7/10 - Big differences just 2 states away

Ya know, I can't help being totally amazed at the reactions I get when I pull up to a boat ramp in my Black Lab Alloy Plate 26 footer. And believe it or not, the #1 response is, "NOW THAT'S A REAL BOAT".

But responses also range from, "I AIN'T NEVA SEEN A BOAT LIKE DAT' BEFOE" to "HEY MAN IS THAT STAINLESS STEEL?"

I'll admit it's an eye catcher for sure. Which is a good thing, and a bad thing. Because some people want to take up some of my valuable time when I'm in a hurry. And other's I just don't plain care to talk too. And the good part is, when people see it they don't forget it.

Although I'm amazed at some of the comments I get, it's because I think all boaters are like me. I'm not only a fisherman, and a fishing guide. But I'm also a surfer. No, not the catching that Kawabunga wave "dude" surfer, but rather a surfer of the World Wide Web. Cyber-space, the open door to the WORLD. Where knowledge can be attained as easily as clicking a mouse.

That's how I found my boat, after 3 years of surfing, reading, studying, and contemplating. I figure, everyone knows what the Internet is, and everyone uses it.......NOT!! So to the dismay of others in the boating/fishing world, I just may be smarter, and just plain more......"learned". I like to make it my business to know all or at least been exposed to as much of the life style, as I can.

Which brings me to the topic of Aluminum boats, and their popularity.

I've been a long time reader of Louisiana Sportsman magazine. And share a common fascination with a friend named Dave (another Dave) of the differences between the fishing here in N.E. Florida, and the fishing in Louisiana, saltwater fishing of course. Mainly inshore fishing.

Unfortunately, for me I've never fished there. But Dave has....a lot. His brother-in-law is a fishing guide out of Venice La. So Dave rubs in the stories of 75 Specks and 44 Reds, throw in a few drum, sheepshead, and Flounder that he'll catch with his brother-in-law per day, each time he goes to visit. Yeah, yeah, "we"- the knowledgeable, already know that they have the damn near if not the #1 Trout (aka: Specks) and Redfish fishery in the whole United States, from La. to Texas. And lucky for me, Dave gives me all of his Louisiana Sportsman Magazines after he's done reading them.

And if you've never seen a REAL fishing magazine like this one, you ought to treat yourself sometime, and get a years subscription just for shits and giggles. Big in size, and monstrous in Speck and Redfish articles.

But there's something else I've noticed for a long time. And have never mentioned before except to a few. Every 5-10 pages or so of this magazine has Boat Advertisements of course, like most "sportsman" type publications will. BUT, many of them are for ALUMINUM BOATS.

Yes, ALUMINUM BOATS!!!!!!

Just two states away, and it's a different world over there. Every dealer will have your average Cobia's, Hydra-sports, Skeeters, Triton bay boats, but will also offer a aluminum boat or two, usually a Sea-Ark, Tracker, G3 or Express, Jon boat style aluminum bay or bass boat, manufactured by big corporate type manufactures.

And then there's the smaller manufactures, like Scully's, Hanko's, TunaDawg, GatorTrax, Lifetyme, to just name a few that build custom welded plate hulls. (pictured here from Bay style to flats to big offshore) Painted or not these are Aluminum boats built in Dixie!

So when I hear people tell me, "yeah they make all those aluminum boats up yonder in Washington state." They are partly right, that's where mine was built, but Louisiana is a big time aluminum boat state too. And just two states away from Jacksonville, Florida. Other states where aluminum boats are very popular is Oregon, California, Idaho. And the entire countries of Canada and Australia!

I think the uniqueness is that people see a big silver boat about once in there lifetimes here in Jacksonville Florida, if they are blind to the St. Johns River Bar Pilot boats, many Mega Yachts that travel our river's, the St. Johns River water management, the Jacksonville Fire boat. All large aluminum boats too. That for some reason people don't pay attention too. (again, I'm more learned...)

So what's the difference between here and Louisiana? Probably the difference between here and Washington, or British Columbia.

Aluminum boats are for people who work their boats hard, in tough areas, and expect more than what fiberglass can ever give. With less maintenance, overall. For hard working commercial purposes, or for totally customized luxury, with fuel economy.

My first boat was a 1971 riveted, thickly built with not a single leak ALUMA-CRAFT 14 footer, that I traded in for a 19' fiberglass boat that was pretty much a piece of crap. Years later, I could have kicked myself in the ass for getting rid of that nice lil' indestructible boat.

And here I am years and years later with my customized 26' (marine grade alloy) aka: Aluminum boat. Going back to my r-o-o-t-s!

And all the while fascinated with the difference between what I see in Florida Sportsman magazine versus Louisiana Sportsman magazine.
Here, South Florida sets the tone for the entire state. I don't think anyone would argue with that.

I just wanted to throw a tid-bit of education, along with a clue to "my style" out there to my readers. Since I was off today....and it only takes me a few minutes to do 1200 words, and a few pics to go along with them. (typos and all!)

Next up Wednesday: 2 angler day...and I'll get 11 dozen shrimp to make sure we have enough this time! In case they're members of the same CULT and have a prearranged death pact, before entering my live-well. Now that's Funny!

7/9 - Bait stress or Captain stress, or both?

Had Kevin Kingston, his Brother and Dad aboard today. Visiting Amelia Island and were there for Tom Coughlin's daughters wedding. They said it was a hell of a wedding, too!

Had 8 dozen live river crickets in the well and decided to give the southern part of my stomping grounds a try, again. The tide was a bit high as we arrived, and since everything seems to be a low tide bite, I told the guys we have plenty of time to get familiar with the float-rig system.

And I was dead on. As the tide started to drop we started to get bit. First it was small Jacks, the deep summer scourge, versus the spring time scourge which are 6" bluefish. And don't forget Mangrove snappers in the 6" category eating as many scrumpteous shrimp tails as they can.

And that brings me to some inshore fishing wisdom, learned the hard way. Never think for one second that when you buy live bait, that they will be alive 10 minutes later, no matter how good your live well is. Bait can shit the bed so easily in the summer.

So when buying live shrimp from now on what ever amount I need I'm buying two dozen more because no matter what (2) dozen seem to always die!

I started out with (8) dozen two dozen died, so maybe I have 6 dozen now. 6 dozen live shrimp and three sweet water anglers means one thing........NOT ENOUGH BAIT!

At 11am we were slap outa shrimpz.

But only after about 10 or so Trout, boxing just 4 up to 4 pounds with the rest 14 3/4" long.

Mega-numbers of 12 inch Jacks and Mangrove snappers. One 14" Flounder, 2- small Reds and 2 - Pup Black Drum.

Smaller fish than I wanted.

So I run to Browns Creek Fish Camp and buy 5 dozen more, 2 more dozen than I actually needed, (per dieing purposes) put them in my livewell run to a close spot for a look see, and we use 3 shrimp and when I go to dip out a 4th Shrimp. ALL of the shrimp I just purchased 10 minutes ago are D-E-A-D!

