116 Heat Index? Let's Go Fishing!!

Got a text from the Holts from Memphis. Something in the order of "1600 miles, 4 hrs. sleep, one broken rod, two reds, one tarpon, fishing with Dad priceless".  They had made a road trip to NOLA for reds and then to Apalach to fish with the Robinson Bros. guides for tarps.  Called and got the update from Dana.  He said they site casted on the Lanark Reef two days at about 100 tarps and finally hooked up the last half hour.

Andy Hooks Up

They were on the edge of the weedline as you can see on a high tide.

One of the Robinson bros. guides was nearby to take these action shots.  

NICE!!!!

So, Nancy And I headed out yesterday in the tin boat.  We hit it early because it was HOT!  Put in at Lanark and went to the place shown in the pix.  Caught a couple of pinnys for live bait and waited for the sun to get up so we can see in the water. Tide was near low. Only saw one maybe two tarpons.  Got so hot, we came in at about 11 AM. It was 103 degrees in Tally when we got to the house.  

Called Dana to give him our report.  His reply was, "We only saw them on an incoming tide."  Now he tells me!!!

Congrats to Andy on his catch before he hits med school.

The Nan Z Turns Tide on Trash Fish

Time: 7:30 AM
Place: Ochlockonee Shoals
Attendance: 2 paid
Water Temp: 89 Deg.
Wind 10 mph ESE
Waves: 1-2 choppy

With tropical storm Bonnie projected to dash our fishing hopes for the weekend, Nanc and I set out to the Shoals.
We stopped at 2 flat to pick up some pinfish for bait; with 8 in the well we headed to the shoals.
The water was choppy and spray was coming in for my morning shower, but the water was clear with some weeds.
Setting up a drift on the north end of the shoals in 10 feet of water was the ticket. We used the drift sock to slow us to a respectable 3/4 MPH. The action began quickly with a few keeper trout and a bunch of non keepers coming aboard. The ol' gulp in new penny kept Nancy actively jerking, and I was using the new Trigger X in white shrimp.
This nice 16" came in. We took a picture of it because it looked like a stream run fresh water trout. Absolutely, beautiful. It will taste good tonight in a fish sandwich.

We made a couple of passes and caught more 14" trout, a few small sharks and a couple of 2 footers that decided a drifted pinfish was too attractive to pass up.







When we visited Hunter in Beaufort, he asked if I could fix the handle on his Okuma reel that came apart while he was sport fishing for rays.

I fixed it (I hope) and Nancy was to test it on our return to the hill.  We were gonna make the famed cobia run.

We hit the 2 pole and nothing showed.  So, it was on to the tripod that Doug and I spanked them on a couple of weeks ago.

After a few false casts, and grumbles of "I can't cast", Nancy threw the cork with a pinfish right behind the tripod.  I made my usual commentary of "that should get'em".  Soon I saw a cobe come up and take Nancy's pinfish.  She said "He's just chewing on it" and she let him have it.  The road test of Hunter's handle was on.

The battle had many ups and downs as all cobia fights do.  Many times the net went into the salt and brought back up with no fish as the cobe decided he didn't want to learn how to breath out of the water.

He finally made it into the boat and measured 34" and weighed 15.50 lbs.
This is Nancy's largest cobe to date.

In a side note, the LY's were in the boat basin.  The first time I have seen them there, since 2 years ago.  That spelled good tarpon and monster red fishing for the summer and early fall.  

Also, my Yammy had been getting, what I would call vapor locks, after running it for a while.  A fellow told me that letting it idle after a run may cause the vapor lock to not occur.  We tried that today and the Yammy did fine.  Coincidence or luck? Time will tell!

Alligator Harbor Trash Fish Post Shut Out

Date: 7.22.10

Time: 7 AM

Tide: Low to Incoming

Water Temp: 88

Winds: SE 8 MPH

Waves: 1-2' rollers

The Alligator Harbor Trash Fish threw a shut out today in front of a paid attendance of 2.

The Tide Creek Landing crew were away today, putting in at Surf and Sand. It was a very hot morning, that ended with Nancy under a beach umbrella (poor man's T-top).

We first headed to the jettys on the end of Alligator Pt. after having a very successful trip there a month and a half ago. But, at low tide the rocks were out of the water.

We decided to slowly motor the coast line looking for the elusive (this year) tarpon. We were coming upon one of the booms laid in the water for the oil spill that, so far, has not shown up.

We saw some pelicans hitting the water feeding on some small rain minnows. Nancy threw her gulp shrimp behind the boom line and quickly hooked up with a nice drag pulling fish. Her optimism quickly changed to a tone of regret when she saw her leader coming in with a nasty wad of slime coating.

We abandoned this bad idea and went looking for some more tarpon while idling back towards the jettys. We saw some roll and one big boy jump twice, but they aren't schooled up like they were the past couple of years.

The tide was still pretty low when we fished the rock jetties, and even though bait was present, we left there with no bites.

We could see some boats out at Turkey Pt. Shoals so we headed over there. We started a drift in about 10' of water and started getting bites quickly. Caught this beautiful double.

With the heat finally getting to us, and the trash fish bite unrelenting we headed to the hill.

7.10-7.11 Cobia Fishing

My Bro came up from Crystal River to fish for Tarpon and then whatever else we could get after. We chased the tarpon up Alligator Pt. on Friday afternoon, saw some big'uns, but the wind was from the southwest and kept blowing harder and soon trashed the water. They were there eating rain minnows, but we just couldn't get set up right. Saturday we went after them again, but the water was much worse and again we gave up.

Tried going out to 24 marker to troll up some Kings, but the water got rough out there too. So we finally got some pinfish and went Cobia fishing. We pulled up to 2 poll and Doug threw out a pin on a popping cork. It didn't take long and he was hooked up. Unfortunately his hook up was on a huge cobe that hit right at the boat as he reeled in.

Doug reloded and threw up to the pole again and he hooks up this time on a smaller cobia.

His sneaky brother had baited a pinny on a 5/0 circle hook with a 1/2 oz weight hoping that his brother would lure some in with his fish.

Sure enough, Doug got his fish close to the boat and he said "holy #%it" look at all those other ones. I dropped down and soon felt the thump and my pinny was off to the races. After a good battle, in which we drifted and got pulled 1/2 mile from the marker we landed this 26 Lb. cobe. Doug's was under sized, but still put up quite a fight.

Sunday we went out again on the tarpon hunt with the same results, high winds and muddy water.

Tried the cobia program again and the 2 marker was devoid of fish this time. So, we slid up to the tripod and Doug says look, there are five! He threw his pinny out and they looked like Jason Heyward waiting for a fly ball to settle into his glove, I'm not sure the cork even hit the water and the fight was on.

I figured I would try the same strategy as yesterday, have Doug lure them in with his fish, then drop down.

Sure enough, it worked again with this 16 lber.

All in all a good few days, although the wind made for challenging conditions.