February

Inlet Jetty and Dog Beach Photos

It’s now March, and we are dealing with closures, cancellations and long lines at the grocery store thanks to the Corona Virus.

But back in February I took a late afternoon walk at my favorite local place. I’ve taken similar photos before, but can you ever get tired of beach scenes? I’m lucky to live near such a beautiful place.

Covered seating areas along the boardwalk

At Smyrna Dunes Park, on my February visit, I took the counter-clockwise route. That path leads past the ocean with a couple of walkways veering off to the right that take a walker onto the ocean side, with drive-on traffic. You can see it here, but I didn’t get photos of the ocean side this time. I was headed to the Inlet.

Park closes sign — Mile marker and closing time on the railing

The new boardwalk is extremely nice, and signs are posted on the railing in a few places to remind visitors of closing time. The times change as the seasons change and sunset comes later, or earlier. The park closes at sunset.

Jetty rocks — Checking the little pools for something interesting

The rocky jetty is something I seldom photograph, but since it was low tide I wanted to look into the little tide pools by the rocks just in case something interesting had washed up.

This is where the fishermen go and navigate those big rocks to the end. On the other side, to the right in this photo, the surfers find the biggest waves. It’s also the location for the most shark bites – probably because there are lots of yummy surfers around! Just kidding – but it’s known as a big shark bite area.

Rocks at the jetty — Jetty rocks and tide pools

My shadow looks bizarre, as if I am wearing a trench coat! Actually, I had my long sleeve cover-up shirt tied around my waist. Lots of people had on long sleeves. It was windy and cool, but very nice. Just the way I like Florida weather to be. It won’t last.

I found a few shells to collect along the beach. This broken whelk (above) made for a good photo. If you want to see what I collected, read my post here.

The Dog Beach

Although dogs can be found on any part of this beach, all the way to the Jetty, this “river side” beach area is where most of them are. A dirt path runs alongside the boardwalk on the West side and has a few offshoots that lead out to this part of the beach.

dog beach at low tide — Low tide at the dog beach

Below is one of the sandy paths that lead between the boardwalk and the dog beach area. It’s not an easy walk in that soft sand.

Ponce Inlet dog trail to beach — Sandy path leading in from the dog beach

My beach photos make the place look deserted, but there were people (and dogs) everywhere. Up near the dunes people were sitting in the sand with their dogs tied to posts. Dogs are supposed to be on leashes at all times, but I always see them running free, playing catch or swimming when the weather is hotter.

sunset over the beach — Sun is setting over the beach

Before my February walk, I visited this same place with my youngest son who had come to visit in January. He always enjoys practicing his photography skills with sunsets and beach scenes. He got a few nice photos and found me a couple of nice shells. Read more about that here.

Also, in “winter” my boating son and I took a frightening boat trip through dense fog in this very area at the Inlet.

Flats Fishing For Sheepshead

On Monday my son and I headed out on the water in our flats boat. First we went south to Oak Hill to get fiddler crab bait, but the bait shop was out. They said they had been out since Saturday. Not a good sign. Our local shop was also out, so we got live shrimp instead. The crabs are a favorite of Sheepshead fish and that was what we were after…. like everyone else it seems! They are very good eating because they mostly live off shellfish and have the teeth to chomp them too! How nice it would be to have a nice fresh fish dinner of sheepshead… yum.

Many boaters decided that Monday was an excellent day to go out on the water because the boat ramp was nearly full at 11:00 AM when we arrived. We usually get a late start. My son is not an early riser.

Fishing the backwater canals — Fishing the flats

Pylons and bridges is where the Sheepshead tend to congregate. My son was bummed about the lack of fiddler crabs, so we went into the backwater area to see what we could catch with our shrimp. Immediately I pulled in a foot long trout and threw him back. After that we hooked some small mangrove snapper, as usual, and a few other things that we didn’t keep.

We saw Redfish swimming past the boat as we traveled down shallow canals near the mosquito cuts, but never hooked any. My pole fell off the boat, which was annoying, and I had to get into the water to get it. Now the pole has to be taken apart and cleaned… Grrrrr…..

BUT… I did catch one sheepshead! Yay… but it was a couple inches too small. (Here’s a link to the regulations on sheepshead fishing in Florida.) We were in the backwater area and it gave us hope that maybe there were more larger fish around, but no luck. It’s tough to get photos of the fish we catch because I can’t hold the pole and the camera and my son also had a fish on the line. It usually never works out that we can photograph our catches, unless we keep them – which happens rarely…haha!

