Fiddlin' For Scallops at St. Marks

8.24.11

Wanting some scallops to go with our sea bass we caught yesterday we headed down to St. Marks to try our hand at a little inshore fishing and then scallop treasure hunting.

We were greeted with strong easterly winds.   We managed to put in a few drifts at the St. Marks reef, but all we caught that was gamey was one little trout and one little sea bass.   But the sharks left sore mouthed.  Again, Nancy is number one when shark are in the area.

We decided to head in as the tide was falling to try and get some scallops.

It started off slow.

 I was getting in to some quality float time.

Finally Patty picked up her fiddle and things got good real quick.  We found them on the spongey grass in about 4 feet of water.

I guess the fiddle playing brought them up nicely.

The Final Result!

Whale of a Time on Wakulla Reef

8.23.11

Temp. Air=low 90's, Water=89-90

Tide: Almost high to outgoing

I got a tip from our neighbor that the Friday before some daulphin had been caught out at the Wakulla Reef.  The bait had moved in and the water has been so hot that they had migrated in pretty close to shore.

So, Willie and Patty came in town to visit and I asked if they wanted to give it a try.  I think Willie's reply was in the range of "Hell Yea!".

So we headed out on calm seas and a beautiful morning for the end of August.

I have three gps coordinates for Wakulla Reef and our strategy was to hit each one and then fish a patch of live bottom I had found a couple years ago on the way back in.  We would call it a day after that and look forward to a cold cereveza.

At our first drop we found the sea bass and grunts to be relatively cooperative.  Soon I was pulling a small grunt in and a 20 lb. kingfish came tearing out from under the boat and grabbed it.  Willie quickly dropped his bait down and the king grabbed it and promptly bit him off.

Patty soon started grunting and brought up this nice endangered gag grouper.

The action slowed and we moved about a mile east and started the process again with the same results.  This time Willie caught the nice gag.

Notice the serious fisher people in the back of the boat trying to duplicate Willie's technique.

The action slowed here also and we picked up to fish our last marked spot on the reef.  As we proceeded we suddenly saw the birds in action and slid over to the commotion.  Patty had her video camera on this time and recorded the action.  We were excited since we came for the daulphin and this looks like them.

THIS VIDEO HAS A LOT OF BAD CURSE WORDS IN IT, SO DO NO LISTEN IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY SUCH CRUDE MANNERS.  THE CAPTAIN IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LANGUAGE OF HIS CLIENTS!!!!!!

All we could manage was sharks out of this pod of crazy fish.  Daulphin, big cobia and sharks were all present.  We really messed up this opportunity but we did get some sharks.

Here are some videos to prove it.

The last one about tore Nancy's arms off.

We then headed to the hill.  I wanted to stop at a patch of coral I found when fishing with Doug and Linda a few years ago.  We caught some nice sea bass and a big shark then.  I wanted to add to the black sea bass in the cooler.

We started catching the sea bass and then Nancy really heated up catching two nice red grouper that hitched a ride home with us for dinner.

On the way back in Patty saw a whale jump out of the water near the 26 bouy.  When we got home we realized it jumped at the time of a 5.9 earthquake hitting the east coast.

Coincidence or earthquake result?

It was indeed a whale of a time today with the Bentley crew!

Still Kind of Slow

8.19.11

Tide Outgoing

Water temp: 88-89

Nancy and I went out to try to find some fish for incoming fishing/scalloping family.

Unfortunately, unless they want to catch monster ladyfish and catfish we don't have a lot to show them.

We headed out of Panacea Harbor this morn.

 It was a nice morning with a slight breeze cutting through the humidity.

Headed out to Ochlockonee Shoals and fished in 15 to 20 feet of water.  Nancy did score a keeper trout on a shrimp which magically turned into a fish taco last night.
I had a small cobia break off and caught some whopper ladyfish.
Other than that it was a nice boat ride.

Crystal River Mini Slam

8.13.11

Tide: outgoing

Doug and I went out in the back of King's Bay this morning.

I came down to wish him happy birthday and we were looking for a reason to smoke the cigars I gave him for his bday, so we decided to go fishing and use them as insect repellant.

He said the jacks had been back there, and he was right as he immediately sacrificed a chrome chug bug to a big jack that thought it was a fleeing mullet.

We eased around his favorite corner and I had a bass hit my toxic mullet badonkadonk and promptly pulled loose.

As we headed towards some culvert pipes I threw a nice cast down the edge of the seawall and had this good jack try to take my (Doug's) rod away.  It didn't work.  We got him in the boat for the first half of the saltwater mini slam.

We continued easing our way around the multiple cuts and coves in the back of the bay.  As the sun got higher and the tide got lower the topwater bite was diminishing  

Doug managed to land this nice bass for the other end of the freshwater mini slam.  

I can't remember what he was using, but it must have been something he can soak for a while, cause  he get pretty quick on the trigger on anything he can see bite.

We called it a day as the flotilla of boats headed out for a day of fun.

And, the Nan still runs also

8.11.11

Tide: low to High

Water Temp: 88 deg.

Got the little tin boat out, the Nan, to go for a cruise and try and catch a fish on the new, old penn 650 ss I purchased recently.

We started out at the oyster bars at the OR mouth.

I finally hooked up with two reds, but both came unbuttoned before getting to the boat.  They were on the last bar on the incoming tide.  I couldn't turn one of them, so I think he was a good'un.

We hit the flat between the sticks and caught some pinneys to go try and catch a tarpon or a shark down at Mud Cove.

We headed down there about 9:30.

No bait was balled up, so we continued all the way down to the jetties at the tip of Alligator Point.  All we got for the travel was two ladyfish and a good sweat.

We came back up to Mud Cove and decided just to drift in the incoming tide with what live pinfish we had left.

We saw some nice tarpon still in the area, but it looked like the bait was working more offshore by the looks of the pelican activity.

I didn't want to got out there due to the rougher conditions than my back can handle in the flat bottom tin boat.

Finally, I hooked up  on a sail cat to break in my new, old reel and rod.

I took liberty to stylize the picture, because you can't make a catfish look pretty.

We headed to the hill after this one.  It's amazing how well your boat runs after you figure out your gas filter was a couple of turns loose.

Well, The Boat Still Runs

8.8.11

Hot , hot

Water Temp.  88 deg.

After spending the last few weeks in the hospital and recuperating, we finally got out to see if the boat would run and drop a line in the Gulf.

The Nan Z fired up and cruised for a good round trip of 15 miles.

We stopped at 2 flat and dropped lines for a couple of hours, but only got a spanish which bit Nancy's line in two at the boat.

Hit the tripod on the way in and I lost two cobia who took my cricket right off the hook somehow.  Maybe I'm pretty rusty.