There are chores. There are always chores. But, if you get out early enough, you can be home in time to get some chores done. A pressure tank has failed, so there is no water pumping into my house. But that can wait. I'm on vacation, there's no need to shower.

Rain caused the canals to rise, so I opted for the sports complex ponds. Man, the pickleballers were out in droves. See, in Florida, you don't mark the seasons by the changing colors of leaves. You can tell it's winter when the license plates take on different colors. Snowbirds.

I also encountered some other tourists, who, like the pickleballers, didn't notice that I was there!


(not so) big


(not so) bigger


(kinda) biggest


Even though it was probably too cold for them, I drove over to the cichlid spot. It used to look like this


Now it looks like this. R.I.P.


I kinda fell asleep. The tank hasn't been replaced. It got too cold last night to fish this morning, so that's on the agenda today.

I like your concept of balancing fly fishing with other tasks.
True work/life balance.
Work is static,like in the case of your water pump: the pump will be broke tomorrow and you can fix it then; it's not going away.
But wild life is in fluid motion with circumstance changing constantly with tide, wind, weather in general and migration/feeding patterns.

Yes gators , yum . I love gator nuggets . Nice fish but I don't eat fish .

WOW! I'd like to see that one in person!

I see more in the winter time due to the fact they come out to sun themselves for warmth.

I don't "see"as many around here during winter....they are still there..somewhere,but it gives me that false sense of security in a kayak

I'd like to have them for the moat I'm digging at the mexican border .

Well, you got me curious, and I have some time on my hands because it actually IS cold where I am. Any water turned to ice long ago.
Anyway, I've fished in South Carolina several times, and have interacted with gators, including accidentally hooking a 5' one on a fly that apparently caught his interest. And having done a little herpetological work during my working career, I have a bit of an interest, even a fondness for reptiles. So, all this gator talk got me intrigued, and I looked into alligator attacks in Florida. Here's what I found (surprised me, too):

Since 1948, there have been 401 documented gator attacks in Florida, of which 23 were fatalities. From the brink of extinction, the gator population is now estimated at between 1 million and 1.25 million animals. Research into the rate of increase in attacks shows the closest correlation is not to the rate of gator population increase but to the human population increase in florida. Mind you, I gotta think if you're a wading/shoreline angler or a swimmer, you are substantially boosting your odds of finding your way into those statistics.
My guess is that you are at far greater risk from Florida's other apex predator. Homicides appear to run at about 1000 per year, and automobile deaths at about 2500 to 3000 per year.
I know what you mean, though. The whole time I'm pond fishing in the south, I'm keeping an eye on the gators I can see, and scanning the water and shoreline for the ones I haven't seen. And i have a southern no-wading policy, too. Here at home, I live, worked and fish in bear country, and cannot say that I give them anywhere near as much thought as I do those gators.
brent

Let's look at it this way. 67 counties in FL. 1,000,000+ gators. Then look at the population of FL. Additionally, from 1988 until 1999 on average there was one gator attack every 3 years. From 2000 to 2016 there were 7 attacks PER YEAR.

Bears may not worry you so much, but if there were over a million bears in your state, you'd prolly worry more.

If there are so many gators that wading to freshwater fish in FL is dangerous, then there's too many gators.

As for the homicide rate in FL, it's outta control. My county has seen up to 5 homicides in one week. Doubles have become nothing unusual.

Statistics may say there is only x number of homicides per 100,000 people, or x number of gator attacks per 100,000 people, but those numbers aren't so comforting if you're one of those x's.

Apologies for the rant. In 3 yrs I'm moving to Montana after i retire and the gators can have this state.

Those were nice bass, by the way.☺

Sometimes. Not always. The night desk clerk and security guy at the resort...the mother and her baby at the apartment complex...the dead aren't all drug dealers and gang members.

Brent,
Your bears are a lot harder to find than our alligators. And our alligators are not shy or reticent at all.

Ref the homicides, the observation, at least as far as it relates to my AO, is mostly correct. A lot of the homicides are drug or gang related. Scumbags killing scumbags. The two at the resort were killed by a former employee during a robbery. The mother and child were killed by the mother's boyfriend, who killed the mother, then set the apartment on fire. I never heard for sure, but my guess is the baby died of smoke inhalation. The firefighters were shook up over that one. But the majority of the murders are in da hood, during drug events or gang bangers or driveby's. That does not make the county any more pleasant to live in. For multiple reasons, if I go out and get into my Jeep, I'm carrying. Knife, O/C, and pistol are the order of the day. Our county seat has about 55k people, maybe a little more. The place I'm lookin' at in Montana is also the county seat, but only has about 5k people. Much smaller town, much better demographics, much less crime...just a much better place, and one I'll be content to live out the rest of my years in.