12.11.10
Water: 56 deg. Air 50's
Light winds, 1 Ft waves
Very Clear
Tide: low to incoming
Nancy and I decided to try and go out before the big blow this weekend.
We wanted to put some more grouper in the freezer since the Feds have decided that we can't keep any from 1.1.11 to at least 6.30.11.
We headed out to our holes that we killed them on when Hunter was in town a couple of weeks ago.
Unfortunately all we got for our cool boat ride was a great porpoise show, a few grunts and a tasty ham and cheese sandwich topped of with ginger snaps.
We fished our best spots this fall, Big, Yank Wreck and Good. Zeroed out.
Oh well, if we don't get out again, we sure didn't hurt the endangered grouper species today.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Flattie in Cool Water
12.3.10
Air: 60's
Water: 57deg
Wind: sw 10-15
Tide: outgoing and clear
We decided to try the afternoon bite after chores were done around the house.
The tide was heading out and so were we. The phrase "man it's colder than I thought" and "I'm glad I brought a jacket" were common as we headed to the oyster bars in OR.
As I looked at the temp gauge I realized why. The water temp had dropped at least ten degrees since we fished last week. The wind was stronger than we thought too.
Nancy decided to throw the Fat Albert grub after reading Capt Vic's article in the recent Woods and Water.
Good choice. On about her third cast I feel the boat shake and the incredulous cry of "oh I've got one!". Her rod was arched good and I heard her drag sing. Nancy then said "It's a big flounder" and I suddenly started thinking of a stuffed flounder dinner and dug out the net.
It was a beautiful 17" fish.
We putzed around some more and didn't get anymore bites at our first stop, so we headed out to the bar at the mouth of the river.
We caught a small trout and a small red and decided it was time to head back in.
The ducks have really arrived with some beautiful buffleheads in the river.
When I cleaned the flounder I found it was full of eggs.
May not get out for a while, the weather report calls for wind and then stronger wind.
Air: 60's
Water: 57deg
Wind: sw 10-15
Tide: outgoing and clear
We decided to try the afternoon bite after chores were done around the house.
The tide was heading out and so were we. The phrase "man it's colder than I thought" and "I'm glad I brought a jacket" were common as we headed to the oyster bars in OR.
As I looked at the temp gauge I realized why. The water temp had dropped at least ten degrees since we fished last week. The wind was stronger than we thought too.
Nancy decided to throw the Fat Albert grub after reading Capt Vic's article in the recent Woods and Water.
Good choice. On about her third cast I feel the boat shake and the incredulous cry of "oh I've got one!". Her rod was arched good and I heard her drag sing. Nancy then said "It's a big flounder" and I suddenly started thinking of a stuffed flounder dinner and dug out the net.
It was a beautiful 17" fish.
We putzed around some more and didn't get anymore bites at our first stop, so we headed out to the bar at the mouth of the river.
We caught a small trout and a small red and decided it was time to head back in.
The ducks have really arrived with some beautiful buffleheads in the river.
When I cleaned the flounder I found it was full of eggs.
May not get out for a while, the weather report calls for wind and then stronger wind.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Lanier Revisited
11.27.10
Air: mid fifties
water: 61 deg
windy, cool, blue bird skies
Got in a quick fishing trip with Nick and his Dad while taking Hunter back to ATL for his plane ride back to Memphis.
Hooked up with Nick late morning at Balus.
We ducked into Flat creek to stay out of the wind and absorb the sunshine as we BS'ed about everything from fishing, hunting, college, Nick's future in the FLW tour and of course the President.
In between we finally patterned the bass at about 35' to 40' deep along creek ledges. The spaghetti lines on the graphs were showing their whereabouts and a jighead with a sand worm or a spoon would bring them up.
Biggest fish of the day was by Nick's dad on a ledge in the back of Flat.
He was probably a little over 3 lbs.
The rest were in the 2 lb. range as shown here:
Left them biting as we hauled out of Balus Ramp with another successful day of fishing at Lanier under our belts.
