posted 04-09-2004 03:41 PM ET (US)        

I made arrangements for a two-week stay at Bay City Lodge, a fishing camp located about two miles upriver from the mouth of the Apalachicola River that I had spent a long week at last spring with my son Chris, thanks to Clark Roberts who encouraged me to try it out. I drove down in two days from Battle Creek (1050 miles +/-) and spent the first week on my own; due to conflicting vacation schedules my wife Katie couldn’t make it at all (she and her two sisters left for four days in Vegas while we were on the road home), and my daughter’s spring break was only the second of the two weeks I was there. I had to be back in the office by Monday, April 5.

Let me tell you about Bay City Lodge. It is owned by Jimmy Mosconis, who is always in evidence running around doing something of a clean-up, fix-up nature, and who with his new (28’, I think) Grady White, is a consummate fisherman in his own right. Managed by Buddy Renfro and Hal Dolan (who is married to Jimmy’s sister who in turn runs the restaurant); the friendliest and most helpful bunch of people you’d ever hope to meet, and all in one place. It is a full service fishing lodge directly on the banks of the Apalachicola River, with single bungalows that sleep up to five (each in their own beds) in two bedrooms with two queen beds in each and a roll out couch in the living area plus bath and full kitchen, “motel” type duplexes and triplexes with similar arrangements to the bungalows up to a six bedroom unit with a dining area that is like a “lodge” all on it’s own. All the accommodations are reasonably priced, in my opinion; I rented a two-bedroom bungalow for the duration of my stay for $90.00 a day. Bay City has a full service restaurant that specializes in fresh that day seafood, they excel in preparation, and will cook your own fresh caught fish any way you like it for about half the cost of a standard entrée. (My favorite is my own fresh caught grouper broiled and stuffed with crabmeat.)

They have fresh and frozen inshore and offshore bait, a full tackle shop with snacks and drinks and pretty fair stock of boating and trailering supplies, as well as gasoline, an ice shed where they make their own ice, dockage, dry boat storage, boat ramp and fish cleaning stations, “do-it-yourself” or “do-it-for-you”. I know I’m leaving something out; suffice it to say, you can separate yourself very effectively from the rest of the world there for about as long as you like. Oh, there are no phones in the rooms and no keys for the doors. While you’re at Bay City Lodge, you are in a different world, with friendly people who are all there because they love to fish primarily, and to boat, and to share their experiences doing both. Bay City has six or eight guides, fishing or sightseeing, inshore or offshore. Brownie Parkman is the pick of the litter, in my opinion, and just a fun guy to get to know as well as having huge knowledge of both inshore and offshore ambience.

Bay City Lodge property extends right to the river’s edge, but the docks and buildings are sheltered even from the river, much less Apalachicola Bay and the Gulf, accessed via a small creek maybe 150 yards long. Fresh water in the river and the creek, so there’s no need to flush the saltwater out of your engine at the end of the day; it happens automatically. It’s about two miles down to the mouth of the river and the town of Apalachicola, about ten miles across Apalachicola Bay to Government Cut between St George and Little St. George Islands, which when you pass through, presents you with the Gulf of Mexico. The ICW comes in from the East end of the bay (Apalachicola Bay is about 30 miles long), up the river 3 or 4 miles and then heads west inland to Panama City, with a canal cut down to Port St. Joe Bay and Port St. Joe. There is also a network of rivers (East River, St, Mark River, Little St. Mark River, etc.) accessible from the Apalachicola via creeks and cut-offs. When it’s too windy to boat or fish on the Bay or the Gulf, there is the opportunity to do both in smooth water all over the rivers and the ICW. There is apparently quite a largemouth bass fishery in the fresh water areas, redfish, black drum, spotted trout, sheephead and whiting in the Bay, and all the typical grouper, snapper, amberjack, blackfin tuna and other Gulf fish offshore.

It was a little windier than I would have liked a lot of the time I was down there, but there were enough good days that I got a lot of fishing in, and there wasn’t a day that I didn’t put 50 miles behind us doing something. The biggest day for both fishing and boating was a 120-mile day that took us, in the company of Wayne and Lucretia Parker and their 25’ World Cat (and Brownie taking a busman’s holiday, just fishing for fun on a day off from guiding), grouper fishing in 145’ of water, 40 or 45 miles out from Government Cut. The Parkers freely shared the locations of their favorite holes with us, we all caught nice grouper, a bunch of way big red snapper that were out of season and had to go back, and Lucretia pulled in about a 20# blackfin tuna. Jess and I both caught snapper and grouper, and I hooked and “landed” about a 5’ blacktip shark I’d guess went 80# or 90#. Thankfully he hooked up on one of my 4/0 Penns with 50# test line and 80# test leader rather than the lighter stuff; he was scrappy and took better than ½ hour to get boatside. He was completely whacked when I finally got him to the boat, so Jess got some good pictures of him and was able to feel his skin while I supported him at the surface by the leader. He was just hooked in the corner of his mouth by the 10/0 hook I had on the grouper rig, so after the photo session, I was able to just pull the hook free with pliers and let him sink. About 10 feet down he turned over and took off. Anyway, more about the biggest day… We took off just before daylight, about 6:15, and pulled back in our slip almost dead on 12 hours later. NOAA reports in the morning predicted 2 foot waves with 6 second periods, so we knew it would be easy sailing, but the gulf was so flat that we were able to run the entire 55 miles back at just about 40 mph, and we beat the World cat in, which is what a Whaler should do!

