Sheepshead Sightings

There have now been enough sightings to state without a doubt that I've seen some Sheepshead in our canal. These have ranged in size from just under 1' to over 20". So far I haven't had the luck of hooking one. According to FWC, they eat mollusks and crabs. They also say that they like to nibble, so catching one may prove difficult.

Early Winter Jack and Snapper

We haven't been able to do nearly as much fishing with the kids as I've liked to, but last Saturday at about 3 PM we got a chance to dip the line for a while. We were using live shrimp and managed to pull in a couple of species we've seen before. The first was another Mahogany snapper, brought in by Stephanie. This one was probably the largest one we've seen back here, about 12 inches long. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a picture of him.

Right after we threw him back, I reset Danny's rod and dropped the shrimp right in front of the dock. As soon as it hit the water, I saw a small jack come up and hit it. I handed the rod to Danny and he pulled this little guy up:

This was also Isabella's first fishing experience. She didn't catch anything this time, but she wasn't complaining either.

Dolphin, Cuda and Tuna Oh My

I got another chance to go out with Ernesto and was delighted to see a repeat performance of the infamous fish dance. Ernesto's version sure seems to bring out the fish! Our day started at about 6 AM with a run to Dunkin Donuts. We were back and heading out towards the inlet by about 7ish. We tried getting some livies, but had no luck as usual. Our plan was actually to anchor out in about 70-ish feet and try to get some yellow tail, but we quickly got bored. We decided to head out and see if we could find any structure offshore. We didn't have any ballyhoo, but we decided to let out a couple of lines with Rattle Jets and another with a cedar plug. Right after letting out the second line, we got our first hookup. Ernesto brought the first Barracuda in shortly thereafter. Right as we were resetting, we get another hook-up. This one was much smaller... much smaller. It ended up being a black fin tuna that was about a foot long and it tried to swallow a 6" cedar plug. Even though it was the first tuna landed on the boat, I decided the tuna gods would look kindly on a release of the baby and a try at finding mom or dad.

We circled around for a while, but with no more success we headed further out. It was a beautiful fish, can't wait to catch a bigger one. At about 7 miles, we got our next almost simultaneous knock-downs with two dolphin on the lines. We had the usual fire drill walking around each other, but Ernesto's fish spit the hook. I brought in the other one pictured above. The only other knock-down was a smaller cuda that was released.

When it was time to clean the fish, I tried a new method. Pulling the skin off before removing the fillet is much better than trying to slice it off after the fillet is off of the carcass. I also took the fillets off of the barracuda, but didn't end up using them for fear of ciguatera toxin.

Looking for New Light Action Combo

I've had a couple of Sports Authority gift cards that have been burning a hole in my pocket since my birthday, so I'm thinking of getting a light-action rod and reel to use when fishing with the kids. It should be light enough for the type of fish we get out of the canal, but I want to be able to use it for yellow tail and other near-shore species as well. I want to keep the whole thing under $100. I've asked for help from the SF Sportsman Forum also. Here are the reels under consideration:

• Daiwa 3000: $64.99
  
• Shimano Sahara 4000: $59.99
  
  
• Okuma Epixor EF45: $69.99 (MSRP)
  
  This one probably won't make the cut. The cost seems high and I don't think Sports Authority caries it. They list the Okuma Epixor reels as freshwater and the only ones they have are much less than MSRP. I doubt that is the same one.
  

More to come as I review the rods.

First Dolphin of the Summer

Alex suggested that I get out before the baby comes and the seas cooperated with me. I set out alone at about 10:30 AM after rigging up some ballyhoo on wire with an assortment of Island lures. I was at the inlet at around 11:00 and saw several balls of baby pilchards. I tried casting the net for some, but since I was alone it wasn't a pretty sight. I headed straight out and put the lines in the water. Since I only have three rods, I didn't bother with the outriggers, but I should have - seems that's what made the difference today. In about 750ft. of water, I finally pulled out the starboard rigger and hooked the Penn's line through it. A couple of minutes later, while reeling in another line to check the bait, the rigger pops and the Penn starts singing! Fish On! A couple of minutes later this cow is boat side and I manage the solo gaff shot.

