Wednesday, July 25, 2007

7/25 - A perfect weather day....missed by U.

WHEWWWWW.....thank goodness those easterly winds are gone and we're back into HEAT,HEAT,HEAT. Even though they bring nice temps they suck for fishing, and I don't care what month it is. I'll trade the intense heat for East winds any day!

So since I had, I don't know 10 calls for the middle of this week?

And no one wanted to go ..........Hook some Tarpon, Yellow submarines (Jack Crevalles to 15 pounds) or Flounder????
I went by me lonesome. And even though it was slow going at first. I had some serious fun.
And serious fun for me is EDUCATING MYSELF.
I learned that the same spot where I got the most perfect 3 inch finger Mullet the other day produces one mo' time. And it's all about "Timing".
I pull up to the spot, and I see a guy in a boat, and a guy wading with a net. They look as if they've been throwing a cast net for awhile. NOT ME. I'm into what????? I.G. - Instantaneous Gratification! I pull up down from them. Grab my net, step out onto a dock and toss the net on the same mullet they are wading in the mud for. GO FIGURE?


The only problem I had was that the loop on the cast net drag line flew off my hand and now my net is sinking away. Thanks to floating drag lines, I grab it as it drifts back to me, pull up the net and have 200 3" perfect Mullet snacks. Step back into the boat and drive off. I look back and those two are still wading around tossing the net.

The fishing was deathly slow for awhile till the last hour or so of the falling tide. But when that time came, it was fun.

I sat at the jetties drifting my float-rig back to a really good spot. Using my BIG 9 foot rod and larger reel. Because when I use the light stuff is when I'll get hammered by some monster that I'll loose or take too long fighting.

I jumped (2) really nice sized Tarpon on big live shrimp and my float-rig. I may have had a chance at getting some longer battle out of them, but I was fishing my bait at 25 feet deep. And they both hit the bait, and my float disappeared but by the time I went to set the hook on them they were already airborne flying through the air doing somersaults. And of course since there was no real hook set, they threw the hook.

A buddy said, "you mean those Tarpon ate a shrimp?" I relied, "Yeah and those Tarpon in the keys eat a little Fly..." Shrimp are the bait of choice in Miami when drift fishing at night. I've seen it. And I believe everything will eat a shrimp. It's the night crawler of Saltwater fishing......(the photo is of a Jetty caught 15 pound Tarpon caught on a live shrimp)
Of course I had numerous Ladyfish while looking for those Tarpon bites. The Tarpon were rolling all around 50 feet behind my boat. So I had a feeling a hook-up was emanate. The perfect Tarpon is like the one in the photo, taken 2 years ago. Small, easy to handle, fun to catch....but one that size is A LOT rarer to catch than a large one in N.E. Florida.

Then came the schools of good sized Jacks. Not jumbo's, but great pullers. 8-15 Pounds worth of yeller submarines. I caught 4 back to back.

Then as the incoming tide started, I caught 8 Flounder up to 5 pounds on the boga-grip scale.


NICE! Just what I had planned!

JUST WISH I HAD MY DIGITAL CAMERA. BUT IT'S STILL BEING FIXED. IT'S ALMOST 'NOT AS FUN' WITHOUT, PROOF IN THE PHOTOS.

A good day, and I learned a lot about current and wind direction and where those flatfish like to be when things are not the same as they were a few days ago.

I tryed like hell to get my limit of Flounder (10), but the S.E. sea breeze really started to kick up the seas later in the day. And made staying anchored on the right spot tough.


But since I don't have a photo of today, here's a 5 pounder from a day in April...
Caught by Scott from
Gainesville, Florida
on a float-rig, of course.