The Long, Hot Summer Is Over

After months of hot, hot weather, 20 knot winds, and oil-spill-sickened fish, we finally go out on the water again.  It's been 6 months since we fished.  Long enough for us to find a new hobby and work on the house.  But, here we are, fishing again.  We got to the dock at the crack of noon and started loading the boat.  As we were loading, a very elderly half deaf, walking-with-a-cane man and his enormous wife motored up to the dock next to us.  The poor old guy was crying and holding up his bleeding arm asking for help.  We couldn't understand him at first because he was, shall we say, tooth challenged.  Turns out, he was saying "I got bit by an alligator."  Okay.  That got our attention.  With help from the folks at Shell Island we got him out of the boat without anyone falling off the dock and Nurse Becky saved the day with a beautiful bandaging job.  We finally understood him to say he got "hit" by an alligator while "messing with a manatee buoy."  We didn't even try to understand that one.  His ginormous wife stayed in the boat the whole time talking (mostly to herself) about how she just had two teeth removed this week and she was fine "but here he went and got messed up with an alligator and he's all tore up."  I found myself fascinated by the thought that she had two teeth to give when the two of them appeared to be in a tooth deficit situation.  Well, we got him bandaged up, back in the boat, and on their way.  The rest of the day wasn't as exciting.  We got to our first usual fishing spot and started fishing and catching Redfish pups - a good start, when I happened to think about our fishing licenses.  Hmmm.  When exactly did they expire?  Turns out, they expired last month.  Up with the anchor and back to the dock to get new fishing licenses.  All the while, the tide, which had started out super low, was ripping in with a southeast wind behind it.  We got licenses, got back to our spot, re-anchored and, the bite was off.  We fished our way through 75 of a 100 shrimp losing them every time we cast out but no fish.  Well, two small pinfish.  

Bec holding the Catch-Of-The-Day.  No, you're not seeing things, her hand is empty.








After 6 months of sitting up the boat was horribly filthy so we ditched fishing and went back to the dock to clean the boat.  Poor boat.  What a mess.  We got her mostly cleaned up, I didn't clean fish at the dock and, 

we didn't have to clean the cooler.  Bummer.




















So, we washed the boat, broke down the equipment we so hopefully strung up at the start of the day

and went to Lighthouse Seafood to score some Stone Crab claws and a couple of pounds of jumbo shrimp.  Catch of the day:

nothing.











But, the boat is clean.

Drums Along The Wakulla

The Moon will be closer to the earth today than it has been or will be in 20 years.  The fishing yesterday was closer to heaven.  This is going to sound annoyingly repetitive, but, the tide was really low.  Super Moon low.  The wind was low (which, though we were tired of being blown off the water, turned out to be unfortunate).  The shrimp were lively and the fishermen, us, were more than ready.  We got to the dock just before low tide having launched the boat the evening before.  Good thing because the river was mostly mud.  We chugged to our first choice fishing place in the river and commenced to fishing.  

   


And catching . . .

 
and, throwing back in.












We caught a few Redfish pups just before the tide really turned, and a Sheepshead (of course).  And then,

out of the murky depths,

 

                                        Ohhhh, yeahhh.

I kept catching and Bec kept watching

closely monitored by an Osprey . . .









Until 

Bec catches possibly the biggest Redfish we have ever boated.  She also catches a Black Drum, cousin of the Red Drum otherwise known as the Redfish. We've never caught one of these before and we actually have to call the dock and ask what it is.  Now we are at our limit for Redfish and Redfish are biting.  Unfortunately, the damn no-see-ums
were also biting and we had no wind to blow them off of us.  What are a pair of lucky fishermen to do???

Mackerel Baby!  Off we go to the flats for some early spring Mackerel fishing and it's beautiful out there.

And . . .
We catch a couple of Mackerel.





We head inside to see if the Trouties are home and, nothing doing.  We head back to the dock to clean fish and Oh! what a catch!

We clean a bucket-o-fish

under the watchful eye of

a gang of ill-tempered pelicans

and the graceful begging of Louis.

Bec chisels the scales off the Redfish, the Black Drum, and the Sheepshead.






We cooperatively clean the boat

well, Bec cleans the boat while I do other extremely important things . . .

then, still itching from bug bites, we go home.

Fishronicity, Fishendipity & Harmonic Convergence

It is nearing the end of winter and the beginning of spring.  That hit-or-miss time of fishing when the water is either too warm or too cold, or too cold on top and too warm on the bottom, or the tide is in or the tide is out, the moon is full, or not.  And every now and then the tide, the temperature, the moon and the fisherman all come together at the same time, in the same place, with the same thought in mind; eat.

I fortuitously happened upon a lucky fishing hat while shopping at the oriental food store.  Fishermen are big on luck.  Hopefully it wouldn't cause flashbacks in the Vietnam vets who frequent the dock.




