Shallow Nuclear Groupa

8.10.10

Headed down to go shallow water grouper fishing out of Crystal River.
Kind of knew it wasn't gonna be my day.  On the way down, stopped at Chompers for a chicken sandwich and shake and proceeded to chomp a piece of my mouth out the size of alaska.  That felt good and knowing that Doug was having steak for his bday dinner and Linda would be pouring wine, I would have to take it easy.
Hunter and Doug went golfing and I got the stuff rigged.
Headed out with Grouper Greg, Buckeye Bob, and Landscaping Shawn.  I guess we were out about 13 miles from the nuke plant before we laid down.

We had loaded up on pinfish from a well placed trap, but the livewell killed them all the way it looked.  I guess that makes that makes it a deadwell.
A brisk wind was blowing, we didn't know we would be fishing in a tropical depression until we got back.
We hit about 6 rock pile/rock holes during the day.  Grouper Greg had a hard time getting the boat right, the wind and tides playing havoc to his captain skills.  But, if you cast right where the rock was you were guaranteed a grouper, grunt, shark, ray or a cobia.
It didn't take long until you were hooked up and then they wised up.

Doug caught 3 keeper grouper.  Hunter caught one keeper and the rest of the boat added 3 more I think.

As for me, I made the first cast of the day with just a hook to see if I could cast my rod.  I caught a nice spanish on a bare hook.  I know it's bad luck to catch a fish on the first cast, so when I caught one without bait on the first cast, I knew I was in trouble. I caught some grunts and two stingrays. Oh yea, and a catfish, lucky me.  After eating half a sandwich, I started feeling not so good.  On the way back the seas were very choppy, and got my back stoved in pretty good.  Hunter said to me "I can't wait to touch the grass" and I couldn't agree with him more.
Got back to the dock and had to lay down in the back of Doug's truck and consequently at Doug's house and the Cube on the way home.  Also, got to see the CVS's restrooms from Crystal River to Perry since I got a bad case of diaper rea too!  Fun!
I think it would be a fun trip on a calmer day.  I imagine you could look down and see the rocks.
Grouper fishing in 12' of water, who would have thunk?!

Dodging the Rain Showers, Cobia Style

8.6.10
We were greeted by showers wandering our beautiful and, thankfully, oil free water.

We knew we would need to keep our eyes and ears open as a storm was a few miles off to the east.  It was an awesome sight as our goal was to hit 2 flat for trout and bait, hit 3 cobia poles and finally try and duplicate yesterday's tarpon catch.






As we layed the boat down on 2 flat we could see the water was clean and clear.  The trout were biting, as well as bluefish, lady fish, shark and pinfish.

Charlotte and Nancy were bringing trout to the boat side as quickly as they could get there lines in the water.  I also caught a nice 18" fish on a bomber red and white jerk bait.  Hunter was loading the live well with pinfish.  I think the term, "Chinese fire drill" is apt for this hour of fishing.




We began our cobia run starting a 2 marker with no results.  The pole has come up empty the last few times we tried to lure a cobe to the boat.

The tripod has been a cobia hotspot the last few trips.

Hunter started lobbing his pinfish towards the tripod.  The second lob and it was on!

Soon the 15 lb. cobia was being hoisted by Hunter.

He rebaited and lobbed the pinfish towards the tripod again, and handed the rod to Charlotte.  She misfired the first three times, but the cobia was persistent and wanted permission to come aboard.  The 4 lber. was a good beginner cobia for her.

We ran back to the ramp as clouds were closing in.  After waiting for the line of showers to clear, we headed down to Mud Cove to look for the big tarps.  Unfortunately, they did not let Charlotte could not replicate her performance yesterday, so we left them rolling in the LY spawn!

Charlotte: TARPONATOR

Hunter got back to the house after spending a couple of months in Beaufort, SC interning with an accounting firm.  After balancing the books of some of the most prestigious firms in Beaufort, he and his GF Charlotte came back to the big city of Panacea.
Hunter was hot to get after the tarpon wanting to duplicate his past tarpon experience here off the Alligator Point.
After previous scouting reports we have determined that the tarps seem to be in on a high tide.  So, we headed to the barrel to wait out the high tide and to try and catch some trout and some pinfish morsels.
We fished the area and didn't put anything in the boat, although Nancy and Charlotte kept saying "I had a little one."
I did manage to put some grunts and pinnys in the livewell.
We headed to the flat between the sticks at the mouth of the Ochlochnee River, Charlotte and Nancy put a couple of small trout in the boat.

