INLET - 6.8.15

by Robin

Jack was dying to go back offshore after church since the boat was still hooked up but my body wasn't willing to cooperate.  He tried to get some friends to go.  No go.




I don't know how he managed to do this, but he talked me into getting some mud minnows and playing in the port.  Wind was whipping hard from the east, so we stayed in the channel, mostly the locks. I have a cool story about the Freedom of the Seas making an emergency stop to the port to drop off an emergent patient but that will have to be done tomorrow or another day.

These photos were taken AFTER it left the docks.  Sun was setting & fish were biting.



You can't see it here but Jack had a flounder in his hands.



Basically, I wanted to share my sunset photos.  I didn't catch one fish all evening.  Jack caught a crevalle jack, small mangrove and 2 flounder.  Only the one flounder came home with us.









My evening shots.  I am learning how to use my advanced settings with my new camera.  These were taken in manual mode.



First Choice looks magnificent under the amber lights.  My exposure was set for 2 minutes.

Hope you had a peaceful & fun weekend.
Robin

OFFSHORE - 6/6/15 - King fish

by Robin

It was a FSFA tourny day but we did not register.  In fact, we went rather late to avoid the morning rush.  We were on the water by 9 am.   It was Jack's plan to troll.  He was first up to reel when the line went screaming.



Unfortunately, it was only a barracuda.




Look at the teeth on him!!!  Jack had to be very careful when getting him off the hook.



This is called a Fire Rainbow.  I learned today that it happens when the sun is higher than 58 degrees in the sky and passing over Cirrus clouds with ice crystals in them.   Cool.



Ok, so hours and hours of trolling produced 1 barracuda.  The radio was filled with chatter of everyone else experiencing a slow trolling day.  Further out didn't produce anything for them either.



Wow, the water was sure clear and blue.


We we decided to pick up and move to 8A reef and troll there.  We joined the 11 other boats there and started making our passes between north and south ends.  There were weed everywhere and as i went to clear one of the lines filled with weeds, a mahi broke the surface and air-bombed my ballyhoo.  Game on.  She was swimming right to the boat and quite 'green'.  Jack gaffed her at least 4x and each time she jumped off the gaff.  At one point, I thought I lost her because my palm hit the free spool but thankfully, she was still there.  Jack had to pull power because we were in heavy traffic area and she swam ahead of me, then under the boat, then right for the engine.  My line was stuck in the steps, then the prop.  Sigh.  We were so upset.   We couldn't do anything but break the line.  What a mess and heart-break.  She was probably 10-12 lbs and full of holes.  There goes my first mahi of the season.  Poop!

But, later, this king hit the line.  Jack reeled him in but I got to pose with it after it fully died.



After this, we decided to try some bottom fishing.  Pulled in some miscellaneous fish.  1 juvenile snapper, too many black sea bass, lizard fish and this cool looking Stone fish.



Little black sea bass are sometimes brown.





I did catch a keeper 15" black sea bass.  Wow, nice fish.

That was basically our Saturday offshore.  Ran over to see Mike at his boat and pick up a tourny t-shirt.  Talked to guys at the cleaning tables.  Fun times.

Happy Fishing,
Robin

RAMP FISHING & FLOUNDER _ 6.3.15

by Robin

While Jack and I were in the bait & tackle store, we heard there were some flounder in the ramp basin.  Really?

I tried it out on Monday. Everything was rather small.  Mostly, I caught a really good sunburn.

But, my son and I returned on Wednesday.  I was supposed to chaperon him and his girlfriend on their date but she came down with a fever.



We still enjoyed the morning together.  We were using mud minnows, which are fabulous without an aerator and yet, super slimy. Hard to get them on the hook without getting yourself first.


We found the flounder in the center of the ramp basin. I also came home with a small but legal lane snapper.  Not worthy of a picture.  LOL.

I fileted and fried them up for lunch, but not until I screamed YOLO (you only live once) and put the flounder in the pool with me.  ha ha.

The kids freaked out but honestly, what's the harm?  Somebody tell me.



Hope you all are having a great start to your summer. I know I am.

Blessings & tight lines,
Robin

CFOA Tournament 5.31.15

by Robin

I didn't take a LOT of pictures today but did enjoy watching the pelicans and boats come in with fish.

Nice cobia.



It was a good date day with my hubby after church.  Got us some nice oysters &
clams at Rusty's before the tourny too.



This young boy took Youth Division.  I heard that he fishing hard like this all the time.  I saw pictures of him this past weekend with a 20+ lb red snapper. Wow!



Here was the board with the results.



Happy Fishing!
Robin

OFFSHORE w/ Mike - vacation day 5.21.15

by Robin

I don't have  alot of information about their trip except to say that trolling produced nothing.  They did end up bottom dropping and caught small reef fish.  Jack gave all of those away to Mike for being such a great friend.

Here are the two pics I have.



Apparently they were chased in by some storms.


Happy Fishing,
Robin

5.19.15 - Sharks, Snappers and Small Mahi

by Robin

After our son caught his huge gag grouper, I wanted in on the same action.  So, Jack took me out the following weekend.

Well, he certainly put me right in the middle of some action.  I was fighting and fighting this fish.  Biggest snapper I ever caught and about 10 ft under the boat, 1 of the 3 sharks following us takes this huge bite out of it.  From out of nowhere, 2 more sharks join the pack.  I was so exhausted and disappointed, I forgot to keep reeling and Jack brought it up to the boat for this picture.  Then, we had to throw it back over to the sharks.  Goodness, it kills me to see the sharks eating such a fine fish.



Jack is on a drink break.  It sure is getting hot out there.




I had a nice grouper on but I couldn't get him out of the rocks, so I gave the pole to Jack.  He loosened the line and he swam out and it was game on.  At some point, I guess the hook pulled out, so we never did see that fish.

We caught too many of these and decided to run around looking at the weed mats instead.



Saw a lone mahi on one of them.  We tossed everything to it and couldn't get it to eat.



At another weed mat, saw 2 more and couldn't get them to eat.







Super disappointing.  Trolled an hour with nothing.  So, we headed back home.



The flying fish were very close in and it was such a photo opportunity to get pics of them.




I greyed out the water to make the flying fish stand out.

Have a blessed fishing week!