The fish story will be at the end of the post but I'll assure you now, I only took the photo! I didn't actually catch the fish! But it's a whopper!
We drove out to the Gulf Coast last weekend and it was a gorgeous day.
It started with a few sprinkles of rain and that scared most people off and we had the trail all to ourselves!
The first bird we saw was a Roseate Spoonbill but I wasn't fast enough to get a photo.
But then when we got closer to the Gulf, a Bald Eagle was on the shore and flew to a tree nearby.
It was an elegant mature Eagle and we stood there and took lots of photos while it preened.
That was one of the highlights of the day.
And a great way to start the day!
We saw a few Osprey too and they are always fun to watch glide overhead.
This one perched nearby and we took the pics from the truck!
Looks like he's saying, 'are you looking at ME?'with attitude!
I took these through the truck windshield. (it was clean from the shower earlier!)
And then when we finished our hike on the Withlacoochee Bay Trail we headed out on the 4 miles of dirt road. We stopped at one of the observation platforms and that's where we saw the 'catch of the day'.
I think it may be the catch of a lifetime! This young lady pulled in a 27 pound, 3 ft long Black Grouper!
It was amazing! I was almost as excited as she was!
It was 'catch and release' so they put it back in the water to live another day!
A fun day was had by all!
Don't stay home just because of a few sprinkles! You might miss the gorgeous clouds at the end of the day!
