REEL JIGS
by Robin


Do you get it?? This blog is about our new reels and jigs.



Jack has a new pink jig for cobia fishing, but usually we use a fluorescent yellow one. The white jig on the right is actually a glow-in-the-dark one. This is for fishing 100+ ft of water where the lights go out at the bottom. I'm going to be glowing like Area 51. LOL.

I thought I'd take pictures of Jack's new reels as he was putting everything together for Monday's trip. What a better time than now to get those pics of the new reels. No grains of salt on them yet. No squid ink. No fish guts. (Renee & Jeanne.....stop reading this. I won't responsible for making pregnant women puke.)




Anyhow, they're beautiful. At least to me they are. Or maybe I'm more impressed that I was about 15 ft away when I took these pics. (Sharie, these are straight out of the camera perfecto!)



I am LOVING the new zoom on the new camera.

Oh and before I hit "publish", I would be bad if I didn't admit that we did a recheck & did repacking of our Abandon ship bag in light of what happened last week with 3 of the 4 NFL/football players being lost in the Gulf. Two of our GPS & VHS radio had dead batteries. Good thing we checked!! Jack tested the EPIRB and radio, plus reuploaded position for the GPS with fresh batteries.



I refrained last week mentioning anything about the men lost at sea for their families' sakes. Something like this hits all of the fishing community hard. I think it is because we all realize it could be one of us. However, I can't help but wonder, with all that money they make, why they didn't all have personal EPIRB (emerg personal beacons) with or on them? It would have saved their lives. Ours narrows our location, after getting wet or being manually discharged, and sends an emergency message to the Coast Guard in 15 minutes!! Yes, 15 minutes. It still may take half a day to be located & rescued but at least that beats hypothermia, exposure or shark attack over longer periods of time.

I won't stay on any soapbox but let's just say it scared us enough to repack our bag. My heart goes out to the family members of those football players.

Happy Fishing!! I'll be back tomorrow with a Fishing Report!
Robin

TIME TO FISH AGAIN!!!

by Robin

Keep your fingers & toes crossed while praying to God that we'll be offshore fishing on Monday. It looks very, very promising.

The sea surface temps are rising up to 68 deg and the winds have died down.

(Ack... I'm beside myself.)

While looking up cobia images, I found two guys who love to fish off Kuwait for cobia. How cool is that?

Happy Fishing y'all. A bunch of fishing reports will come in tonight (Sat) but regardless of cobia or not, we're still going. We may even pick up some snapper before they get closed from us.

SAVING OYSTERS - one mat at a time.
by Robin

Friday happened to be a day of tying up loose ends with bookwork and heading outside for our classroom. It was a gorgeous day to do community service. Today, it happened to be making oyster mats because oyster "babies" need to fall onto something hard in order to grow. Unlike scallops and clams which move about individually, oysters grow in clusters.

In our local area, I guess our oysters are needing a little assistance so that's where we step in to provide the micro-babies a place to fall onto and "cluster".

The oyster shells come from the backyard of some shucking building in St. Augustine. They got 8 buckets of these. I'm thinking we only went through 2 buckets at the most by the time we left.

The research team drills little holes in each shell.



Then, a bunch of us from the community, all homeschoolers here, listen to her presentation and begin working on the mats.


Here is our eldest with using the tie-wraps to secure the shells to the mat.


Here's my youngest. He's 9 and I must add that this is a skill that builds dexterity in your hands. It is hard to manipulate the ties, shells and mat all at the same time.


It's important to pull-down your tie-wraps.


Here is a finished one that was a demo mat.


Here is my eldest about half way through his mat. He's got a lot of gaps to fill in.


To see where we ran to after doing oyster mats, click here . It was our other community service project.

It looks as though Snapper fishing will be closed for 6 mo, starting as early as this fall. There will most likely be a follow-up closure of 182 days which would make it year-round.

You can kiss your red snapper dinners good-bye.

