Choctaw/Sandestin-long post
Posted: June 3rd, 2011, 11:22 pm
Okay, I promised a report to someone when I returned, but I am done fishing Choctawhatchee so I thought I would give it tonight as I look up weather forecasts. We are gonna fish our way back home on Sunday in some more familiar waters in PC area. Skip to the next to last paragraph if you just wanna know about the fishing.
First, about the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. If you like golf, ignore the rest as the courses look nice. As I was making reservations to come to the conference, I knew I wanted this to be a fishing and work getaway, in that order. Unless you work for the IRS, in which case, I barely fished and was extremely attentive in all the meetings. I talked to the person when making reservations (no easy task as they clearly wanted me to reserve online based on my very long hold times and the frequent reminders that I could make my reservations online). She informed me that bringing my boat would not be a problem as they had a secure area to keep it. Wonderful! I booked my room.
When I arrived Wednesday night, the man at the security station (is Sandestin Resort currently housing a nuclear accelerator? This was serious security!) looked at me oddly as I waited in line. When I pulled up he informed me that boats were not allowed on the property (as if I were intending to bring a semi load of hog sh** to dump on every lawn or something). Say what? I informed him I had been told it would not be a problem and he said I could park it in the boat lot (which seemed extremely logical and simple to me at the time, still does as a matter of fact). I let him know that parking my boat in the boat lot would indeed be acceptable. He then told me I could not check in at my hotel, but would have to check in across the highway as it was
late and the hotel desk was closed. I reckon 8:00pm is late in Sandestin? After his excellent directions, I proceeded to the check in. The sweet young lady checking me in was, well, sweet. Although I have several pairs of blue jeans older than her, I am sure she was smarter than all of them. After telling her I had a boat, the look of panic on her face concerned me. Evidentally, there is a high amount of leprosy among boat owners in this area, as I seemed to cause the same reaction with everyone I met. The 14 year old manager overheard and after a lengthy negotiation, we determined where I would take, the ugh, boat. Now mind you, this is my 19' flats skiff, not a
40' Hatteras I am towing. Sure my truck could use a wash, but my boat is fairly clean. It's not like I had brought my camo duck boat. I was beginning to feel self conscious about being a boat owner. Anyhow, they gave me directions to the boat lot and after being let in by the crack security team (after swearing an oath before God and man that I was indeed headed to the, ugh, boat lot) I sat and waited for someone from security to allow me in. When he showed up, he asked me if I was an owner. Ummm, of the boat? No, an owner. Ummm, I own a lot of stuff. NO, an owner in the resort! No sir, I own nothing in the resort with the exception of what I brought in. This seemed to cause much consternation, but eventually he asked me how long the boat was that we were both standing next to. I said, 19'. Again confusion reigned. He looked around deciding where he should place this massive boat (my suggestion about putting it in one of the dozens of empty spaces next to the dozens of boats, many of which were larger did not seem to be logical to him). Finally he placed me in a space even after I clearly refused to provide blood and urine samples. I unhooked and left to head to my hotel as quickly as possible before I was branded on the forehead for having an, ugh, boat.
Now on to the actual fishing part. After wearing a Columbia shirt to the conference, one of the vendors recognized me and introduced me to another boat owner from the area (see, I KNEW there were more of us in this vicinity). He gave me 3 super secret spots, drawn on a napkin. I was skeptical (I feel guilty for this now, but I am just bein honest). On Thur afternoon, we headed to spot one and he was a great guide. Within 1 minute, my daughter was hooked up to a blue and had a fun fight. Over the
next two hours, we caught blues, cats and specks. I actually caught more trout on a 5" Gulp white shad than they did on live shrimp, but I was not able to fish a lot as they had steady action. We finally headed in when the girls had had enough (I "one more casted" as long as humanly possible and managed 4 keeper specks but we were not keeping on this day). This afternoon (Fri) we attempted to head back to spot 1, but the girls said it was too rough (maybe 1.5 foot chop, maybe). It was about them on this trip, so I headed back to some lee water. After scouting around a bit we found some bait crashing and we changed to gold grubs and had a blast with the blues. We had pretty steady action for the next hour or so until the lightning sent us scrambling for the hill.
