Fish Caught:

High Tide: 7:45 AM 1.2 FT Low Tide: 2:30 PM 0.2 FT Wind: 10-20 SE Air Temp: 64/82 Water Temp: 72 Clarity: clear

Judy, Kate, James and I left the dock again at about 10:00 AM on a much different day than yesterday. It was sunny because the wind had blown the fog away early. It was too windy to stop at the bridge so we banged our way through the waves out to the Myakka Cutoff to hide in the calm inside the mangroves. We fished there all day with no fish making it into the boat. Only 2 big hits on our live bait to mention, both seemed like nice fish, reds would be my guess, but neither was hooked for more than a few seconds. But, I did learn something new about the bait I've been calling "sardines." They are not sardines at all, although they look similar when you look at photos online, but are actually menhaden. I discovered my mistake while researching a shrimp like crustacean that comes out of the menhaden's mouth when they die. It is quite large compared to the fish and looks a little like something you'd see in a science fiction movie. Everything I could find online says the fish is not bothered by the parasite but both me and my neighbor have noticed it seems to be much more difficult to keep them alive lately, since we started to notice this bug. I sent an email to a biologist that helped me determine the cause of a fish kill in our canal back in June. I hope she can tell me a little more about the menhaden bug, if I do learn more I will let you know. Our trip to the cutoff didn't produce anything for the dinner table, but I know it helped everyone reach some better plane mentally. Kate got one hell of a nap, James finished what must have been a good book and Judy was the one to utter that common, among fishermen, line "one-more-cast" at least 12 times for that extra half hour on the water. After a wet, rough ride home we got into the dock by about 4:00 PM, another great day on the water.

Labels: skunked

Fish Caught: Snook, Trout, Gar

High Tide: 6:30 AM 1.5 FT Low Tide: 2:00 PM 0.0 FT Wind: 5-10 S Air Temp: 64/82 Water Temp: 72 Clarity: clear

My 2 sisters, Judy from New Jersey and Kate & husband James from Lakeland, FL are visiting for a weekend of fishing. The 5 of us set out from the dock, with a live well full of Sardines, at a liittle before 10:00 AM. It was still foggy so we stopped in the canal for a half hour until the sun burned through. No action in the canal. When we got to the El Jobean bridge there were a lot of boats and all my favorite spots were occupied. We anchored out a little southeast of the bridge where the outgoing tide starts to slow. There was a school of small sand trout feeding on bait fish and the Gulp Swimming Mullet did the trick. I must have caught and released 15 small sand trout between 6 and 12 inches long. James had never caught a fish before and I'm glad to say I helped end this streak by hooking him up with the monster sand trout you see in the *photo. Judy hooked what seemed to be a nice fish only to net a 3 foot gar. Exciting! James muscled even a bigger Gar right to the side of the boat and almost into the net when the spit hook flew over my head and stuck in the back of my shirt. Many years ago when Kate was very young she and I would occasionally go flounder fishing and bring coktail sauce for flounder sushi from our first catch of the day. James, Kate and I tried one of the sand trout as sushi, it was unanimously agreed that sand trout is NOT sushi grade fish. It is amazingly chewy! When my favorite spot was vacated we pulled anchor and zipped right in behind the leaving boat. The tide was just getting slack and I knew there'd be snook there shortly. And I was right, the first 2 came on the Gulp Swimming Mullet and then 2 more on live sardines. I got 3 of those and Judy got one. Kate tried hard but no luck. They all ran about 21-23 inches, a fun fish but under sized and out of season until March. But I know where to be on March 1st. We ran out of bait around 3 and headed home. Another great day on the water. When we got home we loaded the truck and went down the street to catch tomorrows bait. So we're all ready for another day of fun in the sun. I think we'll go right out to the Myakka Cutoff to get out of the 10-20 MPH SSE wind they're predicting for today. We'll be poling around the Mangroves in very skinny water. Hopefully some big reds will be sunning with us. *Kate took all the photos on her digital and we couldn't get them to my computer to post today. She'll email them when she gets home and I'll add them then.

Labels: Gar, Snook, Trout

Labels: Redfish