Peillicer Creek Paddle

A view of the Pellicer Creek estuary from the kayaks

4/26/16

We are back in Florida for a few days.  This time we hauled the kayaks down on the Jeep in hopes of getting on the water at least twice.  So, day one we decide to float the Pellicer Creek.  Originally we planned to put in at Faver-Dykes State Park and paddle down the creek to Princess Place Preserve.  According to everything we found on the internet, it would be a 3 mile paddle.  Checking further we discovered Princess Place closes at 6 p.m., which was not going to work since we got a late start.  So, we decided to switch it around, put in a Princess Place and paddle upstream to the Faver Dykes.  We had family help drop the kayaks and ferry a car to the take out.

Paddling out the launch inlet at Princess Place Preserve 

 The put in at Princess Place is in the back of the park, at a little inlet, and it is for hand launching boats only.  We got in the water about 4:30p.m.  The tide was coming in, going against the current.  We also had the wind at our back.  Both of which, helped us on our paddle upstream.  It wasn't extremely hard but it wasn't easy either.  Then again, we don't usually paddle upstream, and it was our first paddle if the season.

It felt great to be out on the water.  Different than the clear waters of our last float, the Weeki Watchee, with visibility today of about a half foot.  We started out in the wide mouth of the estuary, salt marsh along the banks.  A pair of eagles nest at Princess Place, and you can see the nest off in the distance from river.  Nest is huge and we were lucky enough to see a eagle sitting on the edge of the nest.  When we came to the point where the river begins to narrow, an alligator splashed into the water from the bank of the salt marsh.  We were only about 20 yards from it, startling us a bit.  and it quickly and silently disappeared under the water.

It wasn't long after that we caught site of a roof of a gazebo and Kerry thought it was the take out.  It couldn't have been.  We had only gone about a mile!  As we rounded the bend it became clear it was indeed the take out.  Turned out, from the launch to the take out was only about 1.5 miles and we had been on the water for less than an hour.  Now that we knew we had plenty of time to make it to the take out, we pulled out the fishing rods.  Kerry's first cast and she catches a catfish on a crank bait.  A crank bait!  It was the only fish we caught, then again, we have never fished this area or habitat before.  I tried to get some help form the locals, they weren't much help.  They said use shrimp.  As for artificials, they didn't give much info.  I saw one guy using a white paddle tail, and he said he had caught an 18 inch red fish.

 We paddled past the Faver-Dykes boat ramp and fished a little bit.  It was interesting to float in the middle of the creek, having the current going one direction and the tide and wind going the opposite direction, with a result of the kayak floating stationary.  It was a bit surreal.  This area is mostly salt marsh, with some trees along the boat ramp area.  We saw some osprey and a little green heron, and found a bunch of hermit crabs and fiddler crabs at the boat ramp.



So total paddle was 2 miles.  If we would do it again, we would have put in at the US 1 bridge over Pellicer Creek.  I wouldn't leave a care there, as it is not an official put in, but there is plenty of shoulder on the road at the end of the guard rail, and kept free of brush.  The bank isn't steep either.  Pellicer Creek Camp Ground is northwest of the bridge, and have a private launch, but we were told it is for campers only. This would give you about 5-6 miles