What in the world is going on with this country? Oh and they're going for mahi mahi next in the summer meeting. Mahi mahi are one of the fastest growing species out there in the ocean, but they still plan on targeting it next.

REVOLTING REPORT!!!!
by Robin

I'm reeling! (no pun intended) I've got rage. Raw emotions. I'm stunned.

If you've been following my blog the past month, you will know that I've posted a few times about the possible Snapper fishing ban and that I gave my testimony last month to the SAFMC about how snapper fishing has been coming back in recent years. Very few fishermen went fishing over last summer because prices were so high on gas. There has been very little fishing pressure the past 12 mo from the recreational fishermen.

There seems to be no reliable research that proves the fishery is in decline. If it were, wouldn't it make sense to close it down commercially as well, since they take about 95% of the fish and recreational fishermen only get about 5%???????

Anyhow, George Geiger, the one I spoke to, moved the ban from 4 months to 6 months this morning and it PASSED the interim rule 7-6 in favor of the ban.

They have moved into a full council mtg this afternoon to discuss and vote on it again. THIS IS RIDICULOUS. It's almost like somebody is getting paid under the table to close down fishing to the recreational fishermen and send the fish & money to the commercial folks. I've never seen a process so skewed and lacking in evidence, on the local level. It makes no sense.

If this outrages you, and it should, please take a few minutes to fill out the below form to fight the Grouper and Golden Tilefish legislative changes as well.

GROUPER - deadline is Mon the 9th.
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=09000064808487e3

Fill out the form and express you objections to these new regs Summary table of current and proposed regulations for the South Atlantic. Grouper aggregate bag limit Now - 5 fish Amendment 16 - 3 fish Gag/black grouper bag limit within grouper aggregate Now - 2 gag or black grouper (combined) Amendment 16 - 1 gag or black Vermilion snapper bag limit Now - 10 fish Amendment 16 - 5 fish Shallow-water grouper* closed season Now - none Amendment 16 - January - April Vermilion snapper closed season Now- none Amendment 16 - November - March

GOLDEN TILEFISH - deadline 3/23
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=SubmitComment&o=090000648086123a
This fishery is divided up 98% commercial and 2% recreational. Even if you don't fish this species (including me), you should still voice your concern that access to these fish should be fair and equitable for recreational & commercial alike.

Gee, wish I could post "Happy Fishing", but I'm a little mad at this point.

Edited: Before I could even finish the report, word came in the Georgia supported the closure.

SHOULD I BE INSULTED?? or HONORED??
by Robin

I keep a sitemeter on this site and I've been having a lot more traffic than normal. It seems that somebody from g oooo gle (put it together) has decided to make my website a reference website for anybody looking up fishing gear. This coming off the heels of my "arsenal" blog a couple months ago.

I also happen to be a reference website for boat restoration pictures.

Funny thing, many of my hits are coming from International countries which makes for a great geography lesson for the kids and myself. I had no idea that people from India or Sweden would care about my handful of poles & reels out in the garage. Gee. If I had known it would become a hit for people searching, I might have tried a little harder on my photography.

Happy Fishing y'all!!!

WE'RE ALL WAITING!!!!!!!!!!
by Robin

Think this..... hundreds, if not thousands of fishermen, geared up, gassed up, waiting with baited breath for the first break in warm weather and the sea surface temps climb to 68, then 69 and round over the 70 degree mark.

I can hear the sounds of engines revving up, only they aren't NASCAR engines from Daytona beach. They're Mercuries, Johnsons, Yamahas, Evinrudes and Suzukis from Port Canaveral. And their objective is not to hit their max speeds of 50+ mph to head offshore but rather to putter around the inshore grounds at a snail's pace looking for cobia.



I'm sure that it must look mighty funny from God's perspective (photos taken today). Maybe it would look like boats looking for a needle in a haystack. Sometimes, it feels like from water level too. But then, your eyes latch onto something brown on the surface. You signal to the Captain to speed over that way before the guy in the boat next to you gets to him first.