Air: mid fifties
water: 61 deg
windy, cool, blue bird skies
Got in a quick fishing trip with Nick and his Dad while taking Hunter back to ATL for his plane ride back to Memphis.
Hooked up with Nick late morning at Balus.
We ducked into Flat creek to stay out of the wind and absorb the sunshine as we BS'ed about everything from fishing, hunting, college, Nick's future in the FLW tour and of course the President.
In between we finally patterned the bass at about 35' to 40' deep along creek ledges. The spaghetti lines on the graphs were showing their whereabouts and a jighead with a sand worm or a spoon would bring them up.
Biggest fish of the day was by Nick's dad on a ledge in the back of Flat.
He was probably a little over 3 lbs.
The rest were in the 2 lb. range as shown here:
Left them biting as we hauled out of Balus Ramp with another successful day of fishing at Lanier under our belts.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Smooth Seas=Big Grouper
Water: 71 deg. calm
Wind: light from the east
Weather: sunny, 70's
Tide: low to incoming
11.24.10
We decided to try and really get our lines stretched with a half day trip on Wednesday.
We travelled over to Mashes but the tide was so low, we couldn't get the Nan Z into the water without backing off the ramp. Been there, done that.
So, we headed off to Panacea to put in there. The new ramp at Rock Landing has made for the possibility of getting in even on a very low tide.
After getting in we headed out to our Yank Wreck hole.
Nancy and Hunter were the designated fisherman today, and I was the designated bait installer.
They caught many pink mouths and a few undersized grouper, but certainly not what we were looking for.
Headed over to our Good hole where Doug and I pounded the Red Grouper a few weeks ago.
A lot more grouper there and the designated fisherman put a few undersized groups in the boat and this one nice keeper Red in the box.
Hunter was soon to bring in the biggest grouper we have landed on the Nan Z, a whopping 16 lb., 32 incher.
Wind: light from the east
Weather: sunny, 70's
Tide: low to incoming
11.24.10
We decided to try and really get our lines stretched with a half day trip on Wednesday.
We travelled over to Mashes but the tide was so low, we couldn't get the Nan Z into the water without backing off the ramp. Been there, done that.
So, we headed off to Panacea to put in there. The new ramp at Rock Landing has made for the possibility of getting in even on a very low tide.
After getting in we headed out to our Yank Wreck hole.
Nancy and Hunter were the designated fisherman today, and I was the designated bait installer.
They caught many pink mouths and a few undersized grouper, but certainly not what we were looking for.
Headed over to our Good hole where Doug and I pounded the Red Grouper a few weeks ago.
A lot more grouper there and the designated fisherman put a few undersized groups in the boat and this one nice keeper Red in the box.
We decide to head about a mile away, a little further to the east, where I had a number. Don't remember much about the spot, but we were soon to be surprised by the fish there.
About as soon as the baits got down, we knew we were on a good grouper hole.
Rods were hitting the gunnels with regularity.
I heard a grunt of "there he is" by Hunter and looked over to this sight:
Nancy was next in the act, with her biggest grouper she has ever caught.
She then went and got her fighting belt in case she had to do it again. But, after some more action, we ran out of bait.
We tried trolling some stretch 30's over the hole, but to no avail, they must have wanted only the dead fish today.
We packed it up and headed to the hill.
A nice 4 and a half hour trip, with lots of meat in the frig, and another memorable trip at the Forgotten Coast.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Ditto That
11.22.10
Water: 66 deg., calm, high tide to outgoing
Air: 70's
Moon: Full
Hunter and I decided we would try to duplicate yesterday's success at the mouth of the OR.
Since everything was the same as yesterday except the tides just being an hour later, we decided to hit the docks in the OR with some shrimp while the tide was up.
We went almost to the bridge and decided to fish back towards the ramp.
We were pitching shrimp to the outside edges of the docks and used a baker's dozen of shrimp to no avail. The only bites we got were from what we think were sheepshead, jerk, no bait. No good redfish pulls.
So, off we went to the oyster bars. This time we got to fish one of our favorites in the middle of the bars.
I was casting a gold johnson spoon, and Hunter was gulpin a shrimp.
