| The Manatee River flows into the southwestern part of Tampa Bay. There is a wonderful anchorage a few miles up the river before you get to the bridge. You can drop a hook just off a spit of land covered with mangroves. The sandy beach there is great for salt water fly fishing - tarpon and snook abound there. This is also a place where you can watch the pelicans diving all day for their dinners.
If you look in the background over Mark's shoulder you can see a giant white cross. This cross commemorates the first landing of Hernando De Soto on the American mainland. From this point, he, his men, and, unfortunately, his pigs, traveled through Florida, across Alabama and Mississippi, across the Mississippi River into Arkansas where he died. As he travelled his pigs got loose and managed to infect deer and turkey - the primary meat source for the indigenous people - with viruses that decimated the locals. You could say that the trouble started here.
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