Somebody makes that first cast and grabs the attention of the brown beast. Hearts are a'pounding. First of the season jitters may mess up your cast (or at least they do with me). And if you tease him enough, he gives a burst of speed toward your jig and takes it down with the last glimps of his tail. You set the hook and the weight is there. He's hooked. What an adrenalin rush for you and for him. He feels the resistance and he's on a dash to anywhere but onto your boat.

Yes, this is what we're all waiting for. I'm waiting for the temps to rise, like this anole lizard.



Waiting for the azaleas to be in full bloom. (I love how this bloom on the left looks like praying hands.)




Waiting for orange blossom scent to fill the air.



Folks, it's almost here. Can you hardly believe it? I'll be back in business for fish pictures again. Oh, thank you Lord. I cannot wait to be out there fishing once again.

SEAFOOD FESTIVAL - Surf & Turf, Day 2
by Robin

Not to bore you with more of the same pics, but essentially, day 2 was cold crab leg meat, cold red & rock shrimp. So, I decided to add a little turf to our surf meal.

My Dad is a fantastic steak griller so Jack handed the grill over to him. I have many fond childhood memories of my Dad at the grill and the smell of good steak filling the air. Look at these babies!!
Yum.


And for me, who tries her best not to take in high volumes of red meat protein, I had a wonderful salad on the size. I decided to spruce it up a bit by getting a colorful mixture. Sometimes Iceberg and Romaine are boring to me..........



I topped it with Paula Deen's Blackberry/Walnut vinaigrette that Mom brought with her from Savannah. Very nice change up for me.

Oh, oh, oh..... I'm almost forgetting my other "veggie" for the day. Onion rings!! (That does qualify for a vegetable, right?) Anyhow, I bought prepackaged, battered rings in bulk and made a couple batches in the "Cool Daddy" fryer. Oh My... Heaven....on earth.... Add a little Cape Code's Chipolte dressing/dipping sauce and you've got yourself a homemade version of a Blooming Onion. It has a little Asiago cheese in there, but it bad, bad, bad for me, but....... it was worth the pain in my unhappy joints (I have fibromyalgia controlled by diet - no dairy, little to no meat).

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed seeing the seafood pics. Jack and I are ready to fish if we could only get the weather to cooperate with us. Many of the US had snow this weekend, so I guess I should be glad I only had wind and cold air. Sea Surface temps dropped back down in the low 60's. It may be another 2 weeks before the cobia get here on the surface.

Happy Fishing to anybody willing to brave the cold weather.

SEAFOOD FESTIVAL - Day 1, Food cooked
by Robin

I didn't think I'd make my deadline of getting this part done today, but thank heavens for a roaster chicken sitting in the oven for an hour. My house smells delicious!!

Anyhow, I found out the seasoning mixture that Jack was using for the calamari & scallops. Louisiana products makes an all-natural Fish Fry packet. It was good, but you can make it yourself with basic corn flour and corn meal.

Here is the Salmon Florentine fresh off the grill. This was delicious fresh and just as good 2 days later with some microwaving. Yum. Use lime on top to give it that punch all seafood deserves.


Here are the calamari rings. Because of these jokers, my parents went home, bought themselves a fryer machine and are making them for dinner tonight. These rings were much bigger than my dc were used to, so they didn't eat them. They were very fresh though and great when dipped in marinara warmed up slightly.


Jack cooked the scallops until they were golden. Also scrumptious plain or topped with lime and cocktail sauce. Mom likes to add extra horseradish for her "kick". (Excuse me, my mouth is watering on the keyboard.)


Here are the snow crab legs (first batch) that Jack pulled from the pot. The kids and I had our own pot while Jack and my parents had the other one. Super fresh. They almost didn't need any melted butter, lime juice & salt to dip in. Infact, my body told me later that night, they definitely didn't need anything. (Can you say Tums?)