Good god, I'm having to bite my tongue and am about to go postal. $15.00 worth of bait with not a single live shrimp, and nothings wrong with my livewell. "I just had live shrimp in it that we used up 20 minutes ago." I've NEVER EVER had this happen before. I mean NEVER.

Kind of reminds me of my ole Cigar Minnow trolling days, many moons ago. I'd buy 2 boxes of frozen cigar's, have my customers get on board, run offshore, pull up to the first spot, thawing out some baits on the way. And as I rig them up for deployment at 2.5 knots of troll speed, they'd be rotten! And completely blow-out after 2 minutes of trolling. Right then, I'd have to repeat..."SERENITY NOW, SERENITY NOW", because my head would be about to blow off.

Today, I stayed relatively calm because I just wanted to take the guys, and finish up our day where I took 5 year old Will Tanner and his dad yesterday, for a little while.

This occurance seems so similar to the other day when I bought mud minnows, didn't catch squat on them and then went and bought 8 dozen shrimp and caught squat on them spending a total of $50 on bait for two people and they caught only 3 fish.

I took those 5 dozen dead shrimp and threw them over the side of the boat, and headed in to clean fish.

But we had fun. And it is surely the height of summer for an inshore fisherman. Hot as hell by noon, and ya GOTTA work, hard and smart.

Hell with the stressed bait, how about stressed fishing guides?

Next up Wednesday, 2 anglers at 7am.

7/7 - Great day...not far away.

Had Greg Tanner with his 5 year old son Will aboard today. To start out.....what the hell was going on?? The Mayport Boat ramp was an absolute ZOO. I haven't seen it like this in a long time. It's as if no one took off work for the holiday week and all of a sudden here comes Saturday, and if you had a boat, you were damn gonna use it today!

The Parking lot was utter mayhem.

Probably because of that Kingfish Karnival closing the Sisters creek boat ramp. I say let's all get together and do a kingfish a favor and make them get their own dang park to run the tournament.

It's such a disruption every single year. If you don't think so, then you're NUTZ! (I tried to capture the look of the parking lot at the Mayport Boat Ramp in this photo, because it looked like the local mall the day after Thanksgiving. But obviously the photo doesn't depict what I was seeing.)

B&M bait and tackle was crazy too. As I motored up there at 6:30am. GOD I LOVE MONDAY'S AT 7:00am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I finally got in the water and had to pick up Greg at the Carlucci boat ramp off of the Hecksher drive area. What a zoo that was. I waited around and finally pulled up to tie off to the dock right when Greg said he'd be there. Answered the standard 10 questions a day about the greatest fishing boat ever, MY BOAT. Because over at that ramp, "We ain't never seen a boat just like dat"....I was told over and over again. Then, finally Greg and Will walked down.

I had plans to get this lil' boy hooked up and fast to some fish. And man, I surprised myself!

I wanted to just go see what the deal was over at the ship yard 200 yards away from the dock where I just picked them up. So I idled over there (NO LONG BOAT RIDE REQUIRED) and tossed the anchor. Showed Greg what we were going to do and we were off to the races!

Hooking fish after fish on the float-rig for lil' Will to reel in.

First it was Jacks, then came Trout, then some Croakers, and a giant Pinfish. It was fun! Me and Greg would hook'em, and Will would reel them in. This was an observant 5 year old. He could tell right away if the Trout were "keepers" or not. And we measured every one.

On one drift Greg hooked an ass-hander of a fish, torquing the rod hard, but it broke him off under the dock. These docks have a lot of "stuff" hanging in the water. Besides having oyster growth galore. So the fun is, getting them outa there!

Will was keeping a count of every fish, and we ended up with 21 or so that he caught. And we never left till all the bait was gone (approx: 4 dozen live shrimp) I had a ball hooking the lil guy up, and was so surprised that this area had so much to offer. The last time I fished this same spot was a week or so ago, and we hooked up a 10 pound Jack and boated it along those nasty pilings. But today, the spot yielded trout to 18 inches. I usually fish this area in the spring and fall for Trout, because that's when I've had 5 & 6 pounders there.

Go figure......instead of traveling 15 miles up river. We went 200 yards, down river and had a ball, almost all by mistake.

Next up:

Monday friends of Tom Coughlin's attending his daughters wedding (ex Jags head coach)

then Wednesday with just (2) anglers

and then Friday the 13th with (3) anglers.

(To say I'm not superstitious would be a lie!)

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.

7/5 - The day after......a good rest.

Had Dr. Jim and son-in-laws Mike and Scott aboard today.....Boys day out.

Jim was a fisherman, but Mike & Scott were admittedly "clean-slaters". A new term we coined today. Meaning, "I have not a single idea of what I'm supposed to do".

And that's a GOOD THANG! Why? Because I have that clean slate to work with, rather than some possible bad habits, like setting the hook like Bill Dance, and ripping the fish from the water like a Tournament Bass Fisherman.

And as you can see, "my Guys" caught them some FISHEZ. We really good time.

It was over cast again this morning, as big dark clouds passed by. But we stayed dry, as the guys started to catch some Trout in between Ladyfish attacks and bait snatching by those lil' bastard Mangrove snappers and small Jacks. Then as the brief window of falling tide we had slacked up, I decided to move toward the bank and anchor up in 3.5 feet of water and cast their lines up shallow. The float rigs barely drifted away with the last of the falling tide current. And that's when Scott set the hook on a nice fat 25" Redbass. From clean-slater to Mr. Angler, I think Scott was quickly thrown into that Angler status as line peeled off his reel. Great fish!! And then we moved on, but not after a few more pitches up into the shallows. Where their lively river shrimp attacked from below and sent snapping across the surface of the water, while attached by the leash we call a leader under their float rig. It's just too cool to watch that live river cricket get all nerves. And see those boils as the Trout misses the bait. "How does a Trout not catch a live shrimp, on a leash in 3 feet of water??

We moved on to the next spot, and got into ravenous monster Ladyfish, a few Mangrove Snappers and more Trout. Then we got rained on. But it didn't last all that long.

Hope to have Jim and the guys back again someday.

Friday, it's Mike from Georgia. A man who's wanting to check out what PLATE ALLOY is all about, aboard my Black Lab Marine Plate Alloy 26 footer. So he figured what's a better way than fishing on one.

And the falling tide in the morning will run for awhile longer. Which is a good thing.

So stayed tuned......Float Freak over and out.

7/3 - absolutely wonderful weather!

Wow, what a great day! It was overcast, then drizzling, then complete down pours, throw in some serious wind, add then add in more rain...

It was GREAT!

Here's the facts:
07/03 - 11:54 am wind direction: ENE @
18.1 knots sustained, 29.9 knot gusts.

I easily can go straight to my fishing report page and then to my National weather Service link and then scroll down and see hour by hour stats.

And man did it feel ever bit of "almost Gale Force winds".

But, I had some serious Troopers on board today. Mack, J.T. & Pete.

