OT FL route and fishing tips

bayboy · **Joined:** Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:32 am **Posts:** 218

Hi there
baygirl and I are driving to Indian Shores Florida the last week of December. Any ideas regarding driving route; where to stop and where not to stop would be greatly appreciated.

Of course any fishing tips would be greatly appreciated as well. We will be staying on the Intracoastal waterways.

Thanks.

bayboy

Superdad · **Posted:** Fri Sep 02, 2011 7:49 am

81 to 75 bingo bango bongo!!!!!!!!

David aka Superdad

fireball · **Posted:** Fri Sep 02, 2011 8:05 am

if you have the time, diffently spend at least a day fishing, cocoa beach pier, i cant remember but its like $5-$10 to fish on the pier, there is bar open in evenings to get drinks, and a resturant, beautiful beach, and you buy your bait right on the pier.
http://www.cocoabeachpier.com/
we make a trip to florida every year. spent a month there in 09. normaly catch a fair number of fish of the pier, the key is strong line,
at least 40-50 pound braid, we just use are fresh water poles. but you have to haul the fish 20feet up.

9iron · **Posted:** Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:05 pm

bayboy wrote:

Hi there
baygirl and I are driving to Indian Shores Florida the last week of December. Any ideas regarding driving route; where to stop and where not to stop would be greatly appreciated.

Of course any fishing tips would be greatly appreciated as well. We will be staying on the Intracoastal waterways.

Thanks.

bayboy

[b]i do that trip for a month in mar.. i live in oshawa and always use i75 mainly because of the amt of accomodations that are along the route....i take two nites going and usually one nite coming back... if you use i75 make sure you get thru cincinati before 3 in afternoon .. and thru atlanta by two in afternoon... those are the two main trouble spots for traffic later in the day.... i drive about 12 hrs first day.. second day i usually have abour 8 hr drive and stop in valdosta right near the fl- ga border.. from there it is about 31/2 to 4 hrs to indian rocks beach where i stay.. you will be staying about 5 min south of me.. the weather is a concern so i75 is best bet ..couple yrs ago i was off the hwy first day just a bit after leaving ohio.. ice storm... only 8 hrs drive that day..
go to your local CAA store and pay 30 bucks for the i75 book.. it will give you every stop and interchange and what is there as in rest gas hotels etc.. each page is 25 miles and it is an awesome book
there is always some construction somewhere, and it slows u a little.. if you buy the book have your co-pilot pay attention to the lane changes going thru the cities.. it is laid out well in advance for you.... when you hit the outskirts of tampa you will take 275 acrosss the bay ..about an 8 mile bridge and causeway.. you wil lencounter some traffic in the small part of tampa you will pass thru.. once across the bridge if you are staying on the beach you will follow 275 south and probably get off at park.. is about 12 miles straight to the beach.. i get off one before that called ulmerton and take it straight to gulf blvd and the beach
at indian rocks..
as for fishing .. buy a couple sand spikes rod holders.. use slip sinkers right off the beach usually with frozen squid [and you will catch small shark some over 3 feet.. whiting , trout and flounder mostly.. redington pier is just below you at redington beaach.. 10 or 11 bucks to fish off it... there is a bait house and infor mation as you go onto pier... the sunshine bridge piers and fort desoto piers are also great to fish , about half hr south of you... dependeing on where u are staying also the inland waterway which runs right down gulf blvd is good... u can use tackle from here but if fishing the piers should just go buy a 6-7 foot rod and reel very stout for under 40 bucks at walmart or most tackle stores... a good place for tackle and info is.. dogfish tackle on park st..inland from gulf about 5 min or so... if you want more specifics and addies for the piers etc drop me a mail and i will be glad to help as much as i can.. /b]i like the area and have been going there for many yrs..drop me a mail if you like... we fis every day and never know what you may catch...
terry

bayboy · **Joined:** Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:32 am **Posts:** 218

Wow this is great stuff folks. Many thanks!
We live on the Eastern end of Lake Ontario (Hay Bay/Napanee). Is it worth driving your way to get on i75, rather than to take i81? bayboy

9iron · **Posted:** Sat Sep 03, 2011 5:07 pm

bayboy wrote:

