Friday, July 6, 2007

7/6 - what the hell happened.........?


My day started off B-A-D, right off the GIT-GO this morning at 6:00am.

NO SHRIMP

Which I was suspecting would happen after days of charters in a row, the holiday crowds, and the incoming tides with strong east winds by afternoon the last few days.

Hey, I'm sure ole Wade the shrimp man has his favorite tides & conditions up north in his shrimping grounds.

So to say I didn't expect a bad day after I was told there was NO shrimp, would be a lie.
I knew it was coming. And every single day the phone rings with more late noticers. IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU, TOO.

So I bought 5 dozen mud minnows. I want shrimp. And HATE mud minnows, and never catch crap on them. But what am I suppose to do show up at the dock with NO BAIT?
Mud Minnows on a float-rig folks, just plain suck!

So I headed up river, to the same areas I have been fishing all week. NO BITES!
NO JUNKFISH, NO NOTHING. Can ya believe not a single Jack or Ladyfish??
James from B&M calls me about 9:30am and says the west coast shrimp are their way if I want them to run me some to the boat ramp. I was too far away.
But I put two and two together and called Browns Creek Fish camp. We picked up and ran to Brown's and I got 8 dozen and 4 more dozen for trading in my 5 dozen mud minnows.
Which was a great deal. I was hoping this would change our luck. Because at least I was happy now . And out almost $50 on bait alone at this point and haven't caught a single fish YET!!!!!!!
I was thinking....man I'm loosing out on this trip. Which was already kinda "discounted".

By now I missed the last of the falling tide, as we ran back to my area.
We tried it though and caught one trout.
Oh, BTW I had Mike & Jewel on board today from Atlanta. Mike wanted to ride and fish in my boat, because he was very curious about Black Lab Plate Alloy boats. So he received the royal treatment, because we did A LOT of riding around by this point. As any, if all profits were going down the toilet of this charter fast. The more I run around burning gas, and buying $25 worth of bait, time after time I'm loosing my ass on this trip!!

I went from spot to spot, at slack tide looking for some kind of current. We finally fished the incoming tide back by Blount Island and picked and poked up two small Flounder. No Trout, no Reds at the same places I fished yesterday. What the hell happened? I don't know.

Chock it up to a bad start, I guess.

And then I even went out of my way and took Mike and Jewel out to the inlet, and stayed out a bit longer letting them drive my boat. So it was a real sea-trial kind of trip.

I put it on the trailer at the end of the day and headed home thinking about today, and how I go out of my way sometimes, for so little. "Hills and Valleys......Hills and Valleys", is what my ole buddy Capt Randall would say. And he's usually right.
But those hills are much more Fun.

Next up tomorrow, having to do a Amelia Island customer pick-up at the Carlucci boat ramp because the Sisters Creek is closed due to the supposed getting ready for the "Kingfish Karnival" so they say...."they better be working on that place, on the weekend", is all I can say. I don't like picking folks up at the Carlucci Ramp, because the docks are too small and busy on a weekend.

I have a dad and a 5 year old for a 1/2 day.