Captain's Blog

12-15-08
Captains Blog, Star Date..... Sorry always wanted to say that just once. The following will be a compilation of fishing reports, observations and personal opinions. We do have a fishing "seasons" link for our clients to get a general idea of what to expect they may catch during the different seasons. This blog will help give that a bit more detail due current weather and water conditions. Hopefully it will not only be informative but also bring some insight to the fishing world and bring a smile once in a while. It will not be limited to just fishing. Family experiences and other things that I just feel need saying may just end up right here. Its my plan to get on here at least once a week. Things do get crazy and I actually to take vacations but I will do my best. Let me say thanks for following this link here I hope it was worth a click. Lets see where this road takes us shall we?. Capt. Rick

12-21-08
Well all I can say about the weather this week is WOW. The Chamber of Commerce must have went all out with divine intervention included to get this week of perfect conditions. Cool evenings, bright sunshine days in the mid eighty's, flat calm seas, fantastic water quality. I was lucky enough to be on the water four days this week to enjoy it. Three of those were offshore one backcountry. Once all day and twice half days. With the economy being slow I am grateful to be out there that much. Normal years during the Christmas holiday season there are no open dates and both morning and afternoon slots are full. I cant help but wish that our clients that come down and book every year were here this year to enjoy this past week. So many times late December our weather is fickle with cold fronts and rough seas. Our all day adventure took us out into the Gulf looking for a combination that is really tough to come by. I say this because one of the clients (three total) repeated to me over and over that the intent of the trip was to catch and bring home fish that are good table fare. No problem. That, this time of year is a grouper / snapper charter. I focused on that and rigged accordingly and picked my route with that in mind. On our first stop we were catching red grouper pretty steady with a few snappers mixed in with some Lipstick fish. The "keeper" to throw back ratio right now is about twenty five to one. Meaning there is a LOAD of action. After and hour we had one nice red grouper in the box and a half dozen lane snapper and two nice mangrove (hence forth known as "Mangos"). We had released about thirty other fish. One of the other clients that had been fairly silent asked me if he was going to catch a fish he could put on his office wall like a Tarpon. I tried to explain that first, Tarpon were best in April, May, June. Trophy fish that were around in December were big Bull Red fish. Also active now that make excellent trophy's as do Goliath Grouper. The two guys had different goals for the trip leaving me with a quandry I changed my plan and made a run to heavy structure. My hope was to get a good snapper bite going and hopefully dig a big Goliath or cobia out in the process. I only say this to you so as to suggest you might just give some though to your fishing partners for the day, consider their wishes, hopes, dreams, etc. That move took and hour of our time. Rule of thumb when fishing is don't leave fish to find fish. The snapper bite was non existent at one of my best spots for them. The Goliath were there but very unwilling to eat anything we put in there face. We did hook two sharks but he lost both when his line hit the engine. I change again to trolling two deep for grouper and two flat for kings, cobia, LT's or what ever. We picked up two gag grouper but no pelagic. I changed again to some live bottom and the lane snapper bite was good putting several big ones in the box along with our limit of red grouper. Being late in the day we made a flat calm run for Lovers Key. They said they had a good time. I wish I could have pulled off both guys wish but it was not to be on this day.

On my two half days offshore we just had more fun than the law allows. We started the mornings hitting some live bottom pretty close in catching fifty or so Red and Gag grouper. No big fish mostly in the eighteen inch range. Light tackle and small jigs make them a blast. Most folks have never caught so many non stop before. After that, I hit a wreck or two and we caught a couple of bull Red fish both trips that were about twenty pounds each. Black Tip sharks were caught both trips and a nice fifteen pound cuda. The highlight of these two were two Blackfin tuna of all things. They are NEVER in close but they did not get that memo. We laughed, joked, and made friends on both of these trips.

My backcountry charter was with a husband and wife. They had fished very little before. We just had the best time catching Sea Trout. We were pretty luck to find a spot that you could catch one on almost every cast for two hours. Just a load of action. We also kept a ladyfish that we used for bait to catch four nice red fish in our last hour. As most charter captains know, Ladies are very lucky anglers. Of course we also know its not really luck. If you observe the ladies of all ages it pretty much goes the same way. They are first, patient. Then they put zero pressure on themselves and feel that if they see the wildlife, Eagles, Osprey's, Dolphins, etc. the day is complete. Ladies feel no need to compete. They listen closely to any directions, ask specific questions, and pretty much do exactly what you say. This trip was no exception. My angler husband with some experience asked if his wife could go along just to watch. I of course insisted she go. She was the one who finished up catching those four redfish. Why? Well when using cut bait, she first asked if I would cast for her. No problem. Then as her bait did its thing, she patiently just watched passing Manatee, and Pelicans. When her line came tight, she just held the tip low and did a great job fighting the fish. Mr. angler could cast on his own pretty good. Problem was, as is with most of us men he just HAD to impart some action to the bait, check it, change it, re-cast it. I call them frequent flyers. They just booked another day over Christmas week. I look forward to that.

 

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