Fishing with Greg and Mr. Dean at CRB

After celebrating the big Dawg win last night over LSU, we continued it right out into the mangroves and flats at CRB this morning.  Tides were a little slow as we are coming off the neap tides so there was just enough moving water this morning to go out and try the morning incoming.  The water was pretty tea-colored after all the recent rains so along with the slower tides, the water clarity didn't give me much confidence but all of that would be forgotten after a little time on the water.  We got a really early start to a beautiful crisp (<75 deg) morning and were to the first stop before the sun was up. 

It didn't take very long to Mr. Dean to get on a fish, well a nice ray.  So, needless to say we were quickly back at it to find a game fish.  Well, it didn't take long to find the first of many snook on the morning.  Mr. Dean started it off for us and was 1/3 of the way on to his slam with the hardest fish first.  We spent the next hour catching and releasing a few small reds and bunch of smaller snook and a couple of mangrove snappers.  We pulled up the powerpole and headed to the cut down the way to look for some fish sitting in the slow morning current.  We got a bite right off and ended up with a couple more fish for the boat including this smaller red and snook.  

The tide wasn't moving very well but there were still fish around they were active so we ended up with a couple of reds and a couple more snook.

From there we headed outside to fish some out front mangroves for snook and reds and we weren't disappointed at that stop either.  Greg knocked out 2/3 of his slam as well with a quick release of his snook and a smaller red.

We still had some monster shrimp left so with the north wind we putted out to the flat to find a trout or two.  Well we accomplished that after we found a little bit cleaner water and Mr. Dean got the boat slam and his personal slam pretty quickly.  Greg followed pretty quickly with his slam as well and if it wasn't more me breaking him off he would have had a nice keeper red for the boat as well.  I had my trout on one of the very last shrimp and it was a pretty good fish but it came off right at the boat  but I was ok with that.  We had caught 20 or so fish with quite a few species and a couple of inshore slams.  Plus the weather and water was great and along with the fellowship and stories it was a perfect way to celebrate a big Dawg win yesterday.  I can't wait to get back out there and continue this great end of summer/early fall fishing. 

CRB and Fort De Soto Sept Fishing Trips

I took a quick trip on a high incoming tide to Cockroach Bay in the kayak last weekend.  I didn't get any photos but it was a snook catching kinda morning.  Unfortunately, the fish weren't very big but the numbers added up to 12+ snook so I can't argue with that.  Add a couple of smaller reds and some good mangroves and a nice sheepshead it was a pretty good morning. 


Well onto this morning.  Loaded up the skiff and picked up Tony and headed down to Fort De Soto to fish a low incoming tide.  We got some good shrimp and were in the water and fishing pretty quickly.  We headed to flat that Greg and I fished two weeks ago and starting working top water.  It didn't take long to get on the board and I was first up with a smaller trout.  We worked some pot holes with some shrimp and I got a pinfish that I quickly turned into cut bait and produced this. 

That fish was a hair over the slot and after removing the piece of metal stringer that was in his mouth it got a second lease on life and will hopefully join the breeders and head off to make some more reds for the future.  In the same pothole a few casts later Tony connected on this great trout on topwater.  We thought nice red at first but after that first head shake closer to the boat it was time to change the fight and ease off a little. 

After that I kept looking for those groups of reds to pop up but we never saw them so we headed to some old oysters that Tony used to fish and within the first couple of casts around them I caught a 20 inch red that got to go back in since I already had some dinner with Tony's trout.  We didn't really find anything else there so we went to another deep hole and caught a couple more trout and a smaller flounder before we ran out of shrimp.  It was time to call it a day since the UGA game was early but with all the boat traffic and quickly warming temps we will save that all day adventure for some shorter days in a month or so. 

Fort De Soto Scouting Trip

Greg and went out to Fort De Soto the other morning to do some scouting for the winter.  We were looking for low water holes and fish holding areas that might hold some fish here in a few months after the water levels start dropping.  We started pretty early with a 0.3 tide with an incoming all morning so we knew that even if we ran out of water in a shallow spot we could get back out since there would always be more water behind us.  We stopped at the local bait shop on the way down to the Fort and although the shrimp weren't the largest, the few bucks was well spent as the bait shop guy gave us some pretty good direction on which way to go from the launch.

