A new fishing website!

I have added a great fishing page to my website. I am sure you will enjoy a visit.

http://www.mikeslaststand.net/Recreation/Fishing.htm

Snook out, sheepshead in!

Here in south Florida, snook season ends tomorrow. Two months with out the attraction of a keeper snook. Oh well, I guess we will still go fishing. And the good news is the sheepshead are coming in early. We have caught some really big ones in the lastfew days.

Keep fishing!

Waiting for Wilma – Let’s go fishing!

Living in coastal Florida one cannot ignore storms and the last two years have made it a little tiresome. Four hurricanes last year and three already this year. So the news that a new storm named Wilma had formed in the Caribbean off the coast of Central America was most unwelcome news. Worse still, it was headed our way.

The storm had only just been named when it began to intensify; barely twenty four hours after achieving tropical storm status it was a major hurricane and had the distinction of breaking two records – the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic basin and the largest twenty four hour drop in pressure ever recorded. This was bad news for us in Florida, even worse for Mexico and the Yucatan peninsular in particular.

It was Thursday; the storm could be here by Saturday. Most of the initial preparations were done. There was nothing to do but go fishing. The tides were not good, a low in the late morning, no good high during daylight hours. The weather forecast was for deteriorating conditions later. Still as the last real fishing day before the storm, beggars could not be choosers. Out we went. It was a beautiful day. The wind was light, the sky overcast, but the rain stayed away. We caught all sorts of stuff, snappers, snook, even a flounder, but everything was too small to keep. Heading home we passed one of our favorite spots, an oyster bar topped with mangroves. We fished both sides hooking a few small snook and a dreaded catfish. Then it hit; a nice twenty four inch redfish. As they say, you only need one to make the day!

Friday was to be the day before the storm. The weather forecast on Thursday had predicted the day would be heading downhill but when dawn came the hurricane had stalled over Cozumel and Cancun. It was a little overcast but the winds were light. Most of the local businesses were already closed in anticipation of the approach of Wilma. So what else was there to do but go fishing? The sport was even better than the day before. We caught trout, many snook (all too small to keep but always fun to catch), a bunch of grey snapper and to top it off another keeper red. We had so much fun on an almost perfect day to be on the water we almost forgot that this day was courtesy of the people of the Yucatan who were taking a terrible pounding from category four storm Wilma.

Saturday dawned just the same as Friday and there was no doubt that Wilma would be here within forty eight hours. Her arrival would certainly restrict any outside activity so better get out there now and do some fishing. It turned out to be a carbon copy of the day before except that the redfish count was two, one of which was the largest of the three days. Smoked they would certainly provide great finger food in the event that Wilma took out the electric power. As we cleaned up the boat and began the final battening down for the storm our thoughts again went to the folks of the Yucatan, our pleasure was their pain.

Sunday morning the storm finally moved out into the Gulf of Mexico and headed for Florida. By Monday noon it was in the Atlantic heading for Nova Scotia and to cause a major north-easter in New England. There was much damage in Florida, and it would have been worse had the storm not moved so quickly. Think again of the poor people of Cozumel and Cancun.

The elusive redfish – pride of the oyster bars.

If you like sport fishing, you surely will like to fish for redfish. This feisty species is one of the best fighters in the inshore spectrum and, cooked correctly, a great addition to the barbeque menu. Even some restaurants have adopted the fish as a specialty. For example, at the famous Redfish Seafood Grill and Bar on Bourbon Street, New Orleans, they headline, “At Redfish, we serve up a parade of award-winning French Quarter specialties, including classics like Blackened Redfish, Crawfish Etouffee and Jambalaya.”

Young redfish, or red drum as they are often called, feed in the shallows on clams, crabs, mussels and shrimp. When the fish are about four years old and about 30 inches in length, they leave the shallows to join the near offshore populations. A 30 inch specimen will weigh around ten pounds. They can live for twenty years and have attained weights up to sixty pounds (Florida record fifty one pounds eight ounces).

The fish gets its common name from the copper bronze large scales on their bodies which are darker in cloudy water and lighter in clear waters but the most distinguishing feature is a dark spot at the top of the base of the tail. For the fisherman, however, the most recognizable feature is the tail disturbing the water in the calm shallows and frequently breaking the surface. The sight of a dozen or more redfish “tailing” as this foraging behavior is called is enough to set the adrenaline coursing through the veins of the most hardened sportsman.