I caught this nice 20" trout on the spoon there.
Hunter caught a couple of small reds and I got broken off by a big red on a new penny gulp.
I remembered a workshop Nancy and I went to last winter. The guide said that a large gulp jerkshad works well.
So, I put on the last one I had and the first cast produced this guy.
We caught a couple more reds there, and then decided to head off to where we left them yesterday evening.
Although they weren't as thick as they were the night before, we were enjoyed a magnificent sunset and another nice 19" trout.
Hunter nabbed this nice red using my rod, while he made me retie his line when he got broke off on a fish. (sneaky).
Finally at dusk on the "last cast", I was quickly reeling in my jerkshad when a big ol' red came up and missed it as I about to pull it out of the water, I quickly stopped my retrieve and he came back. After a big swirl, a tightening of the line and a solid hook set; SNAP went my line.
We packed it in with the thoughts of "I'm gonna have to buy me another bag of those baits!"
Water: 66 deg., calm, high tide to outgoing
Air: 70's
Moon: Full
Hunter and I decided we would try to duplicate yesterday's success at the mouth of the OR.
Since everything was the same as yesterday except the tides just being an hour later, we decided to hit the docks in the OR with some shrimp while the tide was up.
We went almost to the bridge and decided to fish back towards the ramp.
We were pitching shrimp to the outside edges of the docks and used a baker's dozen of shrimp to no avail. The only bites we got were from what we think were sheepshead, jerk, no bait. No good redfish pulls.
So, off we went to the oyster bars. This time we got to fish one of our favorites in the middle of the bars.
I was casting a gold johnson spoon, and Hunter was gulpin a shrimp.
I caught this nice 20" trout on the spoon there.
Hunter caught a couple of small reds and I got broken off by a big red on a new penny gulp.
I remembered a workshop Nancy and I went to last winter. The guide said that a large gulp jerkshad works well.
So, I put on the last one I had and the first cast produced this guy.
We caught a couple more reds there, and then decided to head off to where we left them yesterday evening.
Although they weren't as thick as they were the night before, we were enjoyed a magnificent sunset and another nice 19" trout.
Hunter nabbed this nice red using my rod, while he made me retie his line when he got broke off on a fish. (sneaky).
Finally at dusk on the "last cast", I was quickly reeling in my jerkshad when a big ol' red came up and missed it as I about to pull it out of the water, I quickly stopped my retrieve and he came back. After a big swirl, a tightening of the line and a solid hook set; SNAP went my line.
We packed it in with the thoughts of "I'm gonna have to buy me another bag of those baits!"
Monday, November 22, 2010
Hunter is back and the Reds are Biting
11.21.10
Water temp: 68 deg., very clear
Wind east 10mph
Tide: very high (full moon), to outgoing
Air: 70's
Well, Hunter is in from college and waiting to get on the water. Every time he gets in the boat in the fall, you know the reds are coming aboard.
We had a great battle plan. High tide was at 2:30 PM and we would hit the edges of the OR and fish the weedlines until the water started to move, and then hit the oyster bars.
Well the first part of the plan was really bad in execution. We fished the west side of the OR, for a couple of hours, skipped over and hit a couple of oyster bars in the middle of the OR and then fished the docks and a couple of oyster bars by Tradewinds for another hour or so and all we had to show for it was Nancy's 10" redfish.
The tide finally started to move out and we headed to the mouth or the OR to fish the clam bar. We hooked, but didn't land a few small trout.
For the finale, we decided to hit the oyster bar between 11 and 13 markers.
We pulled up to the bar, and the mullet were jumping everywhere, which was the first activity we had seen.
As we eased up along the bar, I had to start fishing ol' reliable, white gulp shrimp on a jighead. It didn't take long and the first 24" 6 lb. red came aboard.
About 10 minutes later this beautiful multi spotted red decided to take the bait.
He was so pretty he got a reprieve and got to swim off, maybe wiser to gulp.
The next few casts produced another 18" red, which also was released.
We lost a couple of nice trout also.