Sorry for the long post, mostly not about fishing, but I wanted to let folks know two things. 1) there are some fish in the bay 2) it would be best to find
a more boat friendly place to stay if you are planning a trip.
I posted this on the Pensacola Forum too.
First, about the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. If you like golf, ignore the rest as the courses look nice. As I was making reservations to come to the conference, I knew I wanted this to be a fishing and work getaway, in that order. Unless you work for the IRS, in which case, I barely fished and was extremely attentive in all the meetings. I talked to the person when making reservations (no easy task as they clearly wanted me to reserve online based on my very long hold times and the frequent reminders that I could make my reservations online). She informed me that bringing my boat would not be a problem as they had a secure area to keep it. Wonderful! I booked my room.
When I arrived Wednesday night, the man at the security station (is Sandestin Resort currently housing a nuclear accelerator? This was serious security!) looked at me oddly as I waited in line. When I pulled up he informed me that boats were not allowed on the property (as if I were intending to bring a semi load of hog sh** to dump on every lawn or something). Say what? I informed him I had been told it would not be a problem and he said I could park it in the boat lot (which seemed extremely logical and simple to me at the time, still does as a matter of fact). I let him know that parking my boat in the boat lot would indeed be acceptable. He then told me I could not check in at my hotel, but would have to check in across the highway as it was
late and the hotel desk was closed. I reckon 8:00pm is late in Sandestin? After his excellent directions, I proceeded to the check in. The sweet young lady checking me in was, well, sweet. Although I have several pairs of blue jeans older than her, I am sure she was smarter than all of them. After telling her I had a boat, the look of panic on her face concerned me. Evidentally, there is a high amount of leprosy among boat owners in this area, as I seemed to cause the same reaction with everyone I met. The 14 year old manager overheard and after a lengthy negotiation, we determined where I would take, the ugh, boat. Now mind you, this is my 19' flats skiff, not a
40' Hatteras I am towing. Sure my truck could use a wash, but my boat is fairly clean. It's not like I had brought my camo duck boat. I was beginning to feel self conscious about being a boat owner. Anyhow, they gave me directions to the boat lot and after being let in by the crack security team (after swearing an oath before God and man that I was indeed headed to the, ugh, boat lot) I sat and waited for someone from security to allow me in. When he showed up, he asked me if I was an owner. Ummm, of the boat? No, an owner. Ummm, I own a lot of stuff. NO, an owner in the resort! No sir, I own nothing in the resort with the exception of what I brought in. This seemed to cause much consternation, but eventually he asked me how long the boat was that we were both standing next to. I said, 19'. Again confusion reigned. He looked around deciding where he should place this massive boat (my suggestion about putting it in one of the dozens of empty spaces next to the dozens of boats, many of which were larger did not seem to be logical to him). Finally he placed me in a space even after I clearly refused to provide blood and urine samples. I unhooked and left to head to my hotel as quickly as possible before I was branded on the forehead for having an, ugh, boat.
Now on to the actual fishing part. After wearing a Columbia shirt to the conference, one of the vendors recognized me and introduced me to another boat owner from the area (see, I KNEW there were more of us in this vicinity). He gave me 3 super secret spots, drawn on a napkin. I was skeptical (I feel guilty for this now, but I am just bein honest). On Thur afternoon, we headed to spot one and he was a great guide. Within 1 minute, my daughter was hooked up to a blue and had a fun fight. Over the
next two hours, we caught blues, cats and specks. I actually caught more trout on a 5" Gulp white shad than they did on live shrimp, but I was not able to fish a lot as they had steady action. We finally headed in when the girls had had enough (I "one more casted" as long as humanly possible and managed 4 keeper specks but we were not keeping on this day). This afternoon (Fri) we attempted to head back to spot 1, but the girls said it was too rough (maybe 1.5 foot chop, maybe). It was about them on this trip, so I headed back to some lee water. After scouting around a bit we found some bait crashing and we changed to gold grubs and had a blast with the blues. We had pretty steady action for the next hour or so until the lightning sent us scrambling for the hill.
Sorry for the long post, mostly not about fishing, but I wanted to let folks know two things. 1) there are some fish in the bay 2) it would be best to find
a more boat friendly place to stay if you are planning a trip.
I posted this on the Pensacola Forum too.
Ugh boat snobs 