Usually we see very few boaters when we go out on weekdays. We wondered if it was a holiday or something because boats were everywhere!

We stopped at an island and boats were flying past. That never happens! I took a walk down the shore searching for something interesting, like a big, beautiful, empty seashell, but only found hermit crabs.

boats on Indian River — For some reason Monday was a busy boating day

High tide is never a good time to go beach-combing and it was high tide, or close to it. My son relaxed on the boat while I took a stroll. I was surprised no other boats were stopped at this island. I guess everyone was up by the bridge fishing for Sheepshead!

Flats boat at island beach — Our boat beached at an island

Hermit crab inside a big Tulip shell. — Hermit crab in big tulip shell near shore

I saw two large Tulip shells with big hermit crabs inside. They hide quickly when they hear me approach, but if I have the patience to stand still, they will come out of the shell and continue on their way.

waves on beach — High tide with waves from a passing boat

This is the river area which has islands all along the ICW. We are behind the main channel here, and there are no waves unless a boat passes. The water was very calm until later in the day when the wind picked up and it got choppy.

Eventually we headed down to the bridge at the South Causeway in New Smyrna. By then the tide was really moving and the wind had picked up. It was difficult to fish by the bridge so we moved down near the Marina and fished behind Pelican Island. I’m not sure if that is the island’s real name, but it is full of pelicans!

ICW Indian River in New Smyrna — Fishing behind Pelican Island near South Causeway

The water here was around 7-9 feet deep at the time, so we decided to see what we could get. Right off I pulled up a huge catfish and then snagged a Ladyfish. That one was fun… it kept jumping out of the water as I reeled it in. I didn’t know what it was, but my son did. They are not good to eat, but it was big and shiny.

It was getting late and we were about done for the day so we dumped the rest of our bait shrimp into the water and headed to the ramp. We have tried cooking and eating our leftover bait shrimp, but it is gross! So it’s better to just let them go. We’ll be out shrimping soon to refill our freezer with lovely fresh shrimp.

The water was nice with a temp around 68-71 depending on where we went. Nearly warm enough for the manatee to return. The sun hid behind clouds a lot so it wasn’t too hot. It was a very nice day out on the water, even if we went home without supper.

The video here shows how to catch sheepshead when you find them. It was filmed down by the space coast in Titusville, just south of us.

A February Walk on New Smyrna Beach

A friend called and we met up at 27th Ave. in New Smyrna, down on the beach. We both needed to buy our yearly beach passes, so we drove onto the beach and took a walk. County residents pay $25 for New Smyrna Beach access and it’s good until the end of the year.

Kite surfer at New Smyrna beach is packing up after surfing. — Walking north from 27th Ave.

It was a warm February day, but very windy on the beach. We watched the kite-surfer jump some nice waves until he came onshore and packed up to leave. Then we took a walk north near the waters edge.

I suspect that most of the people on the beach were “snowbirds”, or people who only come to Florida for the winter months. Some may have been vacationing on their Spring Break. Unless you love to surf, locals don’t generally visit the beach at this time of year. For me, the water is too cool to swim, and there are no lifeguards. But it’s a nice place to walk.

If you are planning a visit, for all the beach information read the Volusia County beaches page.

New Smyrna Beach at low tide near the 27th Street access ramp. — Tide is going out

Low tide is my favorite time to visit any beach. As you can see, there is a lot of space between the edge of the water and the driving area. There is a specified “road” where vehicles must remain, and the speed limit is 10MPH.

Long ago we could park in a second line down by the water. (Check out the old beach postcard at Fresh Slices of Old Florida, which shows what I mean.) I wasn’t in Florida in the 1050’s, but we parked like this in the 1980’s. Of course it could only be done at low tide. I don’t remember when they stopped allowing it.

With two rows of cars – one up by the dunes and another near the sea – there were too many accidents, and it was more difficult to see kids running around.

More People Equals More Rules

These days there are MANY rules to follow, and one is how you park. Also the person at the entrance booth will tell you to have your windows down and lights on while driving on the sand. During the summer months, surfers can only surf as specified locations called “surf zones“. A visit to the Volusia County beaches page is a good idea if you are new to beach driving.