These are the Royal Red jumbo shrimp that we brought home for $6/pound. They look a little gunky because they were at the bottom of the pot, but trust me, the meat is white and delicious on the inside. They are bright red when frozen but then turn pink when cooked. They rival lobster!




Here's a pic of the kids breaking into the seafood. Nobody else wanted to be on the blog.


Actually, come to think of it, they didn't want to make the blog either. Naughty boys.


All seafood dinners must be topped off by great cheesecake. I think that is some sort of Italian tradition, so we followed it. Sometimes we compromise with Jack's heritage and follow-up seafood with Key Lime Pie which was a Keys tradition since he is a native Keys boy.


The only problem was figuring out which one of these we were going to choose. Oh my. Decisions, decisions. The best option we figured was to take slivers of multiple types and that way we could all sample them. Mostly, I just needed the chocolate ones.

Cheese is not in my regular diet, but I made concessions for this occasion and paid for it too (Renee).

Stay tuned for day 2. (Oh, we also had Rock Shrimp but didn't take pics.)
Happy Fishing and good eating!
Robin

SEAFOOD FESTIVAL - Mom and Dad style
by Robin

I might have mentioned a couple of times that my parents were coming this week. When they do, we go all-out on the seafood. I have a LOT of great pictures so the only way I think I'm going to be able to tackle this project is to divide it up over the weekend.

Today's pictures are the prep of the food. Tomorrow, I hope to bring you it fully cooked.

Any good seafood festival starts off with Jack being the chef. He's the BEST!! Growing up in Key West, this is how his family cooked regularly. They had conch, fish, shellfish, along with citrus regularly. So, he's my man in the kitchen!!!


We are passing along the tradition to this generation too. Here is our eldest getting the snow crab legs out. I don't know the poundage, but there were 3 big bags, at least.


My Dad also bought the scallops and calamari rings. LOOK at the size of both those items. It was all very fresh. Ignore the dry seasonings & flour.


Here's a close-up. (Renee....... don't puke)


Here is the calamari rings in the mixture. I'll have to check with Jack if anybody wants the recipe. I believe it was primarily one of those bag mixtures with a little help from Jack.


Here is a way to destroy your kitchen in minutes. Those are empty jars of marinara. We dipped the rings into the marinara - yum.


As soon as the water & Old Bay was boiling, Jack put in the snow crab legs.


Here, you can see they were still frozen but they sure did warm up nicely between the pot & some butter (Smart Balance for those of you who don't know me better.). You can see the Cool Daddy fryer in the background waiting for those rings to be dropped in.


Jack then proceeded to heat up the grill and begin cooking these delicious Florentine Salmon treats I bought at BJ's wholesale. Salmon isn't my favorite fish, but it still was pretty good. I think I could eat florentine anything, except it has mayo which my body did not appreciate.


Stay tuned for tomorrow when you see it all cooked. Oh..... and we have some Royal Red and Rock shrimp on the way too.

NEW RECORD STINGRAY (771 lbs)
by Robin


http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92308/?fp=1

She's pregnant too!! She was released unharmed after some samples were taken.

MORE PICS
by Robin

Well, I couldn't leave well-enough alone. These pics are too fabulous not to share with the world. This would be one of the main reasons I upgrade cameras in another year or two.

Life is too short not to take great pictures like this. LOL






I must say that there is a law that says you aren't to get within 500 ft of a Right Whale but we have had some swim over by us. If you happen to go to the FSFA forum to look for these pictures, you will see that somebody has a whale calf right off the back corner of his boat. It's one thing to have this accidentally happen but I sure wouldn't go inviting trouble by posting it up. He/She should be very glad that Mama whale didn't see the boat as a threat.

(I'm down in Melbourne today.) See y'all later.