That's J.T. and Pete holding their Trout. Largest was 22 inches. From a place where the action was getting good with some Jacks, Mangrove snapper, Ladyfish and Trout as those asshole Coasties came by and ran us out of a great trout spot. This is getting to be a bit much.

The dock where we were fishing has a sign, and it says; "stay back 50 feet". But it's a private dock, has nothing to do with the feds. "WE", us Float-riggers fish it all the time. And even the guys who work there never say LEAVE. It's a place where a lot of Trout fisherman fish.

But the coasties make up the rules, as they go along. As Pete was reeling in his nice fat Trout, they hailed us on the load speaker and said we had to be 100 yards from the dock, and since a ship was coming had to leave. Then sped off straight between the docking ship and the dock (dangerous) and then ran close to the bank, through the Manatee Zone! (You try that!)

Every single day I'm battling to fish the places I've fished my whole life. Because I'm a Terrorism Suspect. I yelled to the "PUNK" sitting at the .50 caliber machine gun on the bow of the Coastie boat, as if he's ready to shoot us, "Yeah, I guess it's a bad day to try and make a living in this town." which is nothing but the truth, anymore.

Remember this: YOUR Freedom was LOST on 9/11, by the overboard "knee jerk reaction" of the US government. Not terrorism, but by your government.

And that was about it. No where else was productive, no where else was it not almost blowing a gale. The weather was getting worse, not better. We did experiment along an area and caught micro yellowmouth Trout in the driving rain. And tried a few other spots and picked off one small Puppy Black Drum.

But my guy's stayed into it. A lot longer than most other people would have.

We fished an incoming tide with help from a N.E. blowing wind that sent the tide higher and higher. Which made the fishing harder and harder.

I hope to have these guys out again, because they were really into it. But we had the cards stacked against us. By the weather and our own government agencies........"the land of the free".......LOL!!!!

I bet out in Louisiana the Coasties don't run ever fisherman away from every oil or gas rig. If they did they'd need more recruits. Because that's where they fish out there. The rigs are privately owned, and the companies don't mind.

JUST LIKE WHERE WE WERE FISHING TODAY. SO WHY DO THEY KEEP MESSING WITH US? It really makes someone like me despise the federal government even more than I already do. I'm a free bird, and do not like answering to anyone that's why I am a law abiding self employed small businessman, struggling to make a living while paying my taxes.

7/2 - In the Sound

Had Dave Hogan, Dan, Fran, and Lon on board today.

Lon looks really excited as he holds that big Pompano, huh?

That maybe because an hour later he was loosing his lunch!. It was pretty calm by Nassau Sound standards.

We left out at 7am, and ran the ICW up to the sound. Once I found the Whiting they were small. All of them. Although bountiful. But before we caught the first one, Lon caught that big Pompano.

We also had Jacks, a mini Spadefish, a few Ladyfish, and a few small sharks.

The name of the game was small fish. I just didn't get it. Everything was a copy of the next. But we had a good rally for a while. Since changing up our tactics and location was out of the question. When I got all the way up to Nassau Sound from the Mayport Boat ramp, we're there for the good, the bad or the ugly! Because once invested in the area, there's no, just leaving to try someplace else.

We ended up with 25 or more Whiting, and 4 Pompano that were our target species. Which yielded a big bag of small fillets. But fantastic fillets for the fryer, and some really good eatin'.

Came back via the Ocean instead of the ICW because it was nice and half the distance back to the boat ramp.

Incoming tide most of our day, 4 passengers, it was a Nassau Sound kinda day for sure.

Next up.... back to river fishing tomorrow. Another incoming tide morning.

6/30 -end of June and here comes mayhem....

Wheww....if today "a Saturday" is any evidence

of what is to come this holiday weekend coming up.

It'll be all out MAYHEM on the water ways.

You should have seen the idiot I saw at the boat ramp today as I was getting ready to clean fish, while my charter was up at the rest rooms.

I wanted to shout to this guy, "why don't you at least PRETEND to know how to drive a boat", after he waked the whole place with a 4 footer, then did two attempts to pick up some girls sitting drinking on the dock (against the law), first attempt in his Ghetto Cruiser boat was a near miss of slamming the rig up and over the dock, second attempt was a direct hit! T-BONING the side of the boat on the corner of the dock. I heard CRACK as the fiberglass crushed. His ding-dong buddy said..."Man there ain't even a scuff!" Yeah, but inside the hull and all around the impact zone I'm sure was spider webbed and cracked like glass!

Personally, I laughed. And find idiots at the dock amusing as hell, but certainly didn't appreciate the 4 foot comer he sent in between the two floating docks.

And as ole Frank Sinatra sang, "THE BEST IS YET TO COME......" THIS 4TH OF JULY.

I had a really great crew today. Craig Wicker and his daughter Kaylee. She's a gal going to college on a golf scholarship. And my kinda young anglerette. Talented in Golf obviously and knows her way around a fishing rod too.

We left out at 7am, and had an incoming tide most of the day as I played "chase the moving water" up river. Which worked good at some spots, not so good at others. But they caught fish.

First it was Trout and Mangrove snappers. Then another trout or so, and Jack Cravalle.

As the theme of the day was PILINGS!

That's all we fished, during the incoming.

The weather was GREAT, the wind was almost non-exsistant this morning, the water was glassy, and we had a ton of FUN.

Even got chased off one set because of NATIONAL SECURITY, can ya believe that??

Tieing off to a bridge piling is in VIOLATION of a Federal roadway/bridge, says a security guard, per the wisdom of the "rock smart", Coast Guard. Ya' know, haven't we put up with enough bullshit? Can't judgement and common sense be used instead of violating a tax paying American citizens fishing rights? The harassment these days is just uncalled for. The feds "knee-jerk reaction" to all of this has the wack-job terrorist winning, and the feds fell right into their hands. My taxes bought that bridge, and now I'm looked at as a potential Terrorist? The Federal Goverment can kiss my ass, is all I have to say!

So we moved on, up river, following the tide.

And I eventually hit one of my favorite spots as the tide changed there.

And it was game on.

Overall a pretty damn good day considering all the river traffic, and fishing an incoming tide. (not even close to my favorite in the summer!)

15-20 Speckled trout to 5 pounds and 25" (fish in photo)

10 - Mangrove Snappers some were real nice fatties

1- small Flounder

Jacks, Ladyfish.

I have time to get ready for the Holiday next week, and plan on going north a few times to fish a good place for 4 passenger trips and kids.

Man it was H-O-T by the afternoon. And then of course the wind was HOWLING by the end of the day, as we cruised comfortably back to the dock in my battle wagon fish catcher, called the CAPTDAVES.COM-sport fishing machine!

I think the Wicker Crew are now possible, Float-Freaks too!

6/29 - Kids trip

Had Robert G. and his two "lil shavers", 5 & 9, on the boat today for a 2 hour or so Kids Trip.
I love doing these, because the kids get such a kick out of going, especially if they haven't ever been, as one 3 year year old put it one time......out in the big WaWa.

It was a short notice kind of trip. Robert just called me yesterday around 9:00am and thought we could maybe go then. But I explained to him. I'm not in my boat right now, and have plans and errands to do before the huge rush of July 4th week patrons.

