Fish Fish

Fishing in the Andes. Near Rio Verde Ecological Preserve,...

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 11:48:54 -0400

Fishing in the Andes. Near Rio Verde Ecological Preserve, Tungurahua, Ecuador, June 2, 2009.

March 6th With Dr. B.

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:49:00 -0400

We had a fairly slow day, putting from spot to spot in the skiff. There was something wrong with the fuel pump so we cold not cover a lot of terrain. We eventually ended up drifting along (voluntarily) fishing sand holes. Dr. B told me to hold up as he spotted two big ones holding in a spot. We both cast at them and I bagged this one after a lot of patient presentation. It’s the first slot red that I caught in my skiff.

22 inches of ornery fish.

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:43:32 -0400

22 inches of ornery fish.

Kennedy Space Center

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:32:45 -0400

Being at the space center for a shuttle launch is something I have attempted to do since 1981. Discovery, STS-119, lauched at 7:43 PM, 3/15/2009 (Sunday) right on schedule. The twilight lauch was so colorful, and definitely the best I have ever seen. March is the best month to view a lauch; the mosquitos are gone after the winter freeze. Even tying the canoe onto the truck was pleasant just after sunset. Those who know Mosquito Lagoon understand how exceptional that is.

This was a nice finish to a grand weekend, having just received news of my tenure the Friday before.

We paddled 1/4 mile from shore to watch the lauch. I passed the...

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:22:20 -0400

We paddled 1/4 mile from shore to watch the lauch. I passed the time fishing as we waited, catching a few catfish and one 20” redfish. Something bigger broke off my line once. I forgot to bring a cooler, so I sent them all back to the water.

It was good to have a comfortable chair to wait and watch the launch.

Discovery’s contrail marked the progress of the craft,...

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:15:00 -0400

Discovery’s contrail marked the progress of the craft, just ten minutes after the sun went under the horizon. The colors of the entire sunset sequence were reflected in a continuum from night at the bottom to full daylight at the top. As the vapor trail lingered, we could watch the sunset progress up its path.

emileabbott: Tony and Barbara at observation tower near Ponce...

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:16:09 -0500

emileabbott:

Tony and Barbara at observation tower near Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

Dr. D's take on the day

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:34:08 -0500

madtumble:

Ron was generous enough to invite t-dogg and me out for a day fishing on his honkin’ flats boat. Totally the shizzle—this thing ran fast in six inches of water, and for the first time, I fished off a platform. What.A.Fuckin’.Blast.

Ron taught us some tricks for free-lining live Oak Hill Reds, and we dug some serious red fish between shore and the Clinkers. Just dropped the bait into holes and reeled them in. I think the boat total was ten, with me contributing three reds. (One on a livie, two on my trusty spoon.) What made today so great was that they fish were almost all (with one undersized exception) in or above the slot. Mine topped out at twenty-four, and Ron caught one that was probably closer to thirty. I had several more on the hook, but they popped off. Skittish fish, and I can’t count how many times I landed a shrimp on top of the fish only to have them swim off. Only one trout all day, and I couldn’t bring it in (on a floating twitch bait). We tried to scare up snook along the docks, but the water was too cold.

The water was glass until about 11 o’clock.

From red fishing with ron jan 10 From red fishing with ron jan 10

This was one of the best days on the Lagoon ever. There was a...

Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:00:39 -0500

This was one of the best days on the Lagoon ever. There was a cold front moving in and we were on the cusp of the largest full moon of the year. Dr. D and I went out with our Edgewater buddy to a spot that has been productive in the winter. With live Oak Hill Reds, we managed to harvest our limit within the first hour. We spent the next two hours catching and releasing redfish all over and above the slot. Sight-fishing at its best.

On the Creek

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:04:00 -0500

Dr. D convinced me to go kayaking on the second day of 2009 at Callalisa. Putting in at the park was quite easy, and getting into the thick mangroves with no sight of civilization took little time. On the second big bend in the creek, as we drifted casting into a meander pool, two dolphins surfaced, as if from nowhere, about ten feet from MAD, giving us both quite a start. It proved to be the most exciting moment of the fishing day. Fortunately the exploring was pretty fun. The birdlife was thick, mainly pelicans and osprey. They also had no fish. We paddled 2.5 miles south(ish) until we hit a knot of channels that would have been difficult to remember on the return. Both of us neglected to bring map, compass, or GPS (yes, I know, very bright for our first adventure into a channeled mangrove ecosystem). So we decided to turn back and try the fishing elsewhere. Just as well since there was nothing to be found save mullet and dolphin (though MAD did hook a tiny grunt). Upon our arrival at the landing, several Latino guys were pulling in approximately twenty pounds of mullet with a cast net (~ ten fish of two pounds each). Guess who also forgot to bring a cast net?

We drove our yaks down to the Canaveral Visitors Center in New Smyrna Beach and chatted with some dudes who were hooking trout by free-lining live shrimp from the dock. We paddled south to the oyster bars, casting gulp and spoons to no avail. Drifting back to the dock about two hours later, our greatest action came from pinfish. In short, skunked but satisfied with a good day of paddling, seven miles all told

Garsch! On Lake Woodruff with Dad, 12-28-2008. We saw at least...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 09:04:18 -0500

Garsch! On Lake Woodruff with Dad, 12-28-2008. We saw at least fifty gators, twelve of them all at once, swimming along like an armada. We only saw one manatee, but there were many gull winged terns diving into the water for baitfish. The water hyacinth has been cleared out, so it is very easy to motor anywhere in the lake. New 1500-foot-from-shore bouys were recently put in to keep boaters slow near the shore.

