that runs through the State Park only stretches about a quarter of the island. There is no parking at the end of this road, for this reason, our group had to drop the canoe off at the last wooden walk way to the Big Lagoon (left side) along with all of our supplies. We pretty much weighed the canoe down to capacity. We had camping gear for four people, along with fishing poles, equipment for catching a shark, food, copious amounts of water, and three adult human bodies. Chris said that he had put much more weight in the canoe on previous trips and that as long as there were no large waves we shouldn't sink to the bottom of the ocean floor.
John S. launched his sailboat at the boat ramp, which is located just past the park gate on the left hand side. His boat of choice was his tried and true Sunfish. This is a small 1-2 person sailboat, basically a large surfboard with a sail on it, only slightly more stable. John had to sail an additional 2 miles but the wind was good and he quickly gained on us as we paddled our barge of equipment 5 miles out to the pass. Quick note- the pass is an area of water between the two barrier islands where the Gulf of Mexico flows into the Big Lagoon and the Pensacola Bay. During the Gulf's high tide the water flows into the bay, during low tide it flows back out into the Gulf. For this reason, there is not only a variety of fish but high traffic in schools of fish. It's an amazing fishing spot, but many people cannot reach it if they don't own some sort of boat.
 | |
| John's Sunfish Sailboat |
Along the way we encountered a scary moment where some large waves from a barge threatened a capsizing. It was exciting to be on such a small boat in the water. Our vessel was man powered, our strength and oars kept us moving as we paddled swiftly through the waters. With no buildings and roads on the land to our starboard side, it felt like we were the first ones to discover the eastern end of the key. It was certainly an adventure for me and Sharon as it was our first canoe trip with everything we needed for two days right there in the boat, and we were camping on gorgeous beach that most people never get to go to.
Chris, the captain of the canoe, is a master rower. He can move any kayak or canoe more quickly and accurately than any person I have ever met. With his strength and speed and a little help from Sharon and me, we glided quickly past grass beds, marshes, and lagoons. Soon we reached what I believe is called Dolphin Island. As we rowed through this tight channel we could see the dolphins herding schools of fish, which did not bode well for the fishing part of our expedition. At times, we got to see these marine mammals up close. These particular Dolphins were masters of the water, they had barnacles and shells crusted around their heads, they were decorated as chieftains.
Another five minutes of paddling and we made land just past Ft. McRee at the tip of the island. To the east we could see Ft. Pickens, to the South was never ending blue, the Gulf of Mexico. We unloaded the canoe, caught some bait with our cast nets, and got right to the fishing. Our goal for the trip was a dream of Chris', to catch a gigantic shark. He immediately put some good sized bait out in the water, set up his poles, and waited. The fishing was consistently slow for most of the night though. John S. caught a very large Sail Cat, probably around 2 pounds. As the sun began to set, Chris caught a small Atlantic Sharpnose Shark, which he returned to the sea. Although I say "small shark", it was still 2-3 feet, big enough to bite a hand or a couple of fingers off, which leads us to "How to Handle a Shark"!
HOW TO HANDLE A SHARK: When you first catch the shark be sure to noose the tail with a rope. You don't want to grab the tail because sharks are flexible and can twist and bite you. You want to grab the shark just behind the dorsal fin and remove the hook. You should use some kind of long pliers to remove the hook, usually 6-12 inch extension. Avoid touching the sharks gills, touching them causes bleeding in the gills and is harmful to the shark.
-I have heard you can turn sharks upside down and this will put them into a calm state where they will not bite you. Please comment if you know anything about this.
Big sharks should be returned to the water quickly as larger sharks use up all their energy during the fishing struggle. Small Sharks should be placed into the water, not thrown, as this will kill them. Move the shark back and forth to get water moving through the gills until they become responsive, try not to get bitten.
 |
| Notice the tail is in a Noose knot. |
Night 1- The night slowly came without any of us really noticing and after we quit getting bites we decided to get some shut eye. We didn't want to waste the opportunity of possibly catching a fish during the night so we cast our lines once more, plunged our rod handles into the sand, and set our drags low so we would be able to hear fish taking out line from our tents. At one point in the night, Chris had something take line out, and if I remember correctly, it must have been a beast because it snapped the line right off. Maybe that was a dream.
 |
| Chris w/ cast net, Perdido Key. Photo by Jon Bollhoefer |
Day 2- We woke up early and in a mad dash we set out to catch a monster. Chris and I headed over a couple small dunes to another stretch of beach while Sharon lingered in camp and made some coffee. John S. was still passed out in his tent. Sticking out of the pristine beach was a rock and cement jetty, it was here that we decided to fish for the morning. Little bait fish were swimming in and around tiny ponds made by the rocks. Sharon joined us on the jetty after a while and tried to catch more bait. Catching fish takes a little bit of work though. You have to constantly catch bait with a cast net and keep that bait alive by changing out the water in your bait bucket. You have to make sure the line on your poles stays tight and check the bait on your line every once in a while to make sure nothing has stolen it. In the middle of mastering this process, the sky on the horizon behind us turned an ominous dark gray. Ten minutes later we were in the middle of a serious storm. Huge rain drops started hammering down on our heads and we all rushed to get our camping gear into our tents and out of the rain. As we did this, the wind picked up and the thunder and lightning came with it. Having a natural fear of lightning I decided to return to the jetty to bring my poles in. Then I sat in a low spot in the sand where I figured I could wait out the storm. Sharon decided to join me.