So we hit it at 7:30am this morning, instead.

My plan always, when I do a kids trip is to go out the inlet, show the kids some Dolphins, birds and then hit a close shrimp boat, so they can see all the activity behind them as the drag. Especially the herds of Dolphins everywhere. Then catch a few fish......any fish.

So we go out and it's really swelly. The southside of the south jetty was pretty BIG (large seas) to anchor in and fish close up near the beach where most of the small sharks can be caught. I love to hook the kids up on some Bonnet-heads.

So we saw two shrimp boats way off to the east. So I went out to them. One was anchored up, doing nothing. And the other was heading in. Oh well, that game plan didn't work out.

So we went to go catch some fish.

I anchored up inside the jetties and pitched pieces of shrimp on jigs near the shallow rocks.
And the kids reeled in some small seabass. But getting the seabass was even hard. We were at the top of the high tide, and the Bait stealers were even hard to set a hook in.

So we moved.....but damn there was no current, and again the bait stealers that the kids like to catch one after another was tough going.

Next spot, glass minnows were everywhere up and down the bank. JACKS, I thought maybe wold be around, or even some Ladyfish. But there was none.

Bait in the water is the name of the game when doing a 2 hour trip, so I had no time to run around.

The youngest started fighting with his older brother and then the crying started as one punched another, and then it was a slow decline after that. We moved around in close proximity to the jetties more. And then the lil guy said he wanted to go. But both agreed they had fun. (yeah, until the punching started)

So we headed in.

Plus, I needed to be home early too. I had a UPS delivery coming this morning, and had to sign for the package. Which was my second Whoop-ass rod.......another G. Loomis 9' Pelagic series rod, and matching reel a Shimano Tek-500.

Remember way back many, many posts ago, when I talked about long rods being the best for (distance) float-rig fishing?? Well, the 9' G. Loomis Pelagic series is about as good as it gets. Unfortunately, this famed California Calico Bass rod was discontinued a year or so ago. Because it cost so much these days to ship 9' long rods.
My 1st one purchased came from Strike Zone, and I snatched it up as soon as I could......and it hurt. Because buying a G. Loomis Rod at retail isn't my thing. As a Pro Staff member for many, many years I get a great deal from them to have my customers using the best rods, when they fish with me.
So a 9' Pelagic series ain't cheap. Even at Strike Zone, now can you imagine I actually found a matching one at Tackle Direct. Johns at Tackle Direct who I also buy a lot from said "Dave, I have ONE, left".
I replied.....hold on to it, because I need it but need to save my pennies, first. Because I knew the "shipping cost" alone was gonna be a killer!

Rods at retail???? Holy Cow. But since I'm in love with them, and have saved thousands by using my Pro-staff account for so many years. I guess it's okay to pay retail for just these rods.

So today, UPS delivered the 9' rod and the reel for it. And now I'm so set up!

I use this rods for yanking Big Reds from under, or from around, and maybe even through pilings. Along with oversized Jacks....and big Trout too.

These rods are not FAIRY WANDS. But, 9 feet of float-rigging whoop-ass!

The tides are getting stronger this week and I hope to put them to use up river around some snaggly docks and rocks.

So as you can see, if you're reading this post and are one of the many customers that I'll have aboard in the coming days. I'm working hard to provide YOU with the best kick butt fishing tackle $$$ can buy, or your just getting lucky and choose to book a charter with someone who has a bad QUALITY ONLY tackle habit.

A rod for many purposes many work fine. But I am a tackle specific kinda guy, and use certain tackle for certain jobs.

These two 9 footers are refered to as the Whoop-ass Twins. ( yes, I even give names to my rods and reels) Hey, I have no kids. Just an old dog that answers to about anything if she can hear ya, first. So let me do my thing.......if it makes me happy.

C'mon big summer time Jacks, around crusty pilings. I have something for ya'!
It's 9 foot long, black and has gold threading, and a Shimano Tekota 500 spooled with new Berkley Super-braid!!!!!!!!!

Loads of fishing to be done starting tomarrow thru next week. Hope all goes well, between the possible thunder storms. That's why I'll be starting early and off the water early.

Remember, Sisters Creek boat ramp supposively shuts down for traffic on the 5th because of the Kingfish Karnival held there, the week after. They'll be erecting the "big top" for the 3 ringed circus.
Yep, its that time of year again!
UHG!

6/27 - Another typical summer day

Is it November 1st yet? Unfortunately, not by a L-o-n-g shot.

Had Mark J. on board today along with his friend. I stayed close because the morning falling tide of course was gonna be a short and quick one. Not strong by any local measure.
So we went into a creek'ish environment right off at the high tide.
I gave some seriously thorough float-rigging instructions, to these two wild and crazy guys who were chomping at the bit to get started. But we had some time to go over the details because the tide hadn't even started to fall yet.

Area #1 was actually a spot I fish in Deep, Deep winter......Same area that I fished on Super-Bowl Sunday all by myself, because everyone was SCARED of the winters chill. But of course I prevailed BIG TIME as usual.

But is the spot "summer-time" worthy. Yeah, but just not as quality. Instead of big massive Redbass, the summer fish are mostly pup Redbass. Instead of big fat 25" Trout, the trout are all small in the summer. And instead of never loosing a live shrimp from other than a quality fish, ya loose DOZENS to small pinfish in the summer. Worthy I suppose, because these guys caught fish had some "I.G." while learning what to do.

So you may have asked yourself, "what the hell is he talking about in that first sentence of this post?" Well this was your answer. During November starts the BLITZ on this particular spot we fished today. And we went through almost 4 dozen live baits before we had a keeper trout in the fish box.

Small Trout, and a bunch of small Reds & Jacks kept them going. But I was reminded that there was mouths to feed back home. But I don't guarantee all fish will be of legal size, especially when I'm dealing with east winds and slow tides, in June. But The fella's prevailed getting a few Trout and a 18" Red for the fish box.

So as I usually promise. I stepped it up a notch on them and took them to a favorite spot. Unfortunately, I haven't even caught anything there lately. And neither did they, but the practice was good for them because on a scale of 1-10 in difficulty.......this spots at a 9.95 level.

The falling tide was slacking fast so on the way back I stopped at ________. (I gave away the spot in the photo, so now ya know) and the guys yanked on Jacks one after another BIG and small, till the tide went slack.



The photo fish was a 10 pounder that KICKED some serious BUTT!
Especially, along that kind of structure.
Keeping the fish from going into it was the struggle like ya wouldn't believe for
Mark's buddy.



Overall, not a bad day. But you have to know me by now....I like a box full of big fat Trout, add in some Pup Black Drum, a few Flounder, and a 33" Redfish as a "kicker-fish". And I.G. for everyone on board at the first drop of the anchor. (doesn't everyone?)

But as of this Saturday & Sunday thru to the 15th of July, the tide strength will be building. And I hope to get back up river and back into what I was catching earlier in June.

