Category: Event updates

Saturday, October 22nd

Carl Hanson Memorial Outing on the Hillsborough River is back on the calendar. It’s our almost-annual fishing event with the Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Club.
The fly fisher who catches the longest fish (bass or whatever) gets to keep the portrait of Carl Hanson for a year. The member catching the most fish (bluegills, anyone?) gets their name engraved on the Carl Hanson trophy.
Carl, who died in 1998, belonged to both clubs. He loved fishing fresh water and to honor his memory we have been meeting up and “competing” with TBFFC.
This is TBFFC’s year to host the event Here’s the plan from TBFFC President Walt Durkin:
• Meet up early at Rotary Riverfront Park in Temple Terrace.
• Best fishing is from a boat, kayak, or canoe but you can also fly fish from shore.
• Come early and fish until noon then meet up for drinks and conversation to remember Carl.

Also post them on our club’s Facebook. site….facebook.com/scff2020

Saturday, Sept 17 Outing

The September outing at Bay Vista Park at 7000 4th Street South in St. Pete is always one of our more popular outings. It’s a three-fer. You can launch a boat there, you can launch a kayak there, and you can wade-fish from there, too.
But you’re not limited to fishing there. At this outing you can fly fish Tampa Bay anywhere inside of the Sunshine Skyway all the way up to the St. Pete Pier.
Fishing should be pretty good. We’ll have a nice outgoing tide and moving water. Anglers, boating or wading, will be able to cast to seagrass or to the sandy potholes here and there. A $10 gift certificate will be awarded to the member catching the longest spotted seatrout. Take a picture. Measure it. Show the image to outings chair Bob Burkard back at the Bay Vista Park pavilion.
We’ll meet up at the pavilion at 11:45 for a hearty picnic lunch. Coffee and cold drinks will be ready before that.

Saturday, August 20 Outing

Fish in the morning. Meet up at noon at Pavilion #3 on North Beach for a Low Country Boil picnic.

Best Brisket in the Bay Outing, Saturday, August 20,
Fly fish then picnic at noon at Pavilion #3 on North Beach on Fort DeSoto Park (FDP opens at 7 am)
• Celebrate the things that make our club great: Food. Fun. Families. Friends. And fly-fishing.
• All are welcome: your spouse, children, grandchildren, and fishing friends, too.
• Fish in the morning then meet up at Pavilion 3 for lunch. President Rick Warfel and Outings Chairman Bob Burkard will be slow cooking and smoking big beef briskets on grills all night long.
• Everybody will get a free raffle ticket for a drawing for fun door prizes..
• Fish the waters in and around Fort DeSoto Park. $10 gift certificates will be awarded to the members catching the longest snook, longest redfish, and longest seatrout. Measure them. Take pictures. Arrive at Pavilion 3 by noon and show them to an Outings Committee member

The park opens at 7 am. There’s a $5 entrance fee per vehicle. Park diagram and other info is on the FDP website..

Outing, Saturday, July 23. Lower Tampa Bay
Picnic, 11:30 am, North Sunshine Skyway Rest Area
• Fish Gulf or Bay waters anywhere south of 54th Avenue South (Florida State Road 682) in St. Pete.
• Wade fishers can join outings chair Bob Burkard and Bill AuCoin at 7:30 am at the North Skyway Rest Area.
• Fishers and non-fishers alike should meet up at 11:30 am for the outing picnic at the North Sunshine Skyway rest area.
• The outing tournament ends at noon. $10 gift certificates will be awarded for the longest snook, redfish, and longest speckled trout. Measure, take a picture, and show it to Bob Burkard or Bill AuCoin at the picnic pavilion by 1 pm.
• Check the lengths on the annual outing tournament, too. Your longest fish could take the lead on one or more of those categories.

Don’t forget to submit any annual tournament!

Our June outing is our long-standing and much celebrated docklights
outing, and now it’s our Docklights AND Beaches outing.

JUNE OUTING, Friday-Saturday, June 17-18

• Fish from 6 PM Friday to 9 AM Saturday, then from 6 PM Saturday
to 9 AM Sunday.

• The outing prize goes to the fly fisher catching the longest snook.
Measure it and take a picture. Email it to Bob!

• Fish anywhere in Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough, or Manatee
Counties.

Largest Snook wins!

Don’t forget to submit any annual tournament!

Saturday May 21st

Fish in the morning. Meet up at 12:30 for lunch!

