Father's Day weekend found Matt and me, along with our families, in Pensacola. We were scheduled for a day-time sword trip with our good friend Chaz Heller followed by a day of snapper fishing with women and children (Heller High Water Charters / GotEm Gaffs). Water was too dirty for swords, so we bounced around and found an awesome mixed bag Saturday (tuna, gag, scamp, snapper, mahi, lionfish, tilefish, etc). We made the most of some bait busting tuna that popped up next to us while were deep dropping. We hooked three and caught 2. Day two resulted in the jumbo snapper limit below....28 minutes of fishing and we never dropped more than 40'; Chaz's pet snapper are more than accommodating.
The week prior found my in the Asheville area looking at potential wedding venues. The fish pics are the creek that flows behind my sister's house just outside of town. We spent plenty of time with my sister bouncing from brewery to brewery as well. Also found a potential wedding venue, but I'll lay off those pics and focus on fish. Assuming the bass is a rock bass based on the red eye, but feel free to correct me. Trout is a brookie for those wondering
Back one more week, and I was in Lake Placid/Lake June with Meghan's family for a skiing weened. As always, I carved out time to chase some fish, and managed a half dozen bass. Boo is doing pretty well learning new tricks for being an "old dog"; he enjoyed his first ride on a tube. Meghan's Aunt was having some boat troubles so I decided to take the Ranger, and it continues to fill all my boating needs.
The week prior was Memorial Day and my Dad's 65th. We were at CSB and found one of those epic redfish schools that run the Bay. Caught probably a dozen upper-overslot reds Monday morning, checked in our first STAR trout, and took the ICW into Appalach for his birthday dinner. For those who haven't run that section of the ICW, it is a beautiful ~30 miles through Wimico
I'll skip pics from RTSO weekend where Atticus and I finished 11th.
That takes me Bookelia Island where Meghan and I got engaged. We hit all the spots that folks on this board referenced and I managed probably 20 snook between 20-25". I saw some giants laid up, but I couldn't seal the deal. We spent about 10 minutes in BGP and watched 3 tarpon hook up, but Meghan wasn't liking the rollers.
Week prior found us in in MX on a work trip, but I did get day offshore in the boat below. We saw one marlin laid up at the beginning of the day and pitched it a live bait. The marlin gave two tail kicks towards the bait and I thought we were about to have a show, but alas, we never saw it again or any other fish that day. Still a nice ride with some great friends, and the Hard Efforts crew actually tried really hard.
I'm tired looking back at the past couple months. Ready for a break and some time on the big bend. Been a good couple of months, but faster than my preferred pace of living.