My daughter Jess typically caught more and bigger fish than I did, and that was a thrill for both of us. She was on spring break from college in Chicago, and while she has spent time fishing with me around our place in the North Channel of Lake Huron, I’ve not been convinced that fishing was her favorite thing to do, especially on a short week break from college. Turned out she had a riot, and I had another one watching her and being with her. Our opportunities to spend time together like this are going to only get fewer and farther apart, so I really cherished the week we had together down there.

Outre´ ran like she was brand new for the entire trip. I’d had some mechanical problems last year starting with bearings on the power steering and high speed misfires on the Apalachicola trip a year ago, that culminated before the season was over with replacement of the rectifier, stator, spark plug wires and spark plugs, volt gauge, thermostats, oil reservoir, fuel lines, water pump kit and lower unit chimney seal, and surgical removal of all the oem OMC power steering parts inside and outside the cowling, and replacement with a simple Teleflex center mount hydraulic steering unit. (It seems like there was even more, but I can’t think of what it could have been.) I treated Outre´’s motor with anti carbon when I de-winterized at home before the trip, and added OMC carbon guard whenever I added fuel. I really don’t thing the motor has run this well since I bought the rig with 180 hours on her five years ago. I am not getting black deposits on the transom any more (LHG swears that both he and Steve Farnsworth had to clean *my* carbon from *their* transoms at a rendezvous last year), just the typical “bug-bomb” effect of a two-stroke when I first start her up.

She seems to have a sweet spot between 4000 and 4500 rpm where it really sounded like we’d hit a harmonic synchronization and the motor would just sing. Made me think of how Enzo Ferrari would talk about the song of twelve cylinders (except I’ve only got six). Top end when I first purchased Outre´, before I raised the console, added an arch and installed the Mills canvas was 53 mph GPS at just over 5500 rpm; on this trip, with the raised console, the arch and my Mills suntop flying, I got 49.8 mph GPS at 5700 rpm. I seriously wonder if I pulled all that stuff off and did an apples to apples comparison to how Outre´ was outfitted when I first got her, if I wouldn’t hit 55 mph! She’s running like a top, and I’m a happy camper.

It was a great vacation; we fished successfully about 13 miles out from Government Cut on the Apalachicola Reef (rubble from the old Apalachicola bridge) twice, the second time with the advantage of live bait. The Parkers showed us how and where to fish for squirrel fish (“grouper love to eat them”), which was a hoot all in itself – these things are bigger than the perch we catch and eat in the North Channel – and it is unsettling to bring your hook back up after a strike, with nothing left but the head! There are some big and hungry critters down there… I got up the Apalachicola about 45 miles on one windy but clear and sunny day; I’d like to go further some time. Traveled all over the network of rivers (tributaries?) at the lower end of the Apalachicola River, where the only evidence of civilization is an occasional floating shack tied off to the cypress trees. There were lots of alligators sunning themselves on the banks and on floating logs; very little boat traffic, sometimes none at all. We fished the Bay a few times and got a couple of legal reds for dinner along with a black drum, but typically the best spots would be troubled by winds when the bite would normally be on, a little one way or the other from high tide.

Oh, and we ate “downtown” a few times, both at Boss Oyster and at Papa Joe’s Oyster bar; our preference turned out to be Boss Oyster. The oysters seemed to typically be bigger, and the service and quality of food seemed just a little better. I think we had oysters of some sort every day. Big fresh Apalachicola Bay oysters raw on the half shell are about as good as they get in my book, with full apologies to Felix’s and Acme in New Orleans who have some damn fine Mississippi delta oysters, too.

All in all it was really a perfect trip; we got to play just as hard as we wanted to, nobody got hurt, everything worked as it was supposed to, nothing of consequence broke (short of the terminal tackle and leaders of various sizes, by the big ones that got away), we caught fish, had some fresh for dinner, and Jess and I spent some quality time together.

It don’t get no better than that.

posted 04-10-2004 12:25 PM ET (US)            

You're welcome - I wish that area would remain "the forgotten coast" to all but my and a couple hundred of my close friends forever, but I think it's probably too late; there were at least 50 homes being built around Apalachicola this spring, according to the locals. It is still a wonderful, sleepy little area, though. Closest WalMart is in Panama City.

Jeff-

posted 04-12-2004 12:40 PM ET (US)            

Your apologies to the Acme Oyster Bar in New Orleans
brought back a fine recollection of my own.

posted 04-12-2004 03:10 PM ET (US)            

Ha, Ha! The fact of the matter was that I had to underwrite Katie's trip in order to keep peace in the family, but if anybody won anything, I didn't see it!

It did all work out fine, though my preference would have been to spend some quality time with the better half of this union somewhere...

prj-

posted 04-17-2004 12:52 PM ET (US)            

Sarah and I enjoyed your report of the Apalachicola area.
Her home in Sea Grove Beach is about 65 miles West of Apalachicola, when there we go to Boss Oyster for lunch as often as we can.

I plan to have my boat down at her home next winter, I'll
have to get a little more fishing information for the area
when we get together this summer. Hope to see some pictures
of Jess and yourself fishing and boating.

posted 04-21-2004 04:17 PM ET (US)            

Bullfrog? Don't embarass me too badly here, but what is up with the bullfrog?

JimG-

posted 04-28-2004 08:09 PM ET (US)            

Andy-
You're welcome; and believe me, your kids will be grown up and out of the house in the blink of an eye - enjoy every minute!

Chris-
You've gor email - I sent you a scan of Buddy Renfro's business card (manager), but here is a phone number and website: (850)653-9294 www.baycitylodge.com

John

(Unfroze and cooked some of the grouper we brought home just the other day - marinated in a jerk sauce and broiled it. Died and went to heaven - just about went out and hooked the boat and trailer up and headed back south!)