Cornucopia of Fish on Yom Kippur

9.18.10
Air: high 80's
Water: 85
Wind: 10 mph SE
Waves: 1-2 and some 3's early with chop
Tide incoming and start of outgoing

In celebration of my Jewish ways, we decided to go get our rods bent on Yom Kippur.

Nancy said she can't remember who many different fish she caught.  A rundown follows:

Pinfish
Pufferfish
Red Grouper
Black Grouper
Gag Grouper
Blue Runner
Sea Trout
Black Seabass
Tomtate: Brown Grunt
Pink Mouth Snapper: White Grunt
Ladyfish
Sand Perch
Remora (got off)
Lizardfish

I think I got them all.

We really left them biting. The tide was going out hard around 1 pm and the grouper had turned on.  We were fishing our GPS spot marked "Good".  And it was.

We broke off on our last two drops, ran out of bait and headed to the hill.
Caught this dark Gag free lining a grunt. I was surprised that a grouper would come up to a free lined bait.  We had gotten hung up and I was backing the boat up to free the snagged rod and suddenly the clicker started screaming on the free lined rod.  This fish put up a nice fight on the light weight bait caster.

We started getting the reds as the tide turned. This is one of many that made it boat side.

The water had laid a little by then.  It was a rock and rolling affair earlier in the day.

The water was very clear again.  As we were boating back to the hill, you could see bottom in 16 feet of water.

60 Year Old Catches Sand Trout!

9.11.10
Temp. HOT!
Water Temp: 86
Winds: calm
Tide: Outgoing and fast

60 year old Nancy caught a sand trout today!

She caught this beauty on a Gulp white shrimp in the sand trout hole in front of Panacea Harbor.  Nancy also caught her usually assortment of pooping ladyfish and some smaller trout.

We headed out this morning on a very fast outgoing tide.  We put in at Panacea Harbor due to the very low tide expected around noon when we planned on coming back in.

We were greeted with a hot humid morning but a very pretty sunrise.  This pelican was getting ready for the hot day by checking us out as we headed to the fishing grounds.

I had heard that the reds were in Elmore Bay, so we decided to try it first and see if any were there.
The bait was everywhere and the tide was running fast out of the creeks.

I made a cast at the second creek we came to and heard the unmistakable sound of red taking my bonkadonk on top.  It was a nice 21" red.

After fishing the next creek with no results we headed out to the barrel.  Soon the bonkadonk was history as a shark came up and ate it.  After a spirited battle he won and I lost a lure that had caught a lot of fish this year.

I tied on another topwater lure I had purchased made by Bomber.  It was promptly swallowed up by a big red but he kept getting unbuttoned after repeated attacks.  Thrilling, but no fish.

We then headed out to Shell Pt. reef and caught 3 or 4 trout there.  I caught a 16" on a senko after seeing how to use them on trout the night before on the "Flats Class" tv show.  Sweet.

We headed over towards Piney Island to see if any tarpon were hanging around.  We got to the area where the water suddenly goes from 8 feet deep to 3 feet deep and saw some schooling ladyfish.  We threw in the mix and quickly hooked up on a nice trout on a red head/white body Yozuri flash minnow.  As I was bringing the fish to the boat a sudden HUGE explosion of water occurred.  There was a monster fish trying to eat the trout about half way back to the Nan.   I kept pulling it away (scared) an the fish kept attacking the hooked trout all the way to the boat.  Water from his attack was splashing in the boat.  I was afraid this monster may jump in the boat and knowing a fish over  100 lbs. flopping in the boat would be a mess, I was kind of relieved after he took the struggling trout from me.

Tarpon or Shark?  I don't know, but I didn't see the tell tale fin of a shark, so I'm thinking a huge tarpon.

Headed over to the sand trout hole where Nancy is shown with her birthday trout and soon saw some tarpon rolling there.  Decided to try and troll one up.  No luck, so we went back to the barrel for one more try on the low tide as the sun was now driving sweat into your eyeballs.

I caught 3 trout there on a gulp shrimp.

We headed to the hill, knowing that there are some monster fish in the lake!