Catching redfish is like all fishing. You just have to be in the right place at the right time with the right bait and tackle. Use a light medium action rod because you could end up doing a lot of casting before you finally lure your trophy specimen onto the hook, and use the lightest line you feel comfortable with. Just remember to set the drag accurately (the pro’s will actually use a scale and set it to sixty percent of nominal breaking strain).

The right time is easy, fish the feeding grounds on the flats and oyster bars on the rising tide and till just after the tide turns and fish the hiding places in the troughs and sloughs on the ebb. The most reliable spots are on the edge of the mangroves close to deep water. This gives the combination of a great feeding spot with an easy escape route when threatened.

As far as bait is concerned, if you are fishing for the pan, use live bait. Greenbacks, pinfish, or even a succulent shrimp will certainly catch more fish than any lure, but for sport and satisfaction nothing can beat the feeling of hooking that twenty five inch express train on a little gold spoon or shiny plug. Toss your bait or lure as close to the mangroves as you dare, let it sink for a few seconds, then retrieve slowly. When the strike comes, you will know all about it, and the fish will do all the work of setting the hook. Your job will be to get the fish away from the mangroves and then to enjoy the fight of your life. This is when the challenge of light tackle fishing will tax your skill and fill your psyche with pride.

Happy fishing, and look out for the recipe coming soon! Just remember, if you are not going to eat the fish, release it unharmed. Always respect your local fishing regulations.

Red Drum (redfish)

Family Sciaenidae, DRUMS

Sciaenops ocellatus

Books on Fishing.

Buying books is always an expensive process. I happenened on an online bookstore which calls itself the Online Discount Bookstore. They have some great deals. The store can be found at Online Discount Bookstore.com

Here is an example of a book I found.

Surf Fishing the Atlantic Coast by Eric B. Burnley (Paperback) $11.53 (New) They also sell used books for much less!

It is Summer!

The summer is a testing time for fishing the beach! the weather is never predictable, and the beach even less so. No reason to give up! Just because it is difficult is no reason to default. In fact, because it is difficult, it is more rewarding.

So let us begin. Where do you fish? "The beach," you say. Ok, which 50 yards of the 25 miles of beach between St Augustine Inlet and Mayport do you want to fish?

Yep, the secret of fishing the beach is not in the fishing, it is in the walking! Walking the beach at low tide, finding out the lie of the sea bottom is the most important step in the fishing process. This is good, because it gives us the credibility to call fishing a sport and not just a recreation!

So what are we looking for in the low tide walk. Just watch the waves. In most cases what you see is the waves breaking a few yards out, then the foamy wave reforms and re-breaks closer to the shore. Where it first breaks is a sand bar, where it re-forms is a slough (pronounced slew}. If you walk out from the beach you would first struggle through the deeper water of the slough then climb up onto the bar.

So once you have identified the sandbars, the big break is finding the gaps in the sandbar, the spots where the fish will find the deeper water and follow the rising tide into the sloughs. You find these when the waves do not break out at the bar but roll all the way in to the beach. When you find it, mark it carefully with a beach landmark. It is incredible how different it will look at high tide! Once you identify the gap, plan to fish in the gap itself and just inside the sandbar on either side of the gap.

Ok! We are halfway there with the where, now what about the when? my experience is the two hours before and after first and last light are the most consistent, and the best fishing is two hours before and two hours after high tide. So, put the two together, and you get an early morning high tide (that also means an evening high in most places) as the best time.

(If you are planning your vacation, how do you know when the tides will be. Actually, it's not that difficult, early morning and evening high tides will normally follow the full and new moons, and every calendar has those dates marked!)

In the three months of summer you will find whiting, pompano, bluefish, Spanish mackerel, kingfish, trout, flounder, redfish, and drum. You will also find shark, skate, catfish and crabs. It will be a race as to who will get your bait first, but whichever wins, it will be fun, and you will be the final winner!

The Sharks were here!

It should have been a great week. The tides were great, the weather was better than the weatherman predicted, and the wind was light.

But the sharks were there. In a two hour session in the early morning, on a rising tide I caught perhaps 20 baby black tips, and two 16 inch bonnet heads. One really good sized whiting managed tio find my bait before a shark got it, but that was the limit of the pan fish.

Still, who can complain, the beach was gorgeous, the holiday crowd was still in bed, and one fish in the pan is better than no fish.