So today we woke up to a really nice day. After talking it over, we thought why not go for an afternoon kayak trip to Snowdens launch which is a very nice launch which was recently re-done by Miami Dade County for use by non-motor vessels.
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| Snowdens Launch on Old Cutler Drive and 170th Street |
When we arrived at 12:30pm, we knew we would have to wait a bit for the tide to turn as low tide was at 1:30pm. When we got the kayak to the waters edge, there were many unknowing kayakers struggling to pole, push, walk their kayaks back to the shore after their morning trips. As you can see below, there was not much water to work with.
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| Low tide a Snowdens Launch, Chicken Key is in the background |
After waiting out the tide by having a nice relaxing picnic lunch, we decided to give it a go and push out through the still very skinny water. Off we went, clear sailing until approximately 100 yards offshore when we encounter some seriously skinny water. Paddle, pole and then get out of the kayak and push. Only had to go a few yards and then back into the kayak to venture out into the crystal clear and extremely calm waters.
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| Vivian, enjoying the great day on the kayak |
Overall, we probably paddled 5 miles this day. The most excitement came when we were fishing a channel, trying to look for some snapper and the Florida Wildlife Commission paid us a visit! I guess we were pretty easy targets as they had enough water to get to us. We kindly pulled up next to them, they greeted us, we greeted them. They asked to see our licenses and open the cooler. No issues with any of that, we always have our licenses and we had not caught any fish. They seemed to be looking for people catching and keeping Snook which remains closed in South Florida.
After the visit, we proceeded to the east of Chicken Key where we saw several tailing fish. At first we thought they may be Bonefish but after getting close, we saw most of them were Rays. Not sure what was causing the fishing to be slow because the conditions seemed perfect. The water was like a sheet of glass and the sun was shining.
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| Vivian enjoying the perfect conditions, excluding the fish! |
We have not had great luck with this area of Biscayne Bay. In general we catch Barracuda and small Snapper here. We had not been back for some time and actually got caught in a nasty thunderstorm during one of our past summer trips, having to seek safe harbor in Deering Bay Estate! That is yet another story I will cover sometime.
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| Here you can see the area we paddled, great mangrove lined shoreline |
So after enjoying the paddle and chasing a few tailing fish, the sun was getting low in the sky and we needed to head in. All in all a very nice day and the lack of fish was not a big deal as we learn something every time we go out regardless of what we catch or if we catch fish at all.
Biscayne Bay is a very interesting body of water which varies widely depending on where you are boating. I found this sign posted by Miami Dade County, kind of interesting. If you cannot read it, simply click on it to increase the size.
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| Biscayne Bay is a very interesting body of water |
Well, that's it for this adventure. It was a nice paddle in ideal kayaking conditions.
