For starters. THE F-O-G. The first of the season. Wouldn't be December, if we didn't have some of it. Damn, it made for slow going. I'm only traveling a few miles, I know. But don't forget I'm really IMPATIENT!
We get to the jetties, (where I wanted to fish) and the seas were 4 footers folding over, with white water. Just for added excitement. NO BIGGY....the "JettyWolf's boat", can take it.....But can we? Standing was a real problem. Yeah, that simple endeavor was very hard to do. But believe it or not, we tried it.....for a very short time. And received ZERO bites.
Can fish even swim along the jetty rocks in a white water folding swell like this? Is what I was thinking. Hmmm, maybe we ought to come on back later. It was exactly the same thing yesterday when DOA Rob and I were out here. Damn , I figured it might have laid down a bit.
Add in the fog and we have ourselves a true "Chinese yellow mustard" , kinda day here.
(Chinese yellow mustard isn't HOT....it's exciting!)
All this was well and good, till I stuck my hand down in the bottom of my live well, because I was wondering why my 10 dozen shrimp weren't swimming around. And when I did they were all
D-E-A-D, laying on the bottom of the well. HOLY CRAP!!!!!! What the... *%!*@@!!!&*?
So I jumped on the phone and called the bait shop. And being the best best bait shop in Jax. Rusty, of B&M ran down to the boat ramp with 10 more dozen to me. And we made the slow ride back to the dock in the fog, loosing precious time.
Some thing was wrong. So we changed out the water in my well, which was only bait shop water originally. And I kept close attention to my "ICU" - intensive care unit, like I needed more to pay attention too today! Rusty didn't know what was wrong, either....
Okay, now we're back along the rocks. And we try a easier place to anchor and fish. But the fish didn't care. We received zero bites, until I was drifting into the jetty rocks and started the motor and moved away. And that's when Kent gets a small "potato chip" Flounder. FISH #1.
And I think we've been at this for hours now. So we move on. Back to the SLOP we go, where the fish have been. The currents fading, which meant the heinous swell was also fading. It's not "folding over" anymore. So we tried it. And the guys caught some small 14" sized Specks.
I the looked down the jetties and saw the big swell just go away totally. Which is about the same thing I experienced yesterday with Rob. So we moved to a better spot.
And here is where we sat, and started catchin! Hell, we never even had to leave the ramp till 11am, if this is the way it was going to be. The fog lifted, the sun came out, it warmed up and FINALLY, all was well in Dave land. The shrimp all of sudden came to life, and were swimming in the livewell, now. WOW...what was the deal?
Were we caught in a vortex of gravitational Earth fog and reverse rotation, the likes of planet Nebulon, or something? hahahahah....
In between some small Trout, I picked up my rod and on my 3rd drift of my float-rig set the hook on a nice "box" Redbass at 24". "Okay, fellas.....game on!" I said.
Then, the guys started on the Specks.....then had a double header.
They weren't keeping a whole bunch of fish today, but that didn't mean we didn't have plans of not catching a whole bunch of fish today. They wanted enough to take to Singleton's Seafood Shack for dinner. And that started to happen real quick!
I wanted someone besides me to catch a big Redbass. Because all I was doing was surveying the drift of the float-rig and hopefully enhance the looks of the fish box at that moment.
But I
didn't have to wait long........Jacob, set the hook on this beauty of a multi-spotter with the blue tail.
That was around 25 inches.
Then, he set the hook on this 12 pounder. And it really kicked some butt.
While he was fighting this one his dad landed a few trout.
Wheww...what a day, huh? I always say; "Like sands through the hour glass, these are the days of Dave's life."
We then ran out of time. Mom was coming to pick them up at the boat ramp. So I cleaned, filleted, and skinned 3 Trout and a Redbass for them to take to Singletons. I hope all worked out for them, and they had a pleasant dinner of eating their catch. I believe, that's a great way to end a day of fishing.
I thanked the guys for being so patient, on a day like this. And Kent said, "they're fisherman, they understand fishing". It's fine folks like these, that make my job a bit easier when the going gets tough. I just wanted them to know, I appreciated it.
