Friday, October 10, 2008

10/10 - like sands through the hour glass........

"Like sands through the hour glass these are the days of my life"....That's the theme to an old Soap Opera "Days of our lives".

And that statement goes through my head every time I bust some serious fish "azz" and then try the same thing the next day with customers.

Not that I expect them to be masters of their domain, such as I...."but I'd like to see a glimmer of the previous day's Trout slaughter happen."

So here I got Ron, Bob, and John out with me on the boat as we pulled away from the dock before the sun was up. I go to where Nick and I wore the trout out yesterday, not exactly during the same hour (we were earlier today) on the spot. We set up, get chewed like wolves knawling on raw meat by the gnats, go over the finer points of "the float" technique....and what do they catch?
Ladyfish......nasty lil' ones. That just went into the cooler for cut bait.

And not all that many, either. Oh, I see, this is a "ya should have been here yesterday", kinda deal momma nature wants to play on me.

Well Ron really came to catch a Redfish. So we pull out of the bug chew zone. And set up for some bottom fishing for a big Red. We get two right off the git-go. And one has 66 spots. Caught by Bob.

















Then it was Ron's turn, and he gets one a tad smaller.
















After a few kitty kat fish bites, we were out there.
And I've noticed the croakers have kinda moved on to happier hunting grounds too.

Off to the jetties...

Man, that place was a dead zone. Big swells outside the inlet and huge rollers inside, and never saw anyone hook up, and neither did we. So I pulled anchor and ran to the beach, because maybe we could catch some POGIES, I thought.

And it was all the slimy lil' bastards you'd ever want. And by the way, these were the first pogies I have cast my net over in the year of 2008...it only took 10 months for me to find a pogie with out spending gallons of fuel to find them.

I remember years ago when it was like this. Pogies everywhere, and giant Reds all around them.
So I pitched out some Pog's and we drifted around the flipping schools.
NO REDS. But there was no lack of small Blacktip sharks that would scarf up a Pog on the bottom. All this free food and no Reds? Seems really stupid, huh?

Ron also wanted to catch a shark.......okay that was easy, his two requests finished by 10am. Only problem is the sharks were babies. 2-1/2 feet long each one. I'd guess Ron really wants a "man-sized" Shark. Too bad, I was all over them in June & July. Easy to catch, any one of those 100 pounders then, would put a notch in his belt.

Okay, time to move on again.

Up into the river. A great spot. Always catch a 20 plus pound Red here......
















And what did we get? A 23-25 pounder. Then, it was one trash can lid after another! Rays, I call these kind butterflies. They have the shape of a butterfly, and their top side has a marbley look. I've never caught these in the river before this year. I usually caught these up in the Nassau River. But either way, they are a shit fish in my book. So after John pulled in three of these damn things, and then a kittykat fish...."I done had enough."

In the back of my mind I really wanted to go pitch a few floats for Trout again, but instead we tried bottom fishing one more spot. Nothing there, so we pulled out the floats one mo' time.

And caught a few Trout and a Croaker to end the day, as the tide went slack.

The big bite of Reds is many times an evening thing, and a buddy of mine was into them pretty good about this time as the tide changed where he was. But I was up at 0500 hrs loading the boat, so it was a long day, by now. I had reports to write, dinner to eat, phone calls to make, and had to get some fuel into the boat. All before 9pm....my serious bewitching hour.

It's now 8:45pm and I'm ready to hit the sack. Need all my fortitude for yet another Saturday on the St. Johns River tomorrow. Man, I love weekends.........NOT!

I wanna get back on those Trout again. Maybe tomorrow. I only have a husband and wife aboard.

Can't stop thinking about what a screwed up year it was for those pogies. And just now I get them in October, near the jetties. Because I'm not running to Ponte Vedre or Amelia Island for bait, that's for sure. Close or no cigar.....I have Shrimp 100% of the time.