My first fishing trip, in utero. (12-30 -196*, Savannah, GA)....

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:32:19 -0500

My first fishing trip, in utero. (12-30 -196*, Savannah, GA). Grandma, Mom, and Dad modeling with the boat.

My trophy mullet, caught with a cane pole and doughball (1977,...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:29:34 -0500

My trophy mullet, caught with a cane pole and doughball (1977, Skidaway Island).

Holiday time the family draws out the photo albums. This...

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:27:08 -0500

Holiday time the family draws out the photo albums. This capture is from 1977 on Skidaway Island. Note the stalking technique; blend with the trees.

Fishing Oak Hill, August 19, 2008

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 07:07:25 -0500

Why write my own blog when my buddy does it better and faster! I’ll just drive the boat.

madtumble:

T-dogg and I got a late start after discovering that the trailer taillights had burned out. (Walmart’s pretty empty at 6:45am!) The dogg was in a foul mood after losing at poker the night before, and coaxing out corroded bolts before dawn didn’t help. But we sill managed to get the boat into the water off the public dock at Canaveral a little after 8am. We fished the area behind JBs for a while, but gave up when we saw the fifth or sixth pod of dolphins having a merry time. I’ve never seen so many dolphins—they were everywhere, in the shallow water and in the channels. Pelicans and the gulls loudly expressed their enthusiasm for the dolphins’ sport.

So we gave up on that area and headed down the west channel past Oak Hill and Boston Whaler and finally out to the more or less open water and shoals near Bird Island. Tony caught a small flattie around 10 and then, a bit before 11, we found a hot spot about a fifty yards off shore, in the usual mix of sand holes and long grass. In the space of less than an hour, we caught a dozen redfish between fifteen and seventeen inches. I caught four on gold spoons and New-Penny Gulp shrimp; T-dogg got eight on plastic shads and grey Gulp shrimp. As usual on the flats, the dogg out-fished me—this time, I can blame major reel problems. My lightweight Yozuri hybrid line kept getting weird kinky knots near the hook. I must have re-tied a dozen double-unis. I either wound the damn thing on backwards (though the whole POINT of the hybird is that it doesn’t have a memory), or it was careless user-error. The dogg traded reels and he, of course, didn’t have any trouble, so it was likely my being a fu**tard.

At one point, the dogg threw three times and got three reds while I was trying to untangle my line from the steering column… yes, it was that bad.

A bit later in the day the dogg caught this trout as we tooled up the east channel towards Apollo Beach. I’m surprised we didn’t catch more—the weather and winds were perfect for them, and I threw spoons for a couple of hours through weeds, which usually does the trick.

When we pulled into the dock around five, there was totally tricked-out skiff which had to have run thirty k’s. I asked the two guys on board if they’d had any luck—all day, and two undersized trout.

Just goes to show that money can’t buy you love or fish.

Sunset at Sunglow

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:21:32 -0500

I had to be in Daytona this afternoon, so I grabbed my new baitcasting rig (okay, it’s actually a salvaged Ambassadeur 5600 CA strapped to a ten-dollar ebay rod) and a cooler with a block of ice for the ride. My appointment went well and ended right on time, so I slipped over to Sunglow Pier at about 4:30 in the afternoon. I had a half-pound of mealy bait shrimp from the Bait Shack off Dunlawton on the east side of the bridge and some thirty-pound leader, Mustad 2/0 kahle hooks, and a three ounce pyramid weight. The strikes were okay in the afternoon, but right at sundown everyone else left the pier. Two large fish got away, one eating my hook and another spitting it out at the last moment. With a one-hook freeline rig I managed to reel in four good whiting (best one 15 inches) and three legal bluefish. I have to admit that Babs found a lucky bag of discarded bait at the end of the pier. Loading two and three shrimp on the hook at a time certainly did entice the nighttime biters. To top it all off my last piece of bait yielded the last keeper fish of the evening, a good day on the pier.

Skiffing the Lee Goon

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:25:04 -0500

I pulled out the skiff on Sunday and picked up Dr. H before dawn to get to Mosquito Lagoon at 6:45. The water was so shallow that I could not get the boat into the water at Beach 5, even with the front tire of the truck in the water! Instead we drove back north and put in at the county boat ramp, waiving off my plan to fish George’s Bar. Just south of the ramp we found a spot in the lee of the wind coming from the east. I lost one jig with artificial shrimp to a feisty animal, a decent sized redfish judging from the fight, maybe a ray. A little later I caught a 16-inch red and quickly returned it to the water. As things slowed down we decided to take shotgun to the west side of the intracoastal to see how the waves were stacking up. There was moderate chop with 1-2 foot rollers and the fishing was no fun there, so we worked our way back to the East Channel and drifted along there, casting towards the shore with no luck. Lessons of the day include finding the northern end of the east channel for the fist time and learning the last southern bend in the channel of shotgun. This should help me keep the skeg of the Yamaha out of the sand next time out. Also, we decided that launching a canoe or kayak at the Canaveral Visitor’s Center would put us less than half a mile from some wonderful wade fishing in the central flats.

I can only take credit for the small one on the left. Dr. B...

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:37:31 -0500

I can only take credit for the small one on the left. Dr. B caught the big one. This was my first day fishing Mosquito Lagoon, October 2006.

Bass, Spring Garden Lake, March 2007.

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:04:21 -0500

Bass, Spring Garden Lake, March 2007.

Flagler Pier produces, Bluefish, May 2008.

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 08:02:37 -0500

Flagler Pier produces, Bluefish, May 2008.