For five years now, i have been blessed to host tradgangers on an annual kayak trip that is offered as an auction item on the St. Jude's Auction.  I say blessed, because I have truly been lucky to meet awesome people and share terrific memories on some of my favorite Central Florida waterways.  This year Ken Gettman (Elkken on tradgang) and his wife Pam, travelled all the way from their winter home in Arizona to relax with Renee and I.  The Gettmans proved to be fantastic people and we truly had a great time.

Photobucket is ridiculous.  Stay tuned for pictures tonight...

Here are some pics of Ken and Pam right after we hit the water.

More, more.

I've been thinking about acquiring a kayak to paddle, maybe fish the local creeks.  You're pushing me over the edge.

The first day we kayaked the Ocklawaha River and it didn't take us long to get into wildlife.

Kenny started catching panfish right away.  He wore that ultralight rod and reel out over the next several days and caught tons of panfish and small bass on a black and yellow beetle spin.




Kayaking for my wife, Renee, on the other hand, is a zen-like experience.  This is a variation of her typical river goddess pose.

Looks like a cool trip there Gregg.  Parts of Florida are hidden treasures.

Deno

I caught some fish too.  We didn't catch any monsters, but were constantly entertained by ones like this:

The next day we spent on the Silver River.  While I am usually pretty good about capturing the beauty of the springs, I was seemingly forgetful in doing so.  I did take some pretty cool wildlife pics though.

Great pics Gregg. Thanks for the paddle along
Deno  

When we stopped for lunch, this 25+ # snapping turtle came out from under the dock.  I lost a flip flop when I slipped in the water to catch it.

I really have to thank Renee for helping me out on this trip.  The last two years in a row we have hosted couples and it has been a lot of fun.

Of course, the real draw on the Silver River are the feral and nomadic Rhesus monkeys that escaped from a tourist attraction generations ago.  There are five wild bands of these monkeys totaling about 300 monkeys.  We managed to see some.

The last day, we kayaked up Alexander Run and snorkeled in the spring.  On the way back, Pam launched without her paddle... But she did it with style!




After saving Pam, Kenny caught no less than a million fish on the way back to where we had put in.

In the picture above, you can see the duct tape on the bottom of Ken's kayak.  One hour in on the first day, he said, "There's a hole in this boat!"  We pulled over and stood in the knee deep mud and patched it up with tape.  It worked so good that we didn't even bother swapping it out for another boat that night.  He put close to 20 miles on that kayak with duct tape on it!         It pays to be prepared!