 |
| Chris fishing, Perdido Key. Photo by Jon Bollhoefer |
As we sat there we looked to the top of a nearby dune and sighted a very odd object through the hard rain and wind. It looked like a gigantic kite of sorts blowing in the wind. A large yellow and gray plastic bag was tightly wrapped around what looked to be some sort of figure. "That's interesting," I recalled my tent being the same gray and yellow. CLICK. I immediately realized that the colored kite now approaching me was in fact my tent. Then I thought, "Why is John using my tent as a rain jacket?". Apparently, without sand spikes my tent had uprooted and started to blow away into the water. Furthermore, it would have drifted out into the middle of the Gulf of Mexico with all of my camping gear in it, but luckily, John S. was nearby and had grabbed the tent. Since a tent is basically a giant wind flap, it had turned John into a human kite and he was walking slowly to keep from blowing away. Once we realized what the situation was, we quickly disassembled John from the tent and stuffed it into my hiking pack. Sharon and I then continued to sit in a low spot by a dune, terrified of the electric spark discharges happening in the atmosphere. The rain was somewhat painful on bare skin due to the hurricane force winds and the drops left millions of tiny craters in the sand.
Chris and John S. decided to keep their poles out while there was lightning all around, and not only keep them out, but hold their fishing poles in their hands, often turning and yelling over the sound of the rain to me "we're not scared, you have nothing to worry about." Meanwhile, I was bragging about how well my rain jacket was working and using Sharon as a human shield from the lightning, praying that the storm would pass soon. The lightning and thunder passed and left us with a light but steady rain that continued the rest of the afternoon.
When the lightning let up I got back to fishing. We saw fish attacking the water and at times saw what looked to be a large shark attacking schools of fish by the jetty, but we had no luck. We were still having fun though. Chris played on the rocks in the jetty and admired the aquatic wildlife. He showed me a small damsel fish called a Sargent Major. The fish had beautiful bold yellow stripes, they are normally found in coral reefs. Chris explained to me that he sometimes scuba dives for these small fish and other similar species for his saltwater aquarium at home.
 |
| Sergeant Major |
By this time we were all starting to get hungry. We went to start up the stove to cook some pasta but found that our equipment had been soaked in the mini hurricane. Our cooking equipment was dry but all of our lighters were wet and we couldn't get one to light a spark. After nearly mashing our thumbs raw on the lighters we decided to check out the old fort. The four of us marched inland over the hills of sand. We came across the fort's exterior wall and climbed onto it. The wall had sand on one side and bramble bushes on the other. We walked atop the wall until there was a gap in the thorns, there we jumped off and headed uphill towards the fort. After we explored all around the abandoned historic building, we set up a tarp between a couple trees. Sharon had found a dry lighter and under the makeshift shelter we lit the stove and cooked up some pasta.
The rain stopped. As we were sitting up near the Fort we had a great view of a cove below. It was half way between our campsite and the fort, visible on the map below. Chris and I noticed something tearing up the water and we grabbed our poles to go check it out. When we got down to the water it was complete chaos. Along the whole shoreline of the beach and cove was an ENORMOUS undulating school of minnows. They were being herded into the shallows by predator fish that kept the tiny fish constantly running for their lives. It was an amazing sight. I don't remember exactly what happened next, but I cast my line and madness in sued. I know I had a series of large fish on and then off the lines, getting big hits from presumably large game fish. Chris yelled to me to reel in slow and that's when I got a big hit. I hooked into a small monster. As I reeled it closer to the shore I realized it was a red fish. I had to land this fish. I hadn't caught a red fish of legal keeping size before and about a minute later I pulled it ashore. It measured in at 19 inches, a keeper! We continued to fish, not wanting to waste this golden opportunity. Looking down at the water, I noticed the humongous body of small brown to red minnows. This moment was similar to a scene in the movie Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, where he sees the huge school of Fluorescent Snapper before the Jaguar Shark kills Esteban. Large fish were flying in from the deeper areas of water and taking multiple minnows at a time. Chris at one point jumped into the water and had a gigantic speckled trout at his feet. All I could see was Chris yelling loudly and freaking out followed by obscenities. Later, I found out that he almost grabbed the biggest Speckled Trout he had ever seen with his bare hands but just missed it. It was a lunker for sure. After this we stayed high from the catch for quite some time not realizing that we had to row back in the canoe before it got dark.
