Try Cedar Key Florida ! On the Gulf and Awesome !

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We went to Cedar Key this summer for a one day trip. It is about 130 miles
north west of Orlando. In the big bend area of Fla. Only a few miles south
of the Swanney river. It sits right out on the gulf . About 6 or more little islands you can go to in a few short minutes. Really nice public boat ramp.
Great seafood, shops, all right on the ocean front. Boat all day and then
go eat in a real nice restaurant. Places to stay day,week or month. About
$80 per day. Within walking distance from boat ramp. A big History in this little
town. A museum. Not at all like the ocean. More like a lake. Not choppy.
almost no waves. One word of caution, water gets real low late in the day.
So get your boat out before low tide.

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[RWilson2526]

Re: Try Cedar Key Florida ! On the Gulf and Awesome !

You're right about that!. I spent alot of time out there some time ago when I was in college. I was an anthropology major and we had an archaelogical field school out there for a semester. Dont know if you noticed but there is a light house on Sea Horse Key which is were we lived for 4 months. (Sea Horse is the biggest) I then worked in the area with a contractor

The area is rich with native shell mounds, many of which are washing out onto the beaches so you can find quite alot of pot sherds and some shell tools if you are lucky. Shell mounds if you are not familiar are basically where a population would throw all there shells, fish bones broken pottery and over a long time could make mounds many yards long and sometimes 20'-30' high. Archaelogists can dig down through these shell mounds and analyze the amount of oyster shell vs clam shell or types of fish bone and how it varies from layer to layer and get an idea of what seasons people were catching and eating what types of food.

Sea Horse also has one of the largest brown pelicans rookeries. When we were there the pelicans were roosting. We used to walk through the interior going from one site to another which would agitate the pelicans which would result in them regurgitating pretty much undigested mullet from the trees. It was a riot having 1-2 lb fish falling from the trees all around.

My very best natural experience was when we were working on North key just in from the beach . We heard this slapping sound in the water . We looked out just off the beach and the dolphin were circling a school of mullet when they got them nice and tight they would all converge with the baby dolphins going first.

You're right about low tide as well Cedar Key was the only place I ever saw what we called mullet boats which were very common around there. They were probably 25' or so all open with a center console. The outboard was located in the center of the boat in front of the center console. We had 2 at our disposal for our work there. When you got the baby up and trimmed up you could go through some unbelievably skinny water. Just have to remember DONT STOP!

I havent been there in probably 20 years but I bet it hasnt changed much. I do hope to get back there some day!!!