3/23 - WET YET?

Really.....when it gets down to it. You as a fisherman, especially as a charter customer need to come prepared with "foul weather attire" 12 months a year.

I tell people about how I got hypothermia in July during the great Jax Kingfish tournament. Yeah July!
I was beat down, hadn't eaten, got no sleep. And forgot all my foul weather gear. It started raining at 7am, and didn't stop till 3pm. My dad and I were fishing off of Ponte Vedra beach, and there was what felt like a freezing cold wind blowing off the beach. Dad wasn't feeling super great either. But I was on the deck with uncontrollable shivering! Which led to passing out from exhaustion, I guess. Not a good tournament fishing scenario.

That's a extreme example. But, when it comes to the outdoors. You have to be prepared! Period. Or your day is ruined.

With that said, I was out today with Jeremy and 9 year old Hayes. At least Hayes had a jacket. Jeremy, had nothing but a t-shirt.

We left at 7:30am. And the clouds loomed in the distance even at sun-up. We started at the ship yard at high tide just messing around.

Little Hayes caught a Sheepshead that was 5 pounds. We had some small yellowmouths, Croakers, etc.
Then moved on to do some float-rig fishing for Trout and Reds. But before had we tried one more bottom fishing spot.

When we got to where I wanted to float-rig. There wasn't a single breeze. And the Gnats ate us alive!
We tried fishing but it was brutal. So I went and looked at a second spot. A yaker was sitting there, taking up the whole area. So we couldn't float-rig, because I want 100 feet. We didn't have it or current either. So we went back and tried floatrigging the Gnat spot once again. We lasted about 4 drifts!!!
Mouthfuls of Gnats isn't fun!!

Hayes said, "I wanna catch a Sheepshead again."  And in reality, bottom fishing was more fitting for this 9 year old balll of energy.  Float-rigging really takes some patience and concentration. I usually can't do much of it with kids, unless the bite of something is through the roof.

So we went back to the Shipyard and bottom fished. The current was really ripping now. So we sat the rods in the rod holders and watched the rod tips. Baited with live shrimp, just as it really started to rain hard, we hooked up a 7 pound Sheepshead. Jeremy picked up the rod and it kicked his butt!

In the video below. That footage isn't there. Because my editing software crashed and I lost the scenes of Jeremy's Sheesphead. After putting already two hours into editing this video.

So what you see is what was left and saved.

Jeremy was freezing, wet and had no jacket!  So we headed in a bit early, I cleaned the two Sheepshead and some Yellowmouths.

It would have been a bit better if he was prepared with some kind of foul weather attire, and little Hayes too.

PLEASE, come prepared. I'm not asking for a duffle bag full of clothing. But a good jacket, waterproof and warm is always good to bring along, that's easy to store. No matter if it's July or December.