Days still availible with GREAT TIDES are as follows in Yellow:
July 8th and 10th-15th. Then starts that dreaded "Kingfish Carnival" with the V.I.P Tournament on the 16th, and the Jr. Angler tournament on the 17th, which I can still conduct business during, with the 18th a open day too. But the 19th and 20th are out for charter fishing in Mayport. Plus, I have a follow up appointment in preparation for my Lasik surgery on the 19th.....so they can have at it and churn up the river and Ocean all they want. I don't care.

Please Plan ahead....Take "heed" to the dates and tides I mention, because your success can be based on it!


E-mail me at: Charter@captdaves.com for reservation dates and tide info, or better yet, just call (904) 642-9546 8am-8pm eastern time.

6/25 - sometimes you eat the fish, and sometimes the fish eats YOU.

I told ya'.

Went out to try my hand at it yesterday, and realized one thing.

I must know what I'm talking about!

Started at the jetties (inlet) on a falling tide with a bothersome easterly swell, against the current. Overcast, rain threatening, a bit windy. A "front"

was pushing thru.....again??????.

NEVER LOST A LIVE SHRIMP TO FISH LIPS!

Said to myself, as I often do in the summer, "hell with this place." And left.

Never saw any Tarpon roll, either. Which is why I went there.

Everyone's saying the pogies are gone, but saw a line of them outside the jetty along the bottom on my scope in 20 feet of water, and would see them "flip" here and there as I sat anchored. But everyone ran down the beach and past them, as usual. Habits are hard to break, I guess.

I have a "pogie poem" that my dad wrote years and years ago when he and I fished together.

I'll have to post it here soon....it's really good!

Decided to not go up river very far today. Especially with a 3.5' falling tide. Anything less than a 4.0+ keeps me closer to the inlet.

Ran down to the "lil' Jetties", and had a great drift on a spot that usually has a jetty jockey sitting there fishing 24 hours a day 7 days a week....but there wasn't one, YET. Caught some Jacks on this spot that is very hard to fish. It's one of my 'on a scale from 1 to 10, in difficulty float rigging spots. And it's a 9.95'.

The jacks were busting baits getting washed over some submerged rocks, but I never caught a Redbass, which is why I stopped there.

And it didn't take long before a jetty jockey, showed up with hands full of rods and reels and set up shop for the week, as usual. So I left.

Did some R&D in the ICW heading south. Poked around floating a few spots ...my big catch pictured above. A 10" Red. Never caught one so small in my life!

The falling tide was blasting pretty good at this point, but it was short lived. Ran to a dock where the Reds hang out. Never lost a bait. Ran towards the Dames Point, fished a spot there caught a Ladyfish while on the phone.

Went to another spot close by and sat and waited on the incoming tide, and lost baits to mangroves and pinners. Then as the current picked up and the wind started to blow 15 knots from the SE, I caught a 18" Trout. I lingered or more like loittered there for a long time, and never caught another trout. Looked at two other spots on the way home, never lost a bait.

Out at sun-up, put boat on trailer at 5:00 pm....that's one L-O-N-G day. And then at the ramp at the end of the day,I have one of those Coast Guard Auxillery guys who wants to give me one of those USELESS inspections for a shiney sticker for my boat, that means zero when the Coasties need a quota filled. (and since I'm commercial, I get out of it because he doesn't have any stickers for me with him) Plus I say......I gotta go, now!

There was something in the air. Because even though the tide wasn't all that strong for very long. Something was up. I don't have days like this very often, I usually can get bit. I mean I went places that I never got bit by anything.....and the south jetty was one of them.

Next up:

Tuesday & Saturday.

"I hope they are ready to be on top of their game."

6/22 - Blue skies and weak tides.....this & next week.

Had Peter and son Henry looking to go 'yesterday' for today.

So we hit it early at 7am and I being a student of the

T & C, (tides and currents of the St, Johns) I already knew what I was in for.

Care of the F.S. fishing planner book that never lets me down, and I refer to as the "Guide Book to good days".

For instance; Yesterday we had 4' of water height between high and low tide. Per the tide book. And when you're heading up river far away from the source of the tide (the Ocean at the inlet) as I have been doing, 4' is the absolute minimum that will produce enough current to #1: make float fishing a viable technique, and #2: produce enough flushing action to make the fishing good. BUT....I went down there this morning anyhow, because it was a Friday and I didn't want to be out in the open to the N.E. winds blowing 15 knots.

Today's tide height was a 3.7' tide......and man did it make for a no current kinda morning on my spot where I've been catching Trout & Drum.

4'.o" versus 3'.7", you may say "what's the big whup?".....But please think about the BIG picture. 3 inches of water across the whole tidal region you are fishing is a lot of water. Not to mention what wind direction can do and atmospheric pressure also does.

We did catch Trout...they were small and the yellowmouths were active. Plus the Ladyfish were also there. And then later on the incoming we caught some small and medium Jacks, some more small Trout, a big fat Seabass and the pictured 24" Redfish. Henry was so upset his dad hooked that Red, because he wanted to catch it.

Want to know the difference between yesterday and today? Lets look at what the tides were in the same area on some previous trips.

6/20 - low tide Mayport time 7:30am, on this spot: 8:45am falling tide height 4.4 feet caught a lot of fish due to lots of current and approaching front. (see Blog entry for that day!)

6/15 - went up river "solo" because I knew it was gonna be kick-azz on my spots and it was! Mayport low tide 3:00pm, this area 4:45pm tide height 4.7 feet....means great fishing and lots of flushing action on my areas I like to fish up river. I caught loads of fish, and had a BALL....just re-read my entry for that date.

I think those two days are evidence enough that TIDE HEIGHT which equates to the amount of flow of current, is self explanatory. Learning to read the tides correctly and understand the out come, means a lot.

(If talking tide heights and current flow in the river is something that's unfamiliar or out of your realm of knowledge....YOU NEED A CHARTER WITH ME, if you're serious about learning this topic)

Here's this weekends falling tide height's:

Saturday - 3.3 feet = no flow

Sunday = 3.3 feet = no flow

(there's certainly no reason for me to go with those tides Trout fishing this weekend)

-remember during May, June and July the strongest tides are around New Moon's. Then hang on to your dock lines August 27th thru 31st. We're gonna have some big time tides then.

I may be obsessed with all this but since it is what I do, I think my freakishness with tides and currents is justified. We still caught fish today, and you can too. Lots of great big and wonderful fish can be caught during a slow tide. But I use these tide measurements to give me a clue of the difficulty level I will encounter during the day. AKA: Frustration Level, especially when I have kids aboard, who have no idea about what we're doing. All they want is a great big pull of that same fish they saw on TV or read about in that fishing magazine.

That's why Henry was upset today. Dad caught the one nice Redfish as we were talking and dad wasn't even watching his float. And Henry saw that dad's float was gone, and alerted him.

Henry was on his way to being a Great fisherman. He was a pleasure to have aboard at the prime age of 13 years old. I hope to have him aboard again some day.