Fresh dolphin sandwiches for lunch! I'm going to have to get a new cooler.
I'm going to have to do this more often, even if just to practice how to filet these things. Since I don't do this often, I end up hacking them up and not getting as much meat as I can from them.

First (Monster) Snook

I was with the kids in the pool this evening when Alex noticed a big fish swimming up the canal almost half out of the water. I looked up and recognized it as one of several monster snook that have been cruising the canal lately. These things are large! They typically go up one side of the canal, get to the end and come back down the other side. Our neighbor was over and we happen to be on the dock when he noticed the wake coming towards us on our side of the canal. Shortly thereafter, I pull this guy out of the water!

This beast is a little bit bigger than the other species we've pulled out of the canal and the good news is that he was swimming with another one at least as big as he was! After the shot, this guy went back in the water and swam off happily.

Man Time

The girls had a birthday tea party to go to today, so Danny and I got some live shrimp and set out to terrorize the inhabitants of our canal. We had a productive day, too, with some new species added to our log. We started off with a couple of mojarras that we didn't take pictures of. These were a little bigger than the ones we've caught before, but we didn't have a camera handy. We then took a break for lunch and went back out to probably the best half hour we've spent out there.


The mojarras started nibbling again, but this little snapper came up and snatched the shrimp out of their little mouths.


Right as we threw the snapper back in, I noticed that the other rod had gone tight on something else. Danny reeled that one in and we were surprised to see a moon fish on the hook. This was one of two that we caught back to back and a new species for us.

Danny took this picture himself using his new camera, that's why it's a little blurry. After we released the second moon fish, I threw another shrimp on the hook and put it right off of the dock. A little while later, I felt a tug and pulled up a little to see a small ray at the end of the line. Unfortunately, the hook wasn't set, so I couldn't pull him up for Danny to see.

The bigger news is that there are two very large snook patroling our canal. One has a lenght of line dragging behind it and the other doesn't. They're both in the 15+ lbs. range and carry their entourage on their backs. They have at least one small remora or other type of parasite fish stuck onto them. They swim by once every 10-15 minutes, right along the sea wall. They're both beautiful fish and you can tell that they're not dumb enough to go for any hooked bait. We'll report back if we're ever successful at hooking any of these guys.

Lady Fish

One of Stephanie's friends was moving away, so we had him over one night to play around and fish off of the dock for a while. The kids had lots of fun, including a tense moment when something took Stephanie's friend's bait and started peeling line off like mad, but I tightened the drag a little too much and the fish broke the line. Here's a shot of the gang strutting their stuff:


They didn't end up landing anything, but after they got bored I kept at it for a while and brought in this little lady fish.

Couple of New Species

We went fishing with the kids in the canal again and we turned up a couple of new species. The first is a mahogany snapper, caught two of those, and the second is a mojarra.

Kid's First Fish

Over the weekend, we got a chance to take the kids out on their first fishing excursion. It was just to a local spot inside the intracoastal, but to them it was a ton of fun. Both Stephanie and Danny hooked up with Jack Crevalles - Stephanie hooked two, but we couldn't get them to the boat, while Danny hooked and landed one for a quick photo op. I don't know who was more excited when we were reeling them in, Alex or the kids! True to his heritage, Danny immediately started exagerating the size of his catch. We also managed to get out for a quick trip on Sunday evening and got some of the same action. We were using live shrimp, which Danny found to be a blast to catch. He's the designated bait man. Stephanie was asking him to get hers before she would hand them over to me for hooking. On the last shrimp of the evening, Stephanie's rod doubled over and jumped out of her hands. When I reachd out and grabbed it, whatever was on there managed to spit the hook. Lots of fun for all.

Re-Spooled All Rods

I took advantage of the gift card that Alex got me for Sports Authority and re-spooled all the rods. The lines on all of them were getting very old - I think they've been there since 2002. On the Two Penn's I used 30# Berkley Hi-Test in electric Green. For the Shimano Spinner, I went with 17# Cajun Red. I haven't used either one much yet, but after rigging up the spinner, I noticed that the Cajun line has an insane amount of stretch.