We set out on a beautiful, blue sky day, the tide so low the manatees were having trouble finding enough water.  Lively shrimp.  We got to our spot a couple of hundred yards from the marina and commenced fishing.  The tide was just before low.  

We got comfortable.  We had hot dogs ready to grill, drinks, snacks.  Our usual bonanza of fishing food.









And then the fish, the shrimp the fishermen all came together in a harmonic convergence of reel smokin', line stretchin', high fivin' glory.

 She Hooks!  














She Fights!

She Scores!!!!!!

 Ohhhhh yeah.   The bite was on.  Redfish and Sheepshead galore.  We tried to grill hot dogs but the fish just kept biting.  This is not a complaint.  We set out to "fill the cooler".

                                                                      And we did.


We kept fishing and catching until the tide came in and the (sea)cows came home.  On into the dark.  It took both of us to clean all the fish.

So, naturally, the boat didn't get cleaned so, naturally, we had to fish again on Saturday.  It's been a long, long time since we fished two days of a weekend, and it will be a long, long time before we do it again.  
First, two boats were in our special fishing spot (catching nothing).  We chugged up the river to our other special fishing spot.  Nothing catching.  Much biting and losing of shrimp but no catching.  

 Eventually we did catch a couple of nice Sheepshead.  But, the gnats were biting and the many, many, many people who apparently fish on Saturday were out in force.  







So, we motored back to the dock 

 taking in the sights









and leisurely washed the boat, cleaned the fish and, as a special bonus, I learned how to whip a loop in an anchor line.  

Clean boat tucked in, clean fish in the cooler.  Harmonic convergence, yes.

Whiff

Whiff : 1. a slight trace or indication.  2. quick puff or gust of air.  3.  strikeout.

1.  a slight trace or indication.

We set out on the second fishing trip of the year under a cold, overcast sky and calm winds.  No one at the marina except us and the staff.  No one fishing.  This should have been our first indication.  Our first whiff, if you will, of some reason why no one else was fishing.  The first bad news was;  no shrimp.  Dead, frozen shrimp, sure.  Who wants a dead, frozen shrimp?  This was soon to become more than an existential, rhetorical question.  

So we packed in a baggie of frozen, dead shrimp.  





And some potato chips because we just didn't get it together in time to make any food.  This was the second piece of bad news.  When have we ever gone fishing without having something to eat?  


2. a slight puff or gust of air.
The second indication of not-so-good-ness;  the forecast was for sunny skies with calm winds.  

We had overcast, cold, windy.

Let me emphasize the cold and windy aspect.  Oh, eventually it did get sunny.  The better to see the havoc the wind was playing on trees, water, us.  The sunnier it got, the colder it got.  Oh, and did I mention, not a single bite?  
 
It got, shall we say, dull.

The scenery was beautiful.




 





We watched an amazing display of birds creating ideograms in the sky.
 

 

We tried fishing from different places in the boat.  Nothing.






3. strikeout.
5 and a half hours of fishing, a bag of dead, frozen shrimp, freezing cold and windy conditions, not one single bite.  None.  Nada.  Zip.  Strikeout.  Okay, we each got one bite from some monster fish that felt like the bottom of the river was suddenly animated.  Something huge.  Something big enough to keep us freezing for hours.  So, two bites.  Didn't even lose a shrimp.  
Back to the dock to pack up and go home.  Catch of the day, well, the box scores don't look good on this one.  Lighthouse Seafood had no fish or crab.  But!  We finally did score some stone crabs at the Lynn Brothers dock.  They're s no crying in baseball or fishing.  

We Start The New Year With A Bang And End With A Whimper

We started our new year out right by going fishing.  They say that what you do on the first day of the year sets the tone of the whole year.  They also say you should eat lentils on New Years Day to ensure wealth in the new year.  I hate lentils.  The fishing didn't go that well either.  The marine forecast called for 10 to 15 knot winds (about 11 to 17 mph), seas 3 to 6 feet, waters choppy 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms.  

This is not a run out and go fishing forecast.  This is a stay home and watch home improvement shows.  But.  The tide was forecast to be a foot and a half below low mean.  That means;  good fishing!  Frankly, I can find any reason to fish in any weather.  We planned to go no further than the first bend, right where I caught boatloads of fish on Christmas Eve.  Alas, it was not to be.  First, the 10 to 15kt wind turned out to be 15 to 20kts with 30kt gusts (35mph).  We're talking gale force gusts here.  The boat was whipping back and forth across the river on the anchor rode and the boat was shivering in some of the gusts.   

 We tried what we always try;  we ate.    

Oh, we caught a small Redfish or two, a tiny Sheepshead.  

We invoked the goddess of chocolate.  Nothing.  Except, the wind picked up.  We remarked on the fact that the sky was a beautiful blue.  

Instant Mackerel Sky (in weather terms, BAD weather coming!)  It got dark.  A few stray raindrops.  No fish.  We motored back to the dock, cleaned the boat and, just as we drove away, the bottom dropped out and it began to thunder and storm.  Happy New Year.