So the Fort De Soto launch is really nice and it wasn't long before we were in the water and headed to our first stop of the morning.  We found the flat very quickly and with no putt-putt zones and places to run we were fishing very quickly.  I jumped up on the platform and Greg grabbed a top-water rod.  We had a bunch of missed strikes and the wind was pushing us across the flat pretty quickly but we finally started seeing some deeper holes and worked them a little better with both top-water and subsurface jigs.  In one of these holes I was able to snag a pinfish so we had some cut bait back out into the hole and it wasn't long before we were rewarded with a really nice trout.  A 20+ inch trout on our first float in the first hour of fishing.

 

In the same hole it wasn't long before Greg got another pretty big thump so turned on the video camera quickly to see a redfish get reeled in but to our surprise it was a pretty nice bonnet head.  After we caught that one there were a lot of sharks around the boat for some reason so I will try tie some shark flies and put in my 8wt for next time we visit the fort.

From there we drifted a little further south onto the flat looking for more holes and fish.  We got pretty skinny into the flat and did push a few reds out of a hole but weren't able to connect as we were already over them before we spooked them.  We poled a little further out and turned back around to the water as another boat was coming on to the flat and there was a very large group of reds just appear and they were up pushing water.  The other boat was in prime position and hooked up very quickly about 200 yrds from us.  I didn't want to spook the group but they were busting up pretty quickly into smaller groups so we put down the trolling motor since I couldn't pole fast enough into the wind to keep up with them and got back around upwind to set up a drift.  We fished some of the mullet schools then started working some of the pot holes for trout with some shrimp and were rewarded with a couple of nice trout and then I happened to see some red coming straight at us.  I had a loaded up shrimp under a cork and pitched it out in front of the pushing fish.  Well it wasn't 10 seconds before that big red found the shrimp and then it was game on.  

Unfortunately, we didn't find any more reds but we were able to find some new spots to fish.  We found a couple of mangrove snappers later in another location where there were some guides hanging out but the best part about Fort De Soto is the size of the area and the diversity of the fishing opportunities.  I'm looking forward to getting to learn the area this fall since it's so convenient to the house.

Follow that up with a Dawgs win over the Palmetto State Poultry later in the afternoon it was a pretty great day!

Summer '13 Vacation

Kate and I took a driving trip across the south a few weeks ago.  This is our first family vacation by ourselves in quite a few years and was a much needed get away for both of us.  We started in Charleston, SC where we had some good food did some shopping along the downtown main drag and visited Fort Sumter.



Nice view of Charleston from the top of Fort Sumter.  We ate at a local bar (with good beer) for dinner and drinks the first night. The second day we had some bar-b-que and had a nice dinner at Coast.  Kate's braised grouper was one of the best meals of the trip. 

From there we headed to Asheville, NC to eat some good food and see some mountains.  Well it rained most of the day in but we got to see a little of the Grove Park Inn and the area around it. 

We had dinner at the Tupelo Honey Cafe in downtown which was a good as we remember.  I don't usually order fried chicken but it was amazing and Kate's trout was great too.  The next morning we got adventurous and jumped on the Blue Ridge Parkway to find some waterfalls and some scenery.

As you can see the weather started out kinda dreary and we were in and out of the clouds and rain most of the ride up on the ridges.  We did find some drier hikes into some local waterfalls in Pisgah National Forest and Cherokee.

From Cherokee we headed north into Kentucky up to Lexington.  After losing my butt to Kate in darts at a local bar we got a good nights sleep to cover some ground the next day visiting some distilleries.






We started the next morning to a chilly 55 deg as they were having a summer cool snap which was great for us and headed to our first bourbon distillery stop of the day, Woodford Reserve.  Luckily for us they were actually making bourbon this morning so we got to experience the entire process to start off the day.

We grabbed a quick lunch and were headed off to make the second stop at Four Roses Distillery.  We made the tour just in time and got to walk around very interesting architecture and learn a little history of the bourbon and distillery.  The interesting nugget about this distillery is that until 2002 all the bourbon they made went overseas to mainly Japan but now they make a couple different bourbons for the US market.







From there it was on to Makers Mark.  The tour was great and although they were in the summer shut down mode they were actually bottling and hand-dipping the bottles as they came off the line.  In the gift shop you can try it yourself and although mine doesn't look professional, I think it looks pretty good on the tying desk. 

The next morning we got going early and with the help of the time zones we were able to visit Lincoln's birthplace and Mammoth Cave and get into Nashville the same day.  Apparently, Kate had visited something to do with our 16th president in Illinois as a kid and was convinced that Illinois was the "Land of Lincoln".  Well as usual she was right, and we got to learn a lot about Lincoln's early life in Kentucky and visit the location of his birth homestead.  Mammoth Cave was also great and we got on the first Historical Tour of the morning and got to learn about the history of the cave.  

