Just got back from Florida Panhandle (Destin area). Much cooler there than in Nashville (also rainier!).
Interesting observation: There were about eight guys (and a gal or two) with green T's, carrying buckets and little nets and wearing latex gloves, carefully searching the sand for tiny blebs of oil. I asked to see some, and they had found a few about the size of a pea, others a grain of rice, but it took a lot of looking and sifting to find them. I walked along a mile of the beach for three days and never saw any oil, just white sand. They were looking in the back beach storm tide area.
But most striking was the absence of people in peak season. The condos were mostly empty. Never more than a few people on the beach even when the rain stopped. Talking with several restauranteurs, they seem to put blame on the network news people. They are convinced that no amount of advertising is going to get people to that area even though there was never any oil there. As long as the media keep showing the same footage they were running at the worst of the spill (which they are doing) folks won't come.
Those little blebs I saw could be from natural leakage. As much as the equivalent of several tanker loads of crude naturally seeps into the Gulf each year. Hydrocarbons manage to do that in many places. Much crude leaks naturally offsore CA each year (Santa Barbara area from faults). Most in the Gulf is eaten by bacteria fortunately. A few blebs have always made it ashore, but most of what has historically been seen on beaches came from tanker bilges. I have seen these in years past. Its often black.
Did catch several nice LM bass on fly rod in ponds there. Best about 18". A couple of others pretty good fish too. Surf too rough for fly fishing. So I finally got to cast a few flies this summer!
Cheers! Bad Bob