Note: Click on photos to enlarge.
Fishing is an attitude.
I started fishing in the trout creeks of Northern Minnesota as soon as I was old enough to hold a willow pole with a line, hook, and worm ... learning to run out before a rain and dangle my hook'n'worm in a few select holes in the creek that ran through our dairy farm thirty miles north of Duluth.
From that time on I've fished. Not always as regularly as I would have liked, but often enough to get some stories ... like in '98 when I floated down the Yukon River in Alaska for a week on a raft trip, taking a jon boat into the tributaries for northern pike, casting with a red and white spoon lure ... where if you didn't catch something in five minutes you moved on ... just like when I was a kid fishing for trout.
And I have found another "as good as it gets" fishing place. Thing is, it isn't just the place ... in Port Richey—next door to New Port Richey—it's Cotee River Boat Rentals making it happen ... well, Jerry and Sharon Higgs the owners of Cotee River Boat Rentals to be precise. (There's a link at the end of this post ... and there is more about them in the previous post ... and there will be more about them in later posts.)
There were three of us for this fishing trip. Bill and I, and a friend of Bill's—Smokey—who came along to help out because both Bill and I are practically invalids when it comes to doing anything that causes huffin'n'puffin'.
Bill and Smokey holding down the boat.
Jerry Higgs, owner, comes down to get us underway.
Note: That's Bill, Smokey, & Jerry—left to right.
I hold up one of the channel charts
Jerry has provided to go along with his
thorough instructions.
We're ready to take it out.
Note: That's Smokey, me, & Bill—left to right.
Underway with me at the helm.
Smokey settles in for the voyage.
We arrive at "our" spot and Smokey sets the anchor.
Bill is ready to start fishing.
And quickly settles into it.
Smokey catches six. Bill catches one.
They all get tossed back.
I get skunked ... all my bait was taken.
That made it interesting.
One thing for sure, fishing is one thing, catching is another. We realized that we would need to go farther out to the edge of the shoals next time ... and there would be a next time ... because this was an incredible fishing trip. We were out for four hours—10 AM to 2 PM—about the time limit on Bill's endurance. Time goes by quickly when you're having fun ...
It's a 20 ft. pontoon boat with a 75 hp Evinrude. It holds six people comfortably. And it's a dream for three or four. And there are a whole bunch of nooks and crannies along the Cotee River ... lot's of places for nosing one of Jerry's jon boats in.
And out in the Gulf (of Mexico) the setting for being on the water is spectacular.
Fishing shacks on piers add character.
And an island with an accessible beach
adds dimension.
While passing planes and boats
stir the air and water ... and imagination.
www.CoteeRiverBoatRentals.com
Cotee River Boat Storage
and Pontoon Rentals
5448 Baylea Avenue
Port Richey, FL 34668
(727) 841-7664
Jerry and Sharon Higgs
