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.

One Year Ago...The Spill

7.14.2011

In my past few trips out into the bays and Gulf, I keep thinking back to a year ago.  The big oil spill created a lot of uncertainty here.  In some folks minds it still exists.

The orange oil booms floating aimlessly in the Gulf, money being spent needlessly by BP to try and look like they were doing something.  I think the reality of the spill was that BP was just guessing on what to do and throwing money about to try and soothe everyone's feathers.

Make no mistake about it, some feathers were smoothed and a short lived economic boom (no pun intended) occurred.  Guys came from Texas to lay the boom, beer was sold, hotels were rented, commercial fisherman who never fished got $$$ claiming they lost wages.

It was a real cluster.....

Anyways, Steve Earle wrote a good song about the Gulf and the spill on his new album, I'll Never Get Out of Here Alive.

I added a link to the side, check it out.

Couple of Mashes Sands Drags

7.7 and 7.12.2011

Water: hot 85 deg.

I made a couple of quick trips over the hot last few days.

On Thursday I went out with David Moore who was down visiting at his Mother In Laws place.

He said he hadn't fished in a while but, he managed to set the hook to a few fish while we dragged the point for tarpon.

He caught this nice keeper trout.

As with all of my recent trips we were off the water around 10:30 due to the heat.

I went out solo today and hooked up on a big shark that broke me off at the boat.  I also caught a smaller shark by the tail and a sailcat of course.

Saw some tarpon stirring again, but no hookups.

Tarponless, but not Troutless or Sailcatless

7.5.11

Hot!

Water Temp: 85

High to outgoing tide.

Nancy and I headed out for a quick trip.  We went down to the cabbage patch but had no success.  Headed back to get in front of Piney Island and try to catch some pins for tarpon fishing. Nancy caught a few small trout there and I caught a few pinfish and grunts.

Headed over to the Mashes Sand point to try and drag up a tarpon.

We saw a fly fisherman hook up on a tarpon, what a sight!

Nancy caught this slimy fellow.

She also caught a nice keeper trout.

I got bit off, but I think it was a shark and we finished with another sailcat and this big trout.

This one was 23" long and ate a grunt that was 6" long.

It was really heating up when we left, tarponless.

First Tarpon Jump of the Year

6.29.11

Incoming tide to high.

water temp: 83 degrees.

I took Hunter out for his last go for the summer here at the Forgotten Coast as he heads to Charleston tomorrow for his MBA schooling.

He wanted to try and jump a tarp, watch out for what you wish for!

Our plan was to fish the tip of Alligator Harbor as we have seen tarpon schooling down there for a month.  Unfortunately when we got to the surf and sand ramp the rain was coming down.  We shot the bull with a fellow there and he told us about a hole over by Piney Island.

So we headed back to the house, picked up our rain gear and headed to Rock Landing.  We fished there a couple of days ago and caught some trout and saw tarpon rolling.

Hunter caught a nice trout on top water and some smaller trout.  Not many tarpon were seen so, we headed down towards the cabbage patch.  It was our first time there.  Very deep cut surrounded by shallow oyster bars and grass.  Capt. Vic was down there hooping and hollering over catching some nice trout.

I caught some pinfish for Hunter to drag behind the boat to try and hook up on some tarpon.  He hooked up three times there, but we think they were sharks.  Two broken lines and one shark to the boat later, we decided to hit the point at Mashes Sands on high tide to try one more time for a tarpon.

I pulled up on the sandy point and we immediately saw one roll.  Hunter said, "that's what I like to see."  About a minute later the water exploded with a 100 lb. plus tarpon jumping twice with the pinfish in his mouth, it was on!

This tarpon was a stud, Hunter has caught a few, and the fun thing about tarpon is it seems every one has it's own personality.  This one's personality was, "I'm going to stay down, not wear myself out and drag your butt a mile down the beach, good luck!"

It was a heckuva a battle with us chasing and the big fish only coming up to suck some air, and then rage on.

Another wish granted, Tarpon On!

The big fish took us all the way down to the edge of Mashes Sands beach.

He took Hunter out to ten feet of water and then headed in.  We were worried that as he hit the shallower water that he might scrape the leader on the sandy bottom and break off.

When taking these pictures my phone read 1 pm.  Hunter had been battling the fish for at least 20 minutes before I started trying to get some pix.

As the fish headed to the bank the line broke free at 1:36 pm.  A good 56 minute battle and a frayed broken leader later it was time to head to the hill.

Hunter got his wish, I wish I could have touched him, but another tarpon swims free.