Anybody go out around bayport or pine island?

[benzatech]

Looking to see if anybody goes out there on advice to ride out there safetly

 

[SWAMPHUNTER45]

Yea I have run it before. Gotta be careful with open water areas and rock but I have been to worse places. We launched at the South County line at Double Fork Hammock and ran the coast North.

One of our members RickMc has extensive knowledge of the Hernando coast his family has run it since airboats were invented.

If you go north toward Chas watch for a Federal Refuge closed zone that requires a permit and a specific route.

Maybe he will chime in.

 

[benzatech]

Thanks I didnt know there was a federal refuge area. i heard about rocks though. I was thinking and trying to scout a way to get to the back side of chaz wma to hunt or hit up some reds out there on the flat. Right now, ive been just going to hernando lake to ride over to potts preserve. Just looking at different places to run.

 

[SWAMPHUNTER45]

Be glad you were not out north of there today

Shizt there had to be 25 airboats out all with the same idea.

Not to mention 8-10 mud boats.

I’ll tell you this “Smuggler” is selling some trailers because they were lined up 1/2 a mile down the road !

 

[Rick McC.]

Looking to see if anybody goes out there on advice to ride out there safetly

When you head north of Bayport, you’re going to be getting into more and more rocky country as you go north, all the way to the Chaz channel. That includes all the creeks, and actually over nine miles offshore. I don’t know what the GPS maps show; but on the paper maps that whole offshore area was just noted as a “foul area.”

As far as the creeks; I learned them all from my Dad years before we had any airboats. He’d raise the big outboard (30 HP or so) and put down the little kicker for me to run. He’d stand on the front of the boat to raise the back up more, and point out with a push pole where to run. I was seven years old at that time. Anyway, every creek has rocks, bars and mud flats, and depending on the tides, can be impassable.

I’ve had several folks over the years question if “y’all really run back there,” as they went one time, and don’t plan on ever going back. There are areas there where, after a front comes through and the wind comes out of the NE; you aren’t getting out until the weather changes and lets the tide come back in enough to get the rock bars back under water. Most all those creeks have areas where, if you don’t leave soon enough and the tide goes out; you aren’t getting out until the tide comes back in. Period.

One hunting season over 60 years ago our Dads let me and a friend stay over the Christmas holidays at the camp island (camp since long gone) with an older fellow. The plan was that they’d come back and get us that Wednesday. The wind shifted to the NE, and they couldn’t get back until the following Sunday.

It’s not a good area to go explore for anyone who doesn’t know the area well.