Headed to Tally for Nancy's hot dog birthday dinner.

High Class!

Had to try Scalloping

9.9.10

Had to try to find a bi-valve before the season ends on the 10th.  There have been no reports of any so I was expecting anything.

Good thing I didn't have high hopes.

Note to self:
Don't scallop on an strong incoming tide on a new moon.
Don't scallop in murky water.
Don't scallop when the sun is behind the clouds.
Don't scallop if you don't see boats scalloping.

Got some exercise and chased some spanish schools at the bouy line entering St. Marks refuge.

The Nan Z scallops good with the ladder in the back and the top to get out of the sun.

New Old Reels and New Grouper Hole

9.5.10
Wind: calm
Water temp: 83
Tide: Incoming

We wanted to go out and try our new old reels I purchased at a garage sale Saturday.  What a deal for a total of $27.

These are mint condition Garcia 5000C, Penn 67 and a Penn 309M.
We hooked up the 309M to use for grouper digging. I'm eBaying the other two reels.

This is a Garcia Kingfisher level wind, also in mint condition.  I'm gonna use it for grouper digging and kingfish trolling.  It is stainless steel with cool engravings in the side plates.







We went out to the flat south of 2 flat to pick up some pinnys and try and catch some trout.  Got around a dozen pinfish and Nancy had her line bit off a few times.  She caught some black sea bass, but no trout.

We headed off to the barge to try and troll up some kingfish, but upon arrival realized that there were too many weeds in the water to successfully troll our lures.

So we decided to take our pinfish and frozen LY's and get our lines stretched.  Our last few trips had a lot of casting involved with a few fish. When you go out for the groupers, you are guaranteed some line stretching fun.

While proceeding to a spot about 4 miles south of the 24 marker the depth finder went red with fish, we slowed an went back over the area, threw out the marker bouy and went to work.  On the first drop, I had the rod about taken out of my hands as a grouper liked the live bait presentation.

The next drop and a gag was on board.  The next drop this keeper gag came up to get an ice bath.

This fish is an "endangered species" and next year, it will be illegal to keep the gags.  You wouldn't know they are "endangered" the way they were eating our bait.

While Nancy was taking a break, I decided to drop her "new reel" down and immediately broke it in with this nice red groupa.

We then hit another spot about a mile away with the same results.  We decided to finish up at the "Yank Hot" hole.

We fished it for about an hour and caught red grouper after red grouper.  No keepers, but close, and a lot of fun.

We finally used up all of our bait and headed to the hill on smooth as glass seas.  That was nice for a change.

The trip odometer read 48 miles when we got back.

Sometimes, it is nice to go out and get your rod bowed up over and over.

Sweet.

Made In The Shade

9.3.10
Wind 5-10 mph
Tide outgoing
Water Temp 82

Got out at a leisurely 9 AM.  We wanted to fish the outgoing tide.  Headed all the way down to the jetties at the end of Alligator Pt.  We had good success there on a high tide a while back and wanted to try it again.
The bait was everywhere, from Bald Point, through Mud Cove and clear down at the end of Alligator Pt.
We made 4 passes and all we had to show for it was Nancy's lady fish and a bunch of "they should be here"s.
Wanted to stop at Mud Cove to look for Tarps again.  We made a pass and didn't see nary a one.  I think the tarpon drill is over.  Boo Hoo.
Visited with Doug and Linda Thursday and Doug gave us an Anchor Shade.

So, with the sun getting high we decided to figure this thing out.  It is actually a big ol' beach umbrella with ties at the end to anchor   it to the boat.
We got it up and, look at me, it works!  It's better than our beach umbrella we purchased for $6 at DG.  Now that was a poor mans t-top.  This is a kind of middle class man's t-top.

We decided to head back to the oyster bar at the mouth of the Ochlockonee to finish up.

This nice trout stopped my retrieve in mid jerk and put up a nice fight.  Nancy also caught one the same size on here Gulp Shrimp rig.

We folded up the Anchor Shade and headed to the house.

On a side note, the weather is finally breaking, but the yellow flies are still around.  A hell of a year for those SOB's.