The adrenaline rush eventually wore off. All of us were still soaked to the bone from the constant drizzle, our fingers and toes were a little pruney. We began to fix the damage that was done to all of our equipment during the storm. Tents were dried off, hiking bags were emptied and we laid everything out in the sun to dry a little before we departed. It was nice to get a little sun but during these summer months after it rains it becomes very humid and the bugs become quite bad, so that was a small downside. I fished a little more before we headed out and caught a few Hard Tail Jacks, which Chris used as shark bait. Excited about catching some more fish I kept casting in hope of another big one, but ultimately we needed to get back to the car.
At the end of the day, Chris practically had to drag me back into the canoe. We began to paddle back to the car but this time the tide was moving against us, making it a little more difficult. John, using the power of wind, tipped his hat to us as he sailed past as if to say, "ha ha, you poor bastards." Most of the trip back we paddled over sea grass beds and the water was surprisingly clear. We could see everything. As we moved further into the Big Lagoon we would approach large marine wildlife and it would explode in the water, swimming away quickly before we could identify it. A couple of times we encountered gigantic 2 to 4 foot stingrays. It was crazy when they spotted us rowing over them, they would panic and the calm silent water would break as the fish scattered away. Once we passed the grass beds the wind really died and we made our way more quickly to the loading beach. Unfortunately, John S. was still stuck out on the water and what before was a calm sailing day turned into a row-a-thon as he raced the setting sun to the loading dock. Chris helped him row the sailboat back to boat launch. Also, knowing that we would not make it out before sunset, Chris acquired the combination number to the locked gate so we would not be stuck in the park for another night. Great Job!
We loaded the cars up and headed out.
FOOD: Hotdogs, Pasta with Pesto Packet, Coffee.
EQUIPMENT: Pelican DLX Canoe - Green (15'6")
Kelty Light Year XP 20-Degree Sleeping Bag (Long)
Kelty Coyote 4750 Backpack (Nite Sky) 
MSR Pocket Rocket Stove
Katadyn Hiker PRO Water Microfilter
Sierra Designs Lightning XT 2 Two-Person Ultralight Tent
Snow Peak Mini Solo Cook Set - Titanium
Therm-a-Rest Trail Pro (Regular)
Rainbow Sandals Men First Aid Kit, Socks, Rain Gear, Rod, Reel, (2) 5 gallon, Sunscreen, Cooler,
Kelty Light Year XP 20-Degree Sleeping Bag (Long) Kelty Coyote 4750 Backpack (Nite Sky) MSR Pocket Rocket Stove Katadyn Hiker PRO Water Microfilter Sierra Designs Lightning XT 2 Two-Person Ultralight Tent Snow Peak Mini Solo Cook Set - Titanium Therm-a-Rest Trail Pro (Regular) Rainbow Sandals Men First Aid Kit, Socks, Rain Gear, Rod, Reel, (2) 5 gallon, Sunscreen, Cooler, BODY CONDITION: Great Condition, maybe a little soggy.
LESSONS LEARNED: When camping on the beach its always a good idea to bring sand spikes for your tent. Normal tent spikes will not do the job if there is a storm.
-Before you play make sure your necessities are secured from wind and rain.
-Before you play make sure your necessities are secured from wind and rain.
SIDE NOTES: -Pull up to boardwalk unload then park car.
-The park gate closes at sunset. You may be able to acquire the combination if you get back just before dark.
-Fishing in Florida requires a license, make sure you know limits and regulations as rangers will check your cooler. Fines can be expensive and rangers may confiscate your fishing equipment.
-The park gate closes at sunset. You may be able to acquire the combination if you get back just before dark.
-Fishing in Florida requires a license, make sure you know limits and regulations as rangers will check your cooler. Fines can be expensive and rangers may confiscate your fishing equipment.
MAPS/ CONTACT:
Perdido Key State Park
15301 Perdido Key Dr.
Pensacola, FL 32507
(850) 492-1595
Map:
Perdido Key State Park
15301 Perdido Key Dr.
Pensacola, FL 32507
(850) 492-1595
Map:
Sounds outstanding John. I'd have loved to get in on that.
ReplyDeleteThat was a good trip. I miss the good fishing team we had. I could always find fish but never catch them so it was always nice to have you and Sharon to bring them in. I still don't know exactly what caused that feeding frenzy.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how practical turning a shark upside down is but you will often see videos of divers tickling the sharks nose to "hypnotize" the shark and then turning it upside down. The shark biologist at the lab where I work once explained this to me. Sharks can sense electrical signals with their ampullae of lorenzini, small electricaly sensitive tubes located on their head. Tickling them over stimulates them and causes the shark to freeze up. Turning the shark over leads to tonic immobility, a state of paralysis, although it has not yet been fully explained.
Last years Shark Week had a whole show about that. This shark diver put all kinds of sharks into this catatonic state by massaging the sharks nose. The sharks would just kind of go limp and start sinking down to the bottom of the ocean.
ReplyDelete