Fish in the morning. Be done by 12:30

Our May outing is Saturday May 21 at Cypress Point Park in Tampa. This park fronts a wide sandy flat that’s great for wade fishing and kayak fishing. (It even has a kayak launch area.) Depending on the sun position, it can be terrific for sight fishing.
tournament must be caught before noon. Measure them and take pictures. Arrive at the picnic by 12:30 to officially announce your catch.

Saturday, April 23rd

Fish in the morning. Meet up at noon at Pavilion #8 for a picnic lunch

Fish in the morning. Be done by Noon

Our April outing is Saturday April 23 at the Sunshine Skyway North Rest Area. It is also known as the Blackthorn Memorial Rest Area, and it gives us one of our best shots of the year for catching the famous big three – snook, redfish, and spotted seatrout. Yeah, that’s the inshore slam.
Fish anywhere in Lower Tampa Bay in sight of the Sunshine Skyway. You can wade in or launch your kayak at the rest area. Or you can circle under the bridge and wade fish or kayak fish the other side of the Interstate. Nearby boat launch locations include Fort DeSoto Park, Maximo Marina, or Bay Vista Park.
The longest of each species caught by members earns them a $10 gift certificate at our local fly fishing stores.
You can fish as early or as late as you want but the longest fish entered in the tournament must be caught before noon. Measure. Take pictures. Arrive at the picnic by 12:30 to officially announce your catch. You know the thing.

Saturday, Marchj 19 Outing

Fish in the morning. Meet up at noon at Pavilion #8 for a picnic lunch

Fish in the morning. Meet up at noon at Pavilion #8 for a picnic lunch

We’re going back to Walsingham Lake, one of only two freshwater outings we have each year. The other one is October’s Carl Hanson outing on the Hillsborough River

Walsingham Lake has all of the amenities we need – a boat ramp, convenient access, good shoreline fishing spots, picnic pavilions with grills.  Oh, and I can’t leave this out — restrooms.

You can launch your motorboat but you can’t use the internal combustion engine. 

Outing prizes will go to the members catching the longest bass and the longest panfish including crappie, bluegill, redear, and sunshine bass. Measure your longest fish.  Take a picture. You know the thing

Saturday, February 19 Outing

Fish in the morning. Meet up at noon at Pavilion #4 on North Beach for a Low Country Boil picnic.

We didn’t have a club picnic at the January outing so, Covid willing, we’ll meet up in person at the February outing at Fort DeSoto Park. 

Fish any of the water in or around FDP.  Ten dollar gift certificates will go to members catching the longest redfish, longest snook, and longest seatrout.  Measure your longest fish and take pictures. Email them to BOB. You know the thing.

If you want your longest fish to be entered into the contest be sure to meet up at Pavilion #4 by noon. That’s when the longest fish winners are determined.

Low country boil, you ask?.

Gobble up shrimp and sausage and sweet corn on the cob.  Yeah, the low country boil. It’s a terrific tradition started by the Craig family and we can’t let it go.

The park opens at 7 am. There’s a $5 entrance fee per vehicle. Park diagram and other info is on the FDP website..

Saturday, January 22nd Outing

Just fishing. No picnic. (Covid , you know)
We’ll start 2022 with one of our favorite outing locations, Weedon Island Preserve. The plan was to have a picnic with our traditional Weedon Island feast, the Low Country Boil. But, but, but something intervened. Covid, maybe? Cases skyrocketing? Oh well, better safe than sorry. All that.

But we can still fish, which is the best part about our outings, at least until we get hungry. Starting time is 7 am. Ending time is 7 pm. $10 gift certificates go to the members catching the longest redfish, snook, seatrout and ladyfish. Measure and shoot a picture of your candidates and email them to Bob Burkard.
Fly-fish the water surrounding Weedon Island Preserve including the open waters of Tampa Bay, or the waters of Riviera Bay and Bayou Grande.
Check out the visitor’s map and other details on the Weedon website. There’s a kayak launch and many places to wade in and start fishing from the preserve. You can also rent a kayak at the Sweetwater Kayaks station on Weedon Drive. Master’s Bayou/Snug Harbor also is a great spot to fish but you’ll need to launch a kayak at one of the access points south of Gandy Boulevard.

Wade fishers unite
Wade fishers typically meet up in the main parking lot at 7 am. Some will probably hike to and wade fish the Riviera Bay shoreline. Some like to wade in at the kayak launching area. And some will take the 10-15 minute hike down Lookout Point Trail and wade into Tampa Bay.
.
Fish anywhere around Weedon Island Preserve including Tampa Bay, Bayou Grande, Riviera Bay, and Masters Bayou (aka Snug Harbor).

A Real Low Low Tide: Outgoing to about 11:30 am and dropping to a negative 0.8. Interesting. (Tides4Fishing)