Wow this is great stuff folks. Many thanks!
We live on the Eastern end of Lake Ontario (Hay Bay/Napanee). Is it worth driving your way to get on i75, rather than to take i81? bayboy

only thing coming my way would make sure you are not going thru toronto between 6am and about 9.30am.... it is about 4 hrs from oshawa to the border.. i go thru toronto before 6am , 6.30 at the very latest... then another 4 hrs aprox to go thru ohio and cincinati is right on the ohio kentucky border,,, i usually go another 3or 4 hrs after that, and stay in corbin kentucky if trafic and weather permit.. that allows me to leave by 7 in morn next day and get thru atlanta in good time, to try and beat trafic in later afternoon.. only thing that can get you confused going thru those cities is... unlike our freeway here where we exit off on the right always... they go off both left and right side.. this is why i said have the co pilot guide you thru the
lanes with gps and the book... i rely on the book long before i had gps and still do..
http://www.i75online.com/ this is the book you should get to travel that route.. they also have an i95 now.. if you can get yourself into kentuckty an hr or so first day u have done real good..it is all up to you and how hard you want to push the drive....if you want more info on the fishing let me know... depending on the time of yr and water temps , will determine what is availeable....

mr. walleye · **Joined:** Sun Jul 30, 2006 12:48 pm **Posts:** 434

I live in Ny and have place in Napanee. 81 is the best and shortish way, going to Toronto is adding on miles for you

9iron · **Posted:** Sun Sep 04, 2011 6:55 pm

mr. walleye wrote:

I live in Ny and have place in Napanee. 81 is the best and shortish way, going to Toronto is adding on miles for you

i hope this helps him.. ihave no choice lol..it ie either to west to detroit or south an west from buffalo ... could you tell me about i81... where it comes out on the i75 and what if any major cities that it travels thru or around.... i personally do not like the oshawa to windsor drive,,, BORING LOL...but if i head to buffalo i have to be in constant traffic from toronto to niagara... lots of cities along the qew,,,, but if it is faster i may look at it..

bayboy · **Joined:** Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:32 am **Posts:** 218

thanks for all the posts. Any ideas what fish are good eating or not? Do I need a licence for salt water fishing? Is the answer age related? bayboy

fireball · **Posted:** Tue Sep 06, 2011 6:04 pm

you do need a lincense, for fishing in florida, alot of the peirs like cocoa beach, that i mentioned have peir licenses, so you dont have to buy a licencese, the non- resident is $47 annual, $30 for 7- day $17 for 3-day.
the 65 and over thing only applys if you are a florida resident, at which point in time they give you your licence for free, but you do still have to carry one.
http://myfwc.com/fishing/

i am planning on going down this fall, just trying to figure out how much this trip will cost me, as i will need two licences one for fresh water and one for salt.

hope this helps,
steve

bayboy · **Joined:** Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:32 am **Posts:** 218

very helpful thanks. do you know which fish are non eaters or good to eat?

fireball · **Posted:** Tue Sep 06, 2011 6:31 pm

http://www.tampabayfishingpier.com/
thats the redington shores, pier, we have fished that one as well, great fishing on both, we went for a walk along venice beach as well, which is know as being the shark tooth capital of the world. diffently a fair number of shark teeth, but alot of people looking for them as well..

we ate whitting, and sheephead, both very tastefull. but thats all we caught, flounder are good as well..
just ask the locals, i enjoy pier fishing, very much. and allways caught fish. surf fishing can be hard at times.
that picture is from long beach, ny, a few weeks back, was down spending some time with the wife, spent many nights surf fishing..

fireball · **Posted:** Tue Sep 06, 2011 6:41 pm

Your fine to use your fresh water gear fishing on the peir, but dont try it surf fishing, the sand/salt gets into the fresh water reels and destroys them.

Thats a 11 foot surf rod pictured, i can cast into the deep water drop of with out going far out into the surf, (about a 130 yard cast)

in long beach, ny, i generaly target stripped bass. so go to walmart and buy the rig labeled for what ever your fishing for..
you will catch other stuff, have caught small sharks, bass, flounder, weak fish. using stripped bass rigs.

bayboy · **Joined:** Fri Feb 25, 2005 10:32 am **Posts:** 218

that is great stuff. thanks for taking the trouble to help us out.

Bassn51 · **Posted:** Tue Sep 06, 2011 7:03 pm

We do this drive each year and use the 81 to 95 route. We usually do about 12 hours the first day and that gets us to Rocky Mount NC. From there it's only about 8 hours to our place in Orlando.W like this route because it avoids the GTA and every major city but DC has a bypass, a GPS doesn't go around it but CAA has a standard route that takes 66 from 81 over to 95 at Fredricksburg.

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OT FL route and fishing tips

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