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.

Pair of 'Phins

Went out Saturday morning with Ernesto at 6:00 AM. The inlet bait scene was busy so we didn't spend too much time, but did end up catching one :). Headed straight out into easterly 10-15kt winds and 2-4' seas. Boat handled great. Trolled two fresh ballyhoo with blue/white Iland Sailures and one with pink/blue Sailure. I had a lot of tangles heading out and spent most of my time clearing those up. At about 5 miles out, we pulled the lines in and ran out a little further to about 7 miles. Started seeing weeds forming thin lines along rips and put the spread back out. This time, I extended the out riggers and put the pink/blue sailure on the starboard side back about 80 yards. Weeds were consistently thin, but we started seeing a lot of flyers and the water looked more fishy than before. That's when the rigger popped and the bait caster started screeming. Don't remember the rest too clearly, but this is my recollection. Ernesto took the rod until the another rod started going off. I saw another dolphin jump and told him to reel in the Penn. That's when we realized there were fish on both of the other rods. The Shimano's crank started coming off, so Ernesto took the Penn and brought him in. I tried to gaff, but the little gaff I have is useless. We ended up hoisting the fish over the gunwale and then throwing them in the box. I looked for a bit to see if there were other fish in the water with the first one, but didn't find any. Ernesto brought the other one in and we almost got it stuck on the swim platform. I lost the third when the line on the shimano snapped against another rod. Pure bedlam, but very much fun! Didn't get any other hits the entire day, but saw a bird and a number of other flyers. Made it out to 11 miles. (Link to Forum Thread)





I ended up losing a blue/white and a pink/blue Sailure. One on the one that got away and the other on a reused wire leader that snapped while we were trolling. Note to self: never re-use leader!

Cleaning the fish was an experience. I've done smaller fish, but getting the skin off of these without taking too much meat was not easy for me. I've got to get the knife sharper and get a better cleaning table. The top of the cooler isn't cutting it!

It's Official

Since moving into the new house and getting a boat, I've wanted to get back on the water and start fishing. I had decided this morning would be it. I prepped everything last night and checked the weather. Things looked good! I woke up this morning at about 5AM to lighting and thunderstorms! So much for fishing the morning.

All was not lost, though. The afternoon was beautiful and after getting things done on the work front, I went out to the dock to see if I could find any bait. I had tried to cast the net several days before, just to practice, but it had been four years and I wasn't getting the damn thing to open. Today was different. There were tons of mullet in the canal. Just down the canal from where I am, I saw the whole width of the canal bubbling over with fish. I looked around me and there where a bunch close enough to cast for. I tried my cast and was able to land one out of the small school of three that I aimed for. Woo Hoo! I kept at it for a while and ended up with four fish in the cooler and one crab (?). I kept it thinking it would be useful as bait, too.

I won't pretend to know anything about fishing! I'll try to post what I do and what I learn along the way here for safe keeping.