I don't remember any structures or anything on that island. I believe we were there around the end of March, first of April, so the bugs weren't too bad. It was still "nipply" at night, in the low 50's.
We watched some of the head boats and charters come in, with red snapper, grouper, big sheepshead, big reds (back before there were slot limits!). It's a great area for fishing, that's for sure. We had also caught some bluegills and Suwannee bass in the river paddling down the first day. Man I miss being young and free to do that stuff whenever I wanted! That kind of float trip and one like we made once to catch blue crabs on the Chassowitzka are some of the best times you can have from a canoe.
Man I practically grew up in the floor of a jon boat on the Chazz. That was an every weekend trip for us when I was a youngin
We took a trip up to Chazz from Lakeland when I was about 18, took my jon boat and rented another there at the campground/boat launch. We stayed on the river about 4 hours, and came home with over 200 big blue crabs. Just tied a chicken neck or piece of mullet on a string, slung it out into a hole in the grass, wait a few minutes and then pull the crabs up to the boat and net 'em! We probably caught 400, but culled them and let almost all the females go. As we were cleaning them we noticed a few got in to the mix, but they were so big I guess the guys couldn't bring themselves to throw them back. I always wanted to go back and go all the way to the Gulf and do some fishing, but never did.
It is a long ride to the gulf and the river is shallow in spots. We killed the reds on the oyster beds at the mouth of the river
Some of the biggest blue crabs Ive ever seen are in that spring right there at the boat ramp
We went downstream a ways, past some houseboats on the south side that used to mark the entrance to a creek coming in from another spring. The river opens up and there's an area about 2-3 acres of grass beds that were just full of crabs. We stayed at least 40-50 yards from any crab traps that were set, and had no trouble finding crabs. I don't know if they are still as plentiful as they were back then (I'm talking 1983 or maybe 84). I know the crabbers down this way have a hard time finding crabs.
