Orange Blossom Special

As I'm sitting on my front porch, enjoying my afternoon cocktail I'm being buffeted by wonderful fragrances that are  carried by each gust from the approaching cold front. I'm fortunate to have orange, lemon & tangerine trees growing next to the porch and they are just beginning to bloom. If you've never smelled citrus blooming, you owe to yourself to take a trip to Florida in the spring...and you might as well come back in the winter to enjoy the fruit.

Orange Blossoms

Lemon Blossoms

Tangerine Blossoms

The fishing has really turned on this week too, but I'm going to save that until tomorrow.

Good breakfast = (Home cured Canadian Bacon)

I'm a morning person...it doesn't make any difference if I'm meeting a client at 0530 to catch tarpon or have an appointment to show real estate at 0930. I'm still up before daylight enjoying coffee and a hearty breakfast.

Last year I ran across a recipe for Canadian bacon on Cowgirl's Country Life , an eclectic site full of excellent recipes & ideas and I decided that was something I wanted to try.

This is my second attempt at home made bacon and is by far the best! The recipe is very simple and takes very little time to prepare.

Ingredients

Pork loin  (all fat and silver skin removed)
Morton's Tender Quick                   1 Tbs. per pound of meat
Brown sugar                                  1  tsp. per pound of meat
Mix sugar and salt together, and rub the loin, covering completely. Shake off any excess and place in a plastic container to cure in your refrigerator for 7 days, then remove and rinse off salt and soak in cold water for 1 hr., changing the water after 30 minutes. At this point you can coat it with fresh ground pepper, crushed red pepper, fresh rosemary or just  leave it plain. Place in frig for half a day (overnight) to let the meat dry out. Into a 225 deg. smoker until the loin hits an internal temperature of about 140 (this is not completely done and allows for warming up for breakfast). Cool and refrigerate. I slice the loin and package in small freezer bags and freeze until needed.

This is an excellent and very economical breakfast meat...give it a try!

Apalachicola Bay in the spring

Old Man Winter is slow to let go of us this year, but we are beginning to get some warm days with light winds. Now if we can get the flow of fresh water to stay below flood stage for a few weeks maybe we can get serious about fishing.

 

As you can see, we still have some white pelican hanging around the Dry Bar. They should be heading north any day now, but with the weather our northern neighbors have been having...well I might hang around a little longer too.

Trout fishing is beginning to pick up, but water temps and muddy conditions are making it a little tougher than normal. I'm finding some cleaner water toward the west end of the bay and the trout are cooperating.

They are feeding on mullet now, so we've been fishing larger profile baits like the MirrorLure Catch 5. DOA shrimp are also producing around the oyster bars, but the Catch 5 are producing larger fish.

If our weather holds for a couple more weeks things should be back to normal.

Swimming with the Manatees

A friend of mine just returned from his annual dive trip to Homosassa, where the manatees gang up in the springs to bask in their 72 degree water. The majority of the manatees that we get during the summer, spend the winter in the springs at Homosassa and Crystal River.

He complained about the water conditions, but I think the pictures turned out great. Can't wait until April/May when they come back to Apalach.

Thanks Mike.

State of the bay

I've had a number of calls wanting to go fishing or wanting to know what about current condition of  the bay and rivers. Unfortunately they are still not good. We had more heavy rain last Saturday and the river continues above flood stage. The above picture shows the muddy water coming from the rivers and what appears blue is actually the color of very strong tea and is the tanic water flowing in  from Tate's Hell.

Looking the other way, this is what you see.

With heavy rains being forecast for tomorrow, things will not improve for a few more days. If you have to go fishing no matter what, I'd say go to Lanark or Port St. Joe for clear water or if you can catch a day with the wind cooperating make the run to Bird Island.

While I was on the causeway taking pictures of the bay, one of my buddies made an appearance.

Another rainy day

I awoke to thunder and lightening about 0400 this morning and could hear the wind howling...wasn't going to be a fly fishing day. We only received 0.8", but LA & SOWEGA received 2-3" so the river will stay on the rise. Normally the fronts , this time of the year, come through dry but not this year. Oh well we've had plenty of time to get tackle and boats cleaned up and repaired when the weather does let up.

I walked down to the dock to see how the bay looked and an eagle caught me with my camera still in my pocket. By the time I got it fired up he wasn't too close any more.

 

Look close

The storms have passed and East Bay is not too bad.

 

Apalach across the bay

Eagles brighten the day

With the river at flood stage and strong northwest winds we're not doing much fishing. The day is overcast and the bay is heavily stained with tanic water running out of Tate's Hell on the east side of East Bay and muddy water flowing in from East River westward to the Apalachicola River. It certainly isn't a chamber of commerce view today but coming across the bridge from Apalach, I was still stuck by the beauty of four mature bald eagles. They are always a treat to see, but they sure make me smile on a gray day.