Mosquito Lagoon Outing (4 - 5 hours, Greg Pflug and Marty Sullivan)

Driving from Orlando to Oak Hill is one of those "can't get there from here" experiences. So Greg Pflug and I headed out Maytown Road, past Bar Snake Ranch and Deep Creek through tree-lined roads and swamps to US 1, Oak Hill, and Riverview county park. From the accomodating launch site (bathrooms and fresh-water showers), we paddled across the intracoastal waterway and were greeted by a baby dolphin and its mom fishing the shallows. Bait fish and mullet splashed the surface as dolphins worked the shallows. After finishing a good chase, the dolphins' breaths sounded like winded sprinters blowing and inhaling after each exertion. With no chart we wandered around the red drum fishing areas I had been familiar with around Orange Island. We had camped there a few years ago, where Greg got to experience a full allergic reaction to cedar pollen. We were treated to a flock of 8 roseate spoonbills flying overhead. Hitting dead ends in the mangrove maze, we spooked numerous redfish. Finally, we had enough of poking around the maze of islands and turned south along the western edge of the lagoon, making a brief stop at Castle Windy midden, a mile or so south of Eldora. We walked along the access path admiring the live oaks, cedars, and other native vegetation looking for orchids among the resurrection ferns until the mosquitos convinced us to return to the water. We headed south to George's Bar, which excited Greg until he realized the Bar was a sand bar, not one for drinking. As we entered the wide-open Deep Tiger Basin we continued 1/4 mile south and came across the bar, an east-west ranging shallow sandy bank adjacent to the waters of the Basin, populated with fishermen on the weekend and offering great redfishing. No fishermen out today, however. We paddled west along the bar, heading back to our takeout about 5 miles up the intracoastal along the west side of the lagoon. As we crossed the 3 to 4-foot deep water, an explosion under us shot out in several directions and turned the water completely muddy. We had startled a pod of manatees and luckily spooked them before we were on top of them. Another pod spooked under me, and I braced the boat as I was lifted off the water by the tumult of their panic. On our return, a call to Pete Knocke informed us of the restaurant Goodrich, past LeFils Landing on the water. Greg had his fried shrimp that he had been talking about for the last 2 hours, and I had a delicious fried mullet dish, hard to find anywhere but here and Cedar Key. Local seafood was the end of a glorious day of paddling on the Mosquito Lagoon.