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.

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.