They were on fire and it was almost dark when we finally left the honey hole hoping they would be there tomorrow!
We placed this fishing trip in the category of keep your line wet and good things will happen.
Water temp: 68 deg., very clear
Wind east 10mph
Tide: very high (full moon), to outgoing
Air: 70's
Well, Hunter is in from college and waiting to get on the water. Every time he gets in the boat in the fall, you know the reds are coming aboard.
We had a great battle plan. High tide was at 2:30 PM and we would hit the edges of the OR and fish the weedlines until the water started to move, and then hit the oyster bars.
Well the first part of the plan was really bad in execution. We fished the west side of the OR, for a couple of hours, skipped over and hit a couple of oyster bars in the middle of the OR and then fished the docks and a couple of oyster bars by Tradewinds for another hour or so and all we had to show for it was Nancy's 10" redfish.
The tide finally started to move out and we headed to the mouth or the OR to fish the clam bar. We hooked, but didn't land a few small trout.
For the finale, we decided to hit the oyster bar between 11 and 13 markers.
We pulled up to the bar, and the mullet were jumping everywhere, which was the first activity we had seen.
As we eased up along the bar, I had to start fishing ol' reliable, white gulp shrimp on a jighead. It didn't take long and the first 24" 6 lb. red came aboard.
About 10 minutes later this beautiful multi spotted red decided to take the bait.
The next few casts produced another 18" red, which also was released.
We lost a couple of nice trout also.
They were on fire and it was almost dark when we finally left the honey hole hoping they would be there tomorrow!
We placed this fishing trip in the category of keep your line wet and good things will happen.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Bassin' and Troutin' at Crystal River
11.18,19 2010
Water: Super Clear, Temp. Unknown
Little breezy out of the east
Went down to Crystal River to fish with my bro. Still taking antibiotics and covering up real good, we headed out to bass fish Thursday afternoon and trout/red fish on Friday morn.
Doug said he had been killing them, so it was my turn to get some killin' done.
The water down there is very clear, the river is aptly named.
We started out at Doug's hotspot, a cove that has a pipe connecting to another canal.
It didn't take long for Doug to hook up on a spunky little chunk, but he got spit before we could admire the fish.
Then, I hooked a nice chunk and while lifting him in the boat the line broke, er, the line came untied. I'm gonna fire my guide for tying a knot like that.
So, you can kind of see how this day went.
We managed to put two in the boat, and missed or let another 6-7 get off.
Water: Super Clear, Temp. Unknown
Little breezy out of the east
Went down to Crystal River to fish with my bro. Still taking antibiotics and covering up real good, we headed out to bass fish Thursday afternoon and trout/red fish on Friday morn.
Doug said he had been killing them, so it was my turn to get some killin' done.
The water down there is very clear, the river is aptly named.
We started out at Doug's hotspot, a cove that has a pipe connecting to another canal.
It didn't take long for Doug to hook up on a spunky little chunk, but he got spit before we could admire the fish.
Then, I hooked a nice chunk and while lifting him in the boat the line broke, er, the line came untied. I'm gonna fire my guide for tying a knot like that.
So, you can kind of see how this day went.
We managed to put two in the boat, and missed or let another 6-7 get off.
The bass down there are dark and very beautiful as you can see in the pix.
I threw the toad all day, while Doug alternated between his 10 rods, but I think he missed all of his on a white super fluke.
We headed out to try some trout/red fishing early Friday on the dead low tide.
It gave Doug a chance to look at the lay of the land at a new boat ramp he has never put in before. He drove past his usual boat ramp telling me lies about how many fish he's caught over the past week. So we ended up at the very tip of one of the long points that are around Crystal River.
After some slow negotiating in low water, we got out to his honey holes, but the fish didn't cooperate except for one flounder Doug caught on the Gulp Shrimp
As we were heading out we passed over a weed patch that I had him mark on his GPS, so we could fish it on the way back in.
It's a good thing we did, because on our first drift over it, we caught 3 keeper trout and a few shorts.
Our second and third pass didn't reveal anymore fish, so we loaded it on the trailer and bid Crystal River adieu!
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