I may hit the jetties Monday on a solo R&D to try for some 'poon action on the float-rig. This time two year's ago I hooked 5 during a light tropical storm. I could see them coming as they surfed thru the waves, and sat and waited till they rolled and pitched big Live shrimp to them or a pogie on the float rig,. and they ate it up like a Snickers bar! And each one broke me off. But unlike some people, I admit that I never actually caught a single one. Hmmmmm...to some, hooking means catching when it's report time. For me, the word "catching" is when YOU see the photo here! There's a HUGE difference in my book.

This is the size I'm looking forward to hooking/catching at the inlet.

They are harder to catch, actually.

"They all eat.....SHRIMP"

6/21 - Back up & running.....

Wheww....had a bit of a computer problem there for a few days.

Turns out that it not only shut me down and the computer wouldn't work, it also infected my e-mails too. Sending the people that I sent e-mails to, a Nigerian fishing charter scam e-mail.

I had person after person saying..."Dave I don't know how I got this e-mail about this guy wanting a charter, but I think this is for you". It's all a scam to send them money...AS SEEN ON DATE LINE NBC.

Either way, SCREW those Jackass's. And lets get down to Fishin' Buisness again!

I went and posted some photo's of 6/20 charter ( one post downof this one on this blog page) with the Hostetters, where 8 year old Ryan who came with his dad & mom all the way from Japan to visit grandpa & grandma for vacation on Amelia Island caught a LOT of fish.

---------------------------------------------------------------

And then there was today. (6/21)

1st day of summer is today or yesterday? And the phone was ringing like crazy today, which is a good thing.

Wow, what a RADICAL difference from yesterday!! The fish feel that "front" coming and had the feed bags on yesterday, compared to today.

Had Chris Smith out today with two family members....."Two strong, silent types" obviously. Because if I wasn't coaching them and telling some stories as I always do, the boat would have been silent as they worked hard at the task at hand, which was watching their floats float & drift with out many bites at all.

Although we did have some "I.G" right off the bat at spot #1.

With a bruiser of a Redbass at 30" and 10 pounds exactly.

But that's where the excitement ended.....kinda.

Ladyfish drove us out of there, as we got wet from the on & off rain all day....then came the winds, afterwards.

They did pick up a few Trout, one was a keeper. 3-small Flounder, one was a keeper. Some Mangrove snappers, 1 was a nice keeper.

Then at the end of the day at the last frustrating spot, Chris get slammed ducked by a BIG fish, and he gets run under the boat and around the outboard and SNAP goes the leader. Possibly a big Jack. But could have been a big Redbass, again. Because it really wasn't as fast as a Jack.

THE FRONT, came thru and that's what made today a s-l-o-w day. The bait stealers weren't even all that active when we fished thru slack tide into the flood.

The weather guessers got it wrong, AGAIN comparing what actually happened weather-wise versus what they said was gonna happen 2 days ago.

Wish I could just GUESS like that.

So as of 5:00 pm today I found out I going tomarrow too. (ya'll know how I love those super late callers)

And I hope the fish bite, even if we do get rained on fish biting would be great!

I knew something had to kill my run of Drum & Trout down at my Honey hole. But it'll rebound.

I pitched a jig several times, doing the "bottom feeder bump" trying to see if there was any pup drum around, and never had a bite.

Till Friday.....stay tuned. (check out 8 year old Ryan's catches from yesterday.....just scroll down) Sorry Dad & Grandpa, but kids get the photo op's)

6/20 - CRASH......DUMP

I'm doing this entry on my dad's computer....(always wanting to be updated no matter what, I'm obsessed with having updated reports.)
Because my computer CRASHED!
It's now in the shop, for 2 days at least.

Then I have to re-load all my soft ware IE: digital camera, web site stuff etc.

In between, rain, phone calls and whatever else can break, I made it out today with some customers that I had on the boat 3 years ago. This time one brought his 8 year old son.

We had a ball.

Catching 10 - black drum,
1- Redfish, 2- flounder, and 7 -Speckled trout.....and of course some Ladyfish and Jacks and Bluefish.

Bags and bags of fillets!

AND THE 8 YEAR OLD CAUGHT THE MOST FISH, AND LARGEST!
isn't it always that way?
Kids & Women usually do very good.

Float-rigging and jig-n-shrimp combo meals caught them good.
And we missed the rain that's falling as of now as I write this.

PLEASE STAND BY AS MY COMPUTER GETS REPAIRED, AND SHOULD ONLY BE A DAY OR SO. I HAVE PHOTOS OF TODAY AND WILL RE-DO THIS REPORT AT A LATER TIME.

I ALSO HAVE TO CHECK EMAIL AT MY DADS HOUSE.

Isn't it something how we rely on these things anymore??

Blog, Photo's, web sites, reports, e-mail.........man I'm down when I do not have a computer.

It's a conspiracy!

Tomarrow, 3 passengers same deal. In river, light tackle float-rig fishing. YEP IT'S WHAT'S CATCHIN'.

New summer special prices......give me a call, today!

ISN'T IT TIME YOU CALLED THE "FLOAT FREAK", AND GOT YOUR SON OR DAUGHTER HOOKED ON FISHING??

6/18 - thought of the day....ouch!

Since my post the other day mentioned
Honda's 100 HP coming out somewhere else
before it came out in the USA, and
my checking account had a hard time dealing
with filling my one tank of a two tank F-250
today, at $50 each.

And since no one is "ringing my phone off the
hook" (man that's an out dated saying now isn't it)
to reserve a charter, I ran across this rediculas
photo of not 4 or 5, but rather just 2 SeaVee boats
tied up next to each other, obviously some
where in south "kiss my azz rest of the world"
Florida.

Yes.....look close......you are not seeing things.
That is FOUR, 300 horse power 4 stroke Mercury's hanging off the transom's of those boats.
At damn near if not 700 pounds a piece, that's 2800 lbs of engines, and then lets not forget the 300-500 gallons of fuel in the tank(s) maybe more??? Hope they don't hit anything...I bet they'd sink so fast a rock would be jelous!

And my problem is filling up one tank in a twin tank 1995 Ford F-250?????

What is this, a convention of refinery exec's going fishing in the boats they bought their son's?

Cause I know it can't be charter fisherman!

And all I want in addition to what I already have is a 19' Black Lab Marine, Plate Alloy with a Honda tiller -steer 90 horse, AND SOME CUSTOMERS TO TAKE IN MY 26 AND THE 19!!!!

I bet these guys also have the south Florida fisherman's edition of a "Mr. T starter kit" hanging around their necks, too.


I hate fisherman that wear jewelry!

6/15 - Wish you were here!

Why am I out whackin them like no tomorrow, by myself ??

Because I can. And no one wanted to go.

I caught them sitting down, relaxing...... yes, even die-hard's like me sit every once in awhile. But not for long. ( I have room for deck chairs!!)

Because things really went NUTZ as that tide got lower.

Before fishing one spot, most of the day. I did try two others.

