St. Marks 2008.03.30 - a very odd fishing partner
Posted: March 30th, 2008, 7:56 pm
When I checked the weather report this morning, we almost didn't go (winds 10-15 knots all day, scattered t-storms, watch for lightning etc is what it said), but with possible storms predicted around 12-1om and "high tide" at 11am, told Mojo let's go ride the wind until the bite slows down after high tide and call it a day. Got off to a bit of a late start after seriously considering not going at all, and I don't think we were in the water until about 8am. It was dark, kinda cold, and blustery as heck. We got super wet about half way between the light house and bird rack.
Planned on going west today to scout more big fish spots for Saturday, but after the 3rd tsunami hit the boat in the channel, we decided to take our wet selves east so the wind would be at our back if we needed to make an escape from looming thunderstorms. We thought about going back toward aucilla but the wind was at least 15 knots steady early on and blowing almost straight out of the east and we were a little cold and wet already. Also we didn't want to end up on the worng side of a bunch of rocks and oysters if or when storms hit.
We ended up hitting up some rocky areas that we knew for sure we could get out of on plane if necessary and running some 3-5mph drifts for the first couple hours today. I picked up one 'barely-a-keeper' trout within a few casts. After that we again got unlimited shorts with no lapse in the bite.
Wind calmed a little, moved in to a slightly less navigable area...repeated same. I hauled in another keeper flounder before 10, and around that time the weather started clearing up. Still windy but the sun came out and no clouds as far as the eye could see to the east. We ended up hitting a creek where I got another flounder, very large, right to the edge of the boat where it hung still for a minute and spit my zulu back at me. Didn't even swim away for a while. ^@$#$^%!!! Mojo and I both choked on several reds. They were biting often but not hard. Weren't in the mood for hook setting today. We ended up in the creek until the tide turned and the bite disappeared completely.
zomg! on a Gulp!
Wind got relatively calm compared to what it was earlier, maybe 5mph gusting to 8 or 10 the rest of the day. We went out and tried deep water again. There were some mackerel and a few trout out there. Moved in a few feet shallower and got diddly squat. couple feet shallowr still and got more macks and trout. ended up drifitng from about a mile south of stoney bayou to the channel, stopping a few times to run north as the wind shifted slightly and was blowing us south as well as west.
A few miles in to our drifts, we ran in to a strange character... A fellow fisherman named Peter. Odd looking. Never seen anyone fishing that looked quite like this before. He just came in flying up to the boat 2 or 3 miles off shore out of nowhere, got IN our boat, sat on Mojo's lap (which we both thought was a little weird, but you know, don't ask don't tell!) and introduced himself.
!
He talked to us about fishing for a while and said he liked trout, flounder, reds and spanish but that small pinfish were his favorite. He said his favorite technique is drifting and gigging or just scooping them up without a pole. I set him up with a Gulp! jerk shad and he sat up on my Captiva where he could get a bird's-eye view, trolling for pinfish.
He didn't get anything on the Gulp and eventually complained about the smell of them, but he started throwing one of Mojo's AllStar rods with a small candy-corn Saltwater Assassin. Eventually hooked up with a NICE 2" pinfish and hauled it over the side. He had such great technique pinching the line to the rod so the fish couldn't tear off drag. When he got the fish in, he did the craziest thing. He picked it up out of the net with his mouth! ...and ATE IT! ...RAW! ...Just ...RIGHT THERE ...on the BOAT! ...What the?!?!?
After that, Mojo landed a very fat trout around 20 on the flutter shad again, and Peter helped with the net but that picture didn't come out very well. He actually held on to it at speeds of up to 30mph (I'm not kidding about that, he really did) and rode with us all the way back to the lighthouse, at which point he took a goodbye picture with Mojo, then just spread his wings and flew away.
YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS $#|7 UP!!!
Peace out Peter!
Planned on going west today to scout more big fish spots for Saturday, but after the 3rd tsunami hit the boat in the channel, we decided to take our wet selves east so the wind would be at our back if we needed to make an escape from looming thunderstorms. We thought about going back toward aucilla but the wind was at least 15 knots steady early on and blowing almost straight out of the east and we were a little cold and wet already. Also we didn't want to end up on the worng side of a bunch of rocks and oysters if or when storms hit.
We ended up hitting up some rocky areas that we knew for sure we could get out of on plane if necessary and running some 3-5mph drifts for the first couple hours today. I picked up one 'barely-a-keeper' trout within a few casts. After that we again got unlimited shorts with no lapse in the bite.
Wind calmed a little, moved in to a slightly less navigable area...repeated same. I hauled in another keeper flounder before 10, and around that time the weather started clearing up. Still windy but