I rigged up the rods for tarpon and spanish, since we had seen some large pods of Spanish earlier in the week.
Our ride down to Mud Cove was a choppy one,  but the wind was appreciated, poor man's air conditioning is underrated.

As we slid across Lighthouse Pt. we could see a few birds diving but not like our previous trips.  As we made it to the shoreline we could smell the bait and see the tarpon rolling, not as thick as earlier in the week, put they were there.

Hunter was throwing his popping rig with the mirrorlure and I had rigged up a rod to drag behind the boat with the previously caught pinfish and grunts.

The first bait in the water was a pinfish.  Nancy had honors and it wasn't long until we heard the clicker just screaming.  She made a sweeping hook set and it was on.  Unfortunately the fish didn't jump on the hook set, so the thought was SHARK, and a really big one.

After an half hour in the heat of the morning she finally got the shark to the boat (with a little help from the Captain and mates) and  Hunter got to the leader for the cut.

We figure this little guy weighed around 100 lbs.  A nice bull shark, 100 yards off Alligator Pt. beach.  Mama, don't let your kids swim there!

Next up on the live bait drag was Charlotte and her fishing experience garnered from her days on the water in Beaufort, SC.

After the obligatory instructions on how to use the baitcaster, the bait runner was screaming and soon so was I, "It's a TARPON" as the fish felt the sting of the hook a cleared the water in a single bound.  A nice 80 lber. was on, a Charlotte with her 10 minutes of tarpon fishing experience was on the first tarpon of the season!

As the fish emptied her spool, we cranked the old Merc and started chasing it for a bit.  We stopped and suddenly the line began to rise and Hunter was yelling "Here it comes" and he was right.

After a 1/2 hour fight the tarpon was getting tired and Charlotte had sweated out all of her bottled water, she got the tarpon boat side.  I got the fish gripper ready, looked at them and figured these better be tough! I locked down on the fish, and the silver sided monster didn't like it.  The fish gripper busted and the fish got off and was fighting again.

You can see the grips at top and the bottom of the fish as the grips gave at the boat.

  After another 10 minutes, Charlotte got the beast boat side again.  This time with gloves on, I got to the lip and began to pull him up and suddenly the frayed 48 lb. leader broke.

What a day!  But it wasn't over since a BIG grunt was left to go into the water with the hope of tracking down a tarpon for Nancy.

Soon, the bait caster was singing and Nancy had hooked up again.  Again, it didn't jump, so we know the shark really love grunts.  It was hot and we were out of water and we decided to chase this one down, get to the leader, cut the line and head to the hill.  Only problem was this was an even bigger shark.  We followed this fish for 15 minutes got as close as we could and cut the line.  This shark was double the size of the previous shark.

Hunter helping with the shark fest.

It was a successful day of really, really, big fish and first tarpon of the year.

The film crew had an off day as the tarpon got to the boat, so they apologize.  Probably nerves.

Anyways, a broken depth finder, broken Penn reel, one lost mirror lure and three cut off circle hooks later, priceless!!!

August Hot Run

August 2nd and I guess it's supposed to be hot with a heat index of 103 when you hit the water!?  The high tide occurred at sunrise and Nancy and Capt. Billy Bob decided to try for reds at the flooded entrance of Little Chaires Creek mouths.

The idea was to wait for the sun to get up and head down the coast to Mud Cove and try our hand (again) at the tarpon.  Sooner or later the LY's should start spawning and it should be tarpon soup.
Nancy lost two reds on the ol' Cajun Thunder and gulp new penny shrimp.





We headed out to the mouth or the Ochlockonee River and headed west.  Soon we saw a lot of schooling action off Bald Pt. beach.  They were Spanish tearing it up.

Using Dana's custom tied flies I managed to land three spanish like this one.  They were ravenous and mixed in was a 6 foot shark, which was chasing Nancy's DOA shrimp.  She reeled it in really fast as the shark closed in for the kill with a cry of "I don't want to catch no shark!"





As we crossed Lighthouse point shoals I could see the Pelicans and Gulls diving at the tarpon hot spots.  That could mean only one thing, the LY spawn was on and it soon would be tarpon soup time.

We threw the kitchen sink at them, bombers, DOA shrimp, mirrorlures, redfins, but to no avail, although Nancy caught about 100 sailcats.

All of the swirls seen in the videos are big ol' tarpon!


So, we didn't sore mouth them and Hunter's supposed to be in today, he is the tarpon tamer: they are there to be tamed.  Stay tuned.

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.