The first one I pulled up to, I immediately had a nice fattie on

my first drift of the float. Second drift I got my azz handed to me

and lost the fish to a piling encrusted with oysters.

Then on my 3 drift I caught a small Flounder.

Then it was time to move on.....

I need me some better size T-routs, I thought.

And I found them BIG TIME.

It was a New Moon, so nothing was easy about figuring out the tides. But hell, they were strong tides. And I'll take strong current over weak current any day.

Since I'm a "tide runner" in the summer months, when I head up river if I don't have a 4.0' tide or better, you can bet your britches we won't have that great a day, because we won't have enough current/tide. A weak tide doesn't reach very far up river.

-Remember, I don't pick the days, ya'll do. If I could have picked one

for you IT WOULD HAVE BEEN TODAY!!!! But instead I just had two kinda wacky calls. When a woman calls me, it's inevitable, this "possible" charter will never happen. Why is that?

As you can see, I took a lot of photo's of MYSELF. Because I'm the only one I know that does DAILY reports,with photos, trying to convince people, "yes, I'm YOUR man."

All these fish, and no waves, seasickness, or getting beat-up.

Right in my backyard.

Does anyone of the calls I get, that I send here ever look at this Blog? I wish I knew. I do this for potential customers, not for myself.

Yesterday's blog entry was to educate folks that haven't a clue on why we charge what we do. All this (here) I do.....is home work, I do for YOU. I'd love to be sitting in my lazy boy, right now. After a 12 hour day in the sun.

I totaled:

16- Speckled Trout, from 17" to 21"

and half of them were 20-21".....nice fish but no GIANTS.

5- Black Drum from 13" to 21"

perfect eaters, went in the fish box.

1- Flounder

Sorry, no photo. The spot I was on is a double whammy secret

Trout spot. No photos allowed.

6- Redfish 16" to the big dog a 30 incher, which was caught on a super fairy wand of a rod, with a jig and a dead shrimp. No one ever said Redfish or even the black Drum are smart or picky. I kept my one, and it was 21", perfect for the fish box.

1- baby Gag Grouper, these guys are on every rocky

spot in the river.

1- 5 pound Jack Crevalle

2- Bluefish

Then there's Mike.....

I'm heading home and pass by one of my favorite Trout areas

and see "Mr. Make Dave Depressed". We chit chat, and he hangs a big ole Red on a jig-n-shrimp combo meal, and then we chit chat, and he hangs another.

FOLKS....If you have any fishing ability at all, you need to call me!

Because a well placed jig-n-shrimp, or a float-rig on some of these areas in the river right now, will mean Hang-On time for you.

Bruisers are out there. But they don't come easy.

Cover, shelter, what ever you like to call it is where they will be hiding. And you have to get in there, and get them OUT.

The reason Mike is "Mr. Make Dave Depressed" is because that guy in that skiff boat caught two giant Snook last week, fishing MONSTER STRUCTURE that's not for the faint of heart or the beginner.

(2)- meaning 12 & 15 pounds!!!!!!!!!!!!

I fish at least every other day or more 12 months a year, and have for at least 11 of the years I've been in the charter biz, and before that I fished 3 days a week when I was a 9-5'er.

And have never even seen a SNOOK in Jacksonville!

People, are catching them. And Mike's in the exclusive Snook Club

and grinning from ear to ear!

I think I've made my mind up, at least for this year. I think I'm gonna stay in the river the rest of the summer, it's my back yard. And I like it, because I know it. I know that on about any given day, I can get into some kind of trouble, be it either attempting to yank a fat Trout from behind a Piling, or pull a Redfish from around a submerged rock. It's the direct opposite of what I do in the winter time, but the more I fish these kinds of places, the more I love'em. You will too.

SO THERE YA HAVE IT......THIS IS WHAT YA'LL MISSED.

I'LL BE SURE TO REMIND YOU NEXT TIME TOO.

(stay tuned to this report blog)

Float Freak......over and out & tired.

6/14 - did some figuring

And the first Honda outboard I saw at the Miami International Boat Show was a 25hp, then a 45hp the next year....and that was back in 1990-91??

THIS AD IS FROM 1978 AND IT'S 100 HP!

---------------------------------

Ya know, I just received an email yesterday that was asking if business's were effected by the "fire storm of 2007"......as named by those stupid News channels on TV.
As reported, business' were feeling the effect. And the agency that sent the email stated that they were NOW going to put up on their web site that the fires have no effect on Jacksonville's tourism.

I responded, "Isn't it a little too late now??" since they were asking my opinion.

But all that prompted me to do something I have not done in a long while. So I broke out all my bills, cost sheets, and did my best tabulations. I know many of you out there think, "hey fishing guides are not like a company, or a real business, they are guys who are wealthy and just like to fish, and charge me way too much to go on private charters" .

No, that's not anywhere near the truth.

Here's what I came up with: (you can tell I'm really busy huh?)

CHARTER OPERATIONAL COSTS: (June 2007 bases on charter average)
With 100 % profit - (you'll read why at the end.)

#1 Fuel for boat – average usage per trip inshore 10 gal. @ $3.00 per gal. = $30

100% - $60

#2 Tackle costs - broke down yearly per trip $25.00

100% - $50.00

#3 Boat insurance - vessel insured and $300,000.00 Liability per trip $20.00

100% - $40

#4 Truck/ tow vehicle Fuel and trailer maintenance cost , per trip $25.00

100% - $50

#5 Boat cost, plus maintenance $50 per trip

100% - $100

#6 Bait & Ice per trip $25 (average day)

100% - $50

#7 Captain / Labor, figuring just hours of fishing (6 hrs) @ $25 per hr. (not prep or after trip IE: fish cleaning, boat cleaning, travel time etc.)

100% - $150

#8 Advertising, minimum of $25 per trip

100% - $50

Based on a 100% profit to offset bad weather, hurricanes, presidential election years, wars, stock market crashes, blown-up engines, slow mechanics, un-employment rates etc.........
Total: $550

Charter pricing averages $350 to $450 a day.

Empty Nesters spending "quality time" with the son's or daughters while fishing .....PRICELESS!

Simply put, the less charters that are done per a season or year, the higher the price will be. The more charters that are done the less the price will be. Just as I do with regulars who fish with me many times a year.

6/11 - have no plan pay the PRICE

I constantly preach "FAILING TO PLAN, MEANS YOU PLAN TO FAIL."


And that's what Bryan and I did today. Bryan's also a local fishing guide, and we've talked about going out and messing around together on the river. And that's about all we did.....mess around.


I'm usually a plan it to the last "drift of my float" kinda guy. But today I was all whacked out. I got up later than I wanted too, because last night at 2am I awoke with a splitting headache.

Why a splitting headache, you ask? Because I drank a whole 3-4 beers yesterday evening, that's why.


I used to be the kind of guy years ago when I was much younger that could close the bar, or the bait shop with a 12 pack without even thinking about it. Probably consumed my fair share of "cases" at one sitting.

Not anymore. I'm over it. And have found that I get headaches after just a few, "SOMETIMES".
Well, I quit drinking beer to help with the carbs, and to overall save some dough too. Age has it's way of telling you....."hey dumbass, stop that!!"