We finally made it to a brewery, Fat Bottom in Nashville.  The bourbon barrel aged brew was amazing.  We also had a great tour of the Grand Ole Opry.  We got to see all the backstage areas and stand on the circle on the stage.  We saw where Hey Haw was filmed and some of the same locations that are on the show Nashville.  That evening we had drinks and dinner in the Hermitage Hotel at the Capitol Grille and Oak Bar.  Top 5 dinners of our married life for sure.  We started off with the onion bisque and I had the salmon special and Kate had the flounder and finished up with a chocolate dessert.  From Nashville we started our trip back home with an overnight stop in Athens to visit Amy and have some sushi and set up a lunch in Tifton to see Grandmother and have lunch at Pit-Stop with Mom and Dad.  We had a great trip and we are already planning our next one!

Fishing with Greg, finally

Greg and I got out this morning at CRB to chase some August inshore fish.  We started working top water but the sun quickly came up as we had gotten a little later start due to a wreck on the way in and the wait for the shrimp truck. 

We made our way to one of my high water summer mangrove holes and though the bite was kinda slow at times we were able to catch some fish.  We started off with some mangrove snapper.  I bet we caught 10 mangroves this morning with a couple being really nice.  They were all released for someone else though.  Greg was quick off with a couple of trash can slam members and ended up needing a catfish and ladyfish to complete but he got the ray and pinfish checked off pretty quickly.  After what seemed like quite a while we finally started getting into some real fish. 

One nice overslot red can change your day.  It put up a great fight and was just a little larger than 28 inches.  That was the only solid fish until this snook showed up. 

It slammed a shrimp under the mangroves and actually jumped inside the mangroves but managed to keep itself out of the roots just enough for me to feather the reel and pull it back underneath the limbs into open water.   I didn't measure since I wanted to get it back in the water but it will probably be a keeper in a few weeks when the season opens back up.

We fished that hole a little more then moved down to a cut since the water was up higher later in the morning and caught a couple more smaller reds and on one of the last shrimp my cork disappeared with this underneath it.  Redfish tacos are on the menu tonight!

It wasn't a Lousiana redfish but it will do

Got out with Josh this morning at CRB to chase some inshore fish.  We had to wait quite a while on the shrimp guy so we missed our sunrise opportunities for big snook but we found a couple snooklets for the slam for Josh.

We started right away headed to the first redfish spot and when we got there the tide was moving by the mangroves as predicted and it didn't take long to pull in a nice red to the boat.

I caught mine on a free-lined shrimp.  The bite was coming on fast and it wasn't long before Josh joined with another keeper red on a shrimp under a popping cork.

 

Josh's first Florida redfish.  Then it was time to get serious and Josh got on the board with a huge snook.

                                          

Well ok not really.  But he got to cross that species off his list and there will be plenty of time to get a bigger one.  We ended up catching a few more small snook up to 16 inches or so on both the cork and the free-lined shrimp.  We also pulled in a few more reds and mangrove snappers.  We fished that hole for an hour or so before leaving those fish for the cut right down the mangroves.  The tide wasn't moving very strong but we were able to catch a jack, catfish and a couple of smaller reds before we decided it would be the perfect time to drift the flats to get that slam.  

We got out to the flats with an awesome view of the Skyway and of St. Pete and Josh finished up his Tampa Bay slam on his first trip out.

 

From there we were quickly out of shrimp and as you can see the bay was like glass so we ran out to some markers and a little south to run the big engine a little and then it was back to the dock by the the sun was way overhead and the temps were rising.  Looks like redfish tacos are back on the menu tonight!

 

Fish Taco Recipe

I though I would put up the recipe for the fish taco sauce instead of having to email it out all the time:


1/2 cup - sour cream
1/2 cup - mayo
1/2 tsp - cumin
1/2 tsp - ground coriander
1/2 tsp - dried dill weed
1/2 tsp - oregano
1/2 tsp - ground chipotle chili powder (I use the Ms. Dash Southwest Chipotle, and I add quite a bit)
hot pepper if wanted - minced
1 tbs - fresh cilantro chopped
1 - lime for some acid



Put it in the re-frig and let sit for a few hours and then put on some fresh pan seared fish.  Yum!

On the tacos we like a little carrots or red cabbage for some crunch, a little pepper jack cheese for some zing and some tomatoes and lettuce and maybe some fresh avacado to round out the taco.  Add some yellow rice and some beans and you've got a really nice meal.