Hands Helping Anglers 2007

[Steve Stinson]

Well, I've returned from this years HHA trip. I am not sure wether to file this report under "Inshore" or "Offshore" since we did both, but here it goes.

We launched at Lanark after picking up our food, drinks, and supplies at Jerry's. The seas were very calm, so we headed out to deep water, thinking we may be able to get some grouper. I had Calvert Durden, his father in law, and daughter with me. We began to see several groups of fish on the depth finder before we ever reached the spot I'd entered in the gps, so we slowed down and began to drag a couple of Stretch plugs for the last mile. We turned up several gags, but none large enough to keep.




Thinking that we may be able to turn up some larger fish, we stopped and dropped bait down into a couple of the areas where we were marking fish. With the motion of the boat stopping and the heat bearing down, Calvert's daughter Nyesha (sp?) quickly began to feel the seas. We resumed trolling, in an effort to settle her stomach,but only turned up a keeper sea bass and she wasn't improving any, so we made a run for the flats.

Near shore, we found multiple trout, (about 4 keepers I think), several sharks, several bluefish, and believe it or not, a 4" barracuda on a sabiki rig.




I have to say that Nyesha did a great job. She never did recover completely until the ride back in, but she didn't complain a lot either. I've heard a lot more griping out of seasick adults that I did out of her. She kept helping her Grandad pull in fish the entire day.

Grandad was a hoot too. We joked and told stories all day. He was a great fisherman and a big help with handling the boat and tending to Calert and his daughter. I just thought land surveyors were a tough bunch. I asked what he did before he retired - roofed houses in Miami working 41 years for the same company! His name after that question was just plain SIR!

Thanks to John McBride, Bud Halbert, Scott Paterna, and the rest of the folks that put HHA '07 together and made it a success. This event, as always, is it's own reward.

- Steve Stinson

[What a mess]

There is no better way to do it, do the do and bless someone too!

[breeze]

That young'un looks like she had the time of her life despite the heat and seas!

[Capt Reggie]

Way to go, Steve...outstanding trip with those folks!

My party consisted of Suni & Trisha Patel, with Brad Truesdell as my 1st Mate! Brad is a recently returned warrior veteran (SEAL) from the fight "over there", so this was a double, extra grand trip for me!!! I met up with Brad at my house and we headed over to stop @ Jerry's for food, ice, & drinks! Thank you for the gift certificate!

At Shield's Marina in St. Marks, we launched the Miss Courtney and met our guest, the Patel's at dockside. The weather was calm, little winds, bright with few clouds skyward, temperature 80'-90's all day; water temp = 80's, very nice clear waters, too much floating grass, though! We peeled out down the river and over to the east flats out to the stake line and commenced fishing with CT's Gulps, & Slurps!

We tried depths of 5-12 feet waters both inshore and past the stake lines, but never found a keeper trout all day. The Patel's caught many smaller trout, rock bass, and bluefish, but none measured up! It didn't seem to matter as Suni stayed up front constantly casting around the boat and managing to catch a fish once in awhile. The Mrs. was very good at casting the various soft baits and caught a pretty good amount of shorts herself!

My 1st Mate, Brad, was a Godsend - I can't thank this young man enough...he made the trip so much easier on an old, slow Capt.!!! When there was a re-bait or re-rig, Brad was like lightening quick to help out the Patels! He is welcomed aboard my boat anytime (in fact I'm inviting him along to show some fly fishing techniques next week or so)! I found out that the DOA Lazer Eye Shad soft baits are killer-diller stuff, down deep, reel slow...I'll be trying some more very soon. Those of you that have not tried the Bass Assassin Slurps, as a substitute for Berkley's Gulp, need to do so - they work almost as good! I like the way the DOA Jig Heads keep the Gulps & Slurps on better, also.

About 2:30 the weather turned sour on us, the winds whipping up to 15-20 mph, southward, whitecaps & 3-foot waves not comfortable to my guests, as well as the rain making up westerly! So, we headed in port, unfortunately without any fish to clean for the Patels. I noticed JP51 had a good supply of fish they were cleaning at the dock for his guests!

I want to especially thank the members of our NFGFclub, BBFNet, The Rotary, and others for a great showing on this HHA event. We all do this out of love and wouldn't take a penny for any service! These are the times to give back to society and to those folks less fortunate than those of us that can fish any darn time we want to, eh!

[Jumptrout51]

My honored guest for the HHA is Mike. At the ramp at Shields he quickly informed me that this was HIS day and did I have any beer on the boat. After assuring him there was no beer he sent his driver to the store for a 6 pack.
All loaded up and ready to cruise down the river he asked if he could take a nap. I asked if he felt alright. He said he stayed awake all night excited about going fishing. We were cruising down the St.Marks at a brisk 9 mph in the pontoon boat. Once in front of the Lighthouse we veered to the west. A short while later we set up a drift in 10' of water. My passenger was still asleep. About 1 hour and 50 ladyfish later he wakes up and is ready to fish. He quickly puts several ladyfish in the boat and then asked about catching BIG sharks.
We put 4 nice 18-19 inch trout in the cooler.
It got unbearably hot and still. We decided to cruise to the east flats and get a chance to cool off in the 9 mph breeze.
When we got to spot number 2 we set up a drift in 6 feet of water.
By now Mike decides it is time for his beer. Like a lot of us,the bite seems to get better after you down a couple cold ones. Mike started catching lots of trout.We kept 10 trout,all 18-20 inches long. Soon , it was time to make the 1 hour run back to the ramp. With a box full of speckled trout,beer in the belly and a smile on his face,Mike drifted off to sleep again.
Back at the ramp,I cleaned and dressed all HIS fish and packed them for his trip home.
TIGHT LINES MIKE.

[RodBow]

My mate and I stopped by Jerry's to check in and get our goodies from John, Charlie and Blan. Then met up with Scott, our rider, at the fort.

Scott came totally self sufficient- water, MP3 player, sunscreen, food, like he was on a deployment or something...

We went East and started in 11 since it was nearing slack tide and had some practice time. Scott settled in on a straight jig on a spincaster (even though he held it upside down) and that worked better than the CT rig.
We moved around some joining the bunch of boats off the Mare and picked up keeper trout, small rock bass, lizard fish, a small cobia.

We had tangled lines, no hooks in flesh, some tense moments, a lost R&R,
jazz music, and a good time!

Scott had fun, we had fun and the event was a "good thing".

(no pics)