Cape Romano 10/15-16/08

I love the 10,000 Islands! Cape Romano was one of the first places i went to in my kayak, glad to return to it with better gear and the right tackle for those bull redfish found off its beaches. Me and my buddy Matt set out from Goodland at 6:30am and the water in the backcountry was quite milky...no good for fishing so we started heading out on our 10 mile journey to the Cape. The wind was blowing pretty good at our backs and we made great time till the tide switched on us. When we hit Blind Pass we had to paddle through that channel with the tide pushing us out...f-ing brutal, paddling as hard as you can to move only a few feet, we eventually made it out to the gulf and its calm swells protected from those Eastern winds.

We paddled down to the cape and settled in for a relaxing evening of fishing, made lunch, took a nap, woke up and explored the tidal creeks and lagoons found on the cape. Cape Romano and Kice Island were slated for development back in the 20's before the depression. A man by the name of Kice owned the islands and one day a younger fella name Dickman convinced Kice he would watch over the islands for him till they were developed...after the stock market crash and the first of many property crashes in FL the islands were forgotten and so was Dickman. Dickman lived on Kice/Cape Romano for oer 30 years! His family had been searching for him and eventually tracked him to Kice Island. When Kice and Cape Romano they found no one save a lonely fisherman on the beach: they asked him if he had seen a hermit living on this island to which the fisherman replied "i've been here 30 years and i've never seen him"...a joke only a hermit could make.

After awaking and exploring and have some beer we pitched lines into the water and BLAM it began. Big Bull Redfish one after another, they hit on DOA cal, Gulp shrimp and jerk shads, live mullet, dying mullet, dead mullet, and cut ladyfish chunks...they were hungry. After the sun went down it became a bluefish/huge jack blitz...these friggin jacks were so big you'd think you hooked a shark...we had to take breaks from fishing because of the pain in our wrists, awesome.

Eventually the tide went completely out and nothing but ladyfish and jacks were biting so we went to sleep with the temperature getting around 69 degrees, wonderful for sleeping on a beach at night and not a cloud in the sky! Woke up around 7am and fished with just more jacks and ladies to show for it.

We packed it up slow and headed out around 11am, we paddled against the wind but with the tide this time and it was easier but there were a few open crossing that nearly did us in...it sucks when tide and wind meet and when they are going in opposite directions: Standing waves, usually something i love but not when i have a 10 mile paddle through it...we made it though no worse for the wear, I was showered and fed at home by 5:30pm...going to Pavilion Key next full moon!