But yesterday evening I was out at the summer kitchen I have behind my house barbecuing some country style ribs....mmmmm, they were good. And I had 3-4 beers with them.

And then 8 hours later I'm getting no sleep and have this headache that needed some aspirins. So I get up and chew 2 big ole Bayer aspirins, and hit the sack again. The alarm is going off at 5:30am so I better get feeling better quick. I end up rolling out of the sack at 6:20am and realize my headaches gone and I better kick it in high gear. Bryan's gonna beat me to B&M bait and tackle.

I get there we get 5 dozen shrimp, head for the boat ramp. With my big plan if ya wanna call it one. "Let's go to the jetties??" Why, I have no idea!!

We get out there anchor up, and I immediately set the hook into I don't know what. My float goes down on my 9 foot G. Loomis whoopin rod, and the reel dumps 100 yards before I can slow it down. The fish finally turns and I'm easing it back to the boat care of LOTS OF MUSCLE WORK. Remember, I was sound asleep 30 minutes ago!!!

Bryan, also sets the hook on his favorite float-rig rod and Abu Garcia reel and his line is also dumping off the spool at a high rate of speed. I get my fish behind the boat, I see a fin, nope I see my line breaking, instead. Plain ole 30-pound mono breaks.

I look over at Bryan, the fish is still dumping all his line......"Go ahead and just break it off, it has to be a stingray", I said. But Bryan does something, and I don't know what it was, but all I hear is KAW-SNAP!


HOLY CRAP...his rod breaks right
above the handle. And he looks like someone just stole his puppy! He exlaims,
"that was my steelhead rod from up in NY, ya know how many steelhead that rod has caught?? I can't believe it"And there was more un-fun fish.
But I'll move on.


So we then pull anchor and run down the beach
and I net some Pogies. We float-rig fish the Pogie Pods outside the Navy's beach front.

2 seconds into it, Bryan has a pogie on another float rod he rigged up, and has probably a shark rippp... the float rig, so badly I head his Power Pro line go ZsZsZsZsZsZsZsZsZs...float goes skipping across the water, and fish gone! "Wow, that was a viscous strike!"

Mean while I go bite less.


So after no fish (and if we catch fish it's on the float-rig only, today) we head on and up river to try a different seascape.

Trying a few great spots on the way........NADA!


Then, I take Bryan to one of my HOLY GRAIL spots.....just one of them. The tides still falling in the river, but on this spot it's DEAD. No water movement at all, and we have maybe 6 shrimp still alive in the well.

I'm experiencing "shortness of breath" , because I have not caught a single "fish", I mean non-shark, skate, or stingray, and we are now 18 miles up river from the jetties!


Bryan pitches out and his float goes down (with no current at all anywhere near where we were fishing) and catches a pretty 20" Speck.
Okay I blind squirrel finds a nut every once
in awhile. Then 10 minutes later as he's talking
to me has his rod almost snatched out of his hand
with another nice fat Trout.
All the while, as he's in the "I give up stage"
of our fishing day of disaster.
I catch ZERO on this spot. Because I
know how wrong we're fishing it and
how there needs to be some current, says Bryan.
And "Dave you care, that's why your not getting bit."

All our bait is gone, and we go back to the ramp, where a real Jackass I know is cleaning his Kingfish.
And he gives me the same "grief" about my Plate Alloy boat that he did earlier this morning before we left out.

"Contenders are over rated Clorox bottles, just like the rest." I say to myself, doing all I can to not stoop to the level of this local radio show host.

Why does my boat and what it's made out of concern others?? The only people that should be concerned are my customers. And they'll soon realize they are in a very safe, durable, stable, roomy, economic, fishing machine.

PS. My customers can also sit in big comfy deck chairs behind the leaning post. Can't in a 27' Contender, there's no room!


It was just one of those days......and a bit more planning would have gone a long way.

6/8 - why do tides matter?

Had Curt & Butch out yesterday at 1:30 in the afternoon. They were staying at the Ritz-Carlton, and of course had meetings in the morning. So we left out at that time which was 2 hours before high tide.

Not what I'd call any where near "primo" conditions. But I had a spot or two to go and float fish, and that was about all.

Spot #1 - zero current, and zero fish. We were there a whopping 8 minutes, before we packed it in.

Spot #2 - Now, I'm way up river chasing the tide.....and we now had it PERFECT! Immediately, Curt is into Trout. Not large ones as I'd like, but 15-16 inchers. Butch......well he caught a few.

So we plopped it there and I didn't move. And I really didn't have any other choices. "High & Incoming late in the afternoon with the sun blazing overhead....."not a whole lot of choices at my disposal." And after a while I could tell the guys were getting restless. But this is the same place I fished on last Friday with Scott Williams, and they too were restless after an hour or so but we stayed, and boated more fish up to 5 pounds!

It's very hard for fresh water fisherman to realize how important the tide is.....or just plain water movement is. And on many spots it's water movement in the right direction.

Curt seemed to understand what I said to him on the phone...."leaving at that time of day leaves me a bit limited." The important part is remembering what I said while we're out there fishing. I didn't pick when we left.

The guys caught/hooked and lost about 15 or so Trout on that one spot.
So as the tide died and even the commercial "hook & liner" Trout fisherman left, that we accompanied on this spot, we moved across the river to another area.
And as I pulled up, I knew we were about 3 hours too early to have big success here, The tide was high and with barely any current, but we gave it a try. A few bites, came off a jig-n-shrimp combo meal I tossed on the bottom as they drifted their float rigs behind the boat.

So we decided to pack it in and head on back to the boat ramp.

We had a good time shooting the bull and catching some fish, and learning the ways of the float-rig that neither of them had done before.

It was a beautiful day. I can only imagine how good it would have been with a 7am departure. And fishing the falling tide early in the morning with lower light and cooler temps.

This is the time of year that if I have my druthers; we will leave early, and get back early. No sense sitting out there in the blazing mid day sun. 6 hours of fishing, intense fishing!! Getting on them fast. I like a 6:30 departure, if we can. And back and done at 12:30pm.

No photo's were taken today. I didn't want to jeopardize where I was fishing to a photo. I can be that good on some days!! And has been.
But ya know, no matter what the ole float rig and live shrimp sure can catch some fish. And everyone loves it and has a good time.

On 6/7 I went out by myself for a lil' R&D for a few hours. Float rigged the jetties and had a big Bonnethead shark on the float-rig, but just didn't like what I saw so I ran up in the river a little ways and caught some Trout...mostly small ones, and a 29" Redbass on my 9 foot heavy duty G. Loomis "whoopass" Float-rig rod. And I was glad I was using it, too. Because I pulled that big red from under a dock, next to a pile of rocks, with a raging falling tide. Man, I love that rod and reel. But it's only for Heavy Duty structure fishing or really big fish.
It's gonna be my Tarpon/Shark Float-rig rod also.

Here's the pic of me and the tackle and the fish.