NORTHERN RIGHT WHALES
by Robin



It looks like we have missed the N. Right Whales migrating up the Atlantic coast. Last couple weeks, the fishermen out of Jacksonville (Mayport) have been posting up pictures left and right of whales. One of them (Mark of Middleburg) took this wonderful picture which I am borrowing to show here. He has a great series of pics on the Florida Sportsman Fishing Forum (NE fishing reports). Great photography.

Anyhow, I hope that we still get to see one or two before spring/summer arrives. I missed last year's migration too because we were still completing the boat restoration.

The seas have been kicked up to 3-5 ft last week and this upcoming week. My parents are coming into town tomorrow night but I think the weather is going to prevent us from doing any offshore fishing. We'll be lucky if we even get a river ride. What we do intend on doing besides visiting with each other is eating SEAFOOD. Yum.

I will post up some delicious dinners here next week. I believe Snow crab, clams, shrimp, fish, crabcakes and lots of limes are on the menu. (I bought a whole sack of limes & two tubs of Smart Balance.)

Must run and complete a lot of laundry & tidying up the guest room before they get here.

Happy Fishing if you can safely get your craft offshore!
(Pompano are still running the Canaveral National Seashore)

Edited to add: Lowrance did get the new fishfinder here on time and .......... be surprised.... it works!

Not a Happy Camper
by Robin


Well, on the homefront, I'm pretty good, but as far as fishing-related stuff....... I'm not happy. Neither is Capt. Jack.

We received our new Lowrance fish finder in the mail after waiting 5 weeks for them to not fix the old one and replace it. Jack was so excited that he got off of work *on time* and couldn't wait to pop it in and turn it on.

It ran for all of 4 minutes and then the screen went gray, essentially dying. Can you say, "Blood Pressure Medication?" No seriously, I dialed Lowrance and Jack made the long 30 min wait to get to a human.

In short, Lowrance has 48 hrs to get a new machine shipped overnight to us before I say more. My parents are coming this weekend and we need a depth reader for the river ride we intend to take.

For now, I'm going to sit outside and school the kids so I can absorb in every sunshine ray that I can before we get another cold wave this weekend.

Happy Fishing!
Robin

Happy Valentine's Day

....... to my Sweetie.

I'm yours.... hook, line and sinker.

Love,

Robin

WHEN is COBIA SEASON??
by Robin


Well, that is a good question and there are some signs that can help you to determine when to start heading out to hunt for your cobia out of Port Canaveral.

(Jack with his 43 lb cobia in 2007)


While we have cobia here close to year-round, mostly those caught in the "off" season are taken while bottom fishing off of nice ledges or wrecks. Many times, we get a nice bonus cobia in January or May because they've hung around our area, but are staying warm with the water temps at the sea floor. That is how Jack and I caught my big 60+ lb cobia last May while snapper fishing.

However, sight-fishing for cobia is a lot of fun. You don't have to get up at the crack of dawn. The days are warm and you need a lot of sun to find the fish. The water is usually flat or waves come in gentle swells. Our family always enjoys the all-to-short season when I hop on top of the cuddy cabin and spot cobia for Jack to cast to. I enjoy being the spotter and he's a waaaay better caster.



Sight-fishing for cobia can be broken down into two ways. One is obvious, you see them free swimming either alone or with small groupings. Sometimes they spook if they've seen too many fishermen already that day or sometimes they will hang around because they're curious.

The other fun way to find your cobia is when they're hanging around other marine life. I've heard you can find them under turtles but we haven't had that pleasure yet.

(Small manta with no cobia on the back, right below our bow - pic taken in 2006)


BUT, we have the most fun chasing down manta rays and checking their backs for cobia hitching a ride. This is so much fun and yet frustrating because those mantas get wise to boats following them and they dive down for a while and might pop up several hundred feet away. If you're stealthy enough, you can slowly cruise up behind or beside the mantas without disturbing their "flight" and cast ahead of them. This gives the cobia time to swim off their backs, take the jig and then you be in a good fight while the manta swims off totally unharmed and unphased.

(Here is a pair of mantas with cobia--you can barely see the brown blip above the right cobia's shoulders)


Many years ago, I tried my best to cast in front of a manta and ended up not moving the jig fast enough before the manta swam into it. I thought I had a fantastic cobia on the end of my jig but all that excitement disappeared when we realized we were being dragged out to sea by my catching a manta instead of a cobia. Oh no. Jack had to recover as much line as possible and then cut it once we got close to the manta.

How do you know when to start sight-fishing for cobia? One of the old fisherman's saying is to watch for the azaleas to bloom.




I've had a couple bloom in the yard this week.

Secondly, we watch the sea surface temps to rise up to the magic number of 70 (give or take a degree). Here is a sea surface chart from last week. See how right below the Cape, you'll see more of a blue/green look?


You're waiting for that to turn yellow/orange. We're getting closer but still not there today. I believer we're going to have an early cobia run this year.


Once that happens, get the boat gassed up and dust off your chartreusse jig. You're ready for cobia season.

Happy Fishing!!
Robin

FAMILY DAY @ THE BEACH......
...ending in a fish fry!!!

by Robin


After this past month's hard freezes, we really need a day in the sun. I don't think we made it up to the 70's but it sure felt good to be in the sun and not in the house. This is the way we got to the beach without getting all sorts of sand in our shoes & car!



We let our eldest drive out of the Port all the time while Jack and I do the setting up of equipment. There wasn't too much for me to do this time, so I took some pictures.

Little man went to the front of the boat and kept an eye out for surface fish, pelagics. Also, we had a perfect view out of the port of a shrimp boat with its arms extended out.


Once out of Port Canaveral, we made a hard right turn down the beaches and headed towards Patrick Airforce Base beaches. We were hoping to see some manta rays or cobia, but dolphin are an exciting thing to see as well. Sorry for the graininess. The dolphins were at a distance and I cropped the photo so you could even tell what they are.


They were probably traveling in a pod of a dozen or more. I missed the big "money shot" closer to the boat. Sigh. He jumped slightly out of the water. I was not prepared --shame on me.

My sons told me I should have has the movie setting on and then I could have caught something better than above, but not quite like this stampede in the video below.



We anchored up once we arrived to Patrick AFB and got our shrimp out.


Hooks in! My eldest caught the first fish, a whiting. (Little man is below)


We changed up spots because we were basically getting nothing here. We moved up a couple miles to the Indiatlantic beach. Jack got us a little closer in to the beach. We were right behind the first wave break. It took about 30 minutes of casting for one of us to find the exact place of the underwater trough and then we all started catching fish. As you can see, I found the trough first. It paid off with a small, but delicious pompano. We also caught so many whiting that we ended up throwing a bunch back.


At one point, I thought I had this huge fish (maybe shark) on my line and enjoyed a good fight on light tackle. Unfortunately, it was this rather large Southern Stingray who tried his best to whip Jack as he pulled the hook.


I began to get nauseated from the wave action and begged the family to please head home. Good thing we already had enough for our fish fry last night.


The guys were so good to do most the boat cleaning while I put up stuff. By this point, my nausea was completely gone and hunger set in.


I know this is a Foodie Nightmare, but we had cornmeal coated fish (think catfish dinner), with cornbread and corn for sides. Thank goodness for applesauce, right? (Oh, for those of you who know I do my best to follow veganism plus fish & eggs.... the cornbread is made with Dream rice milk & vegan Smart Balance.) Either way, it was delicious and I stuffed myself silly.


The other report is that we did not see a sign of whales, cobia or manta rays. The waves were low, but wind wave kicked up pretty good as the day went along. Beach water is always green & stirred up. Lots of rip currents. I was hoping for a lot of warmth, but the wind was still cold. The kids have pink cheeks though.


Happy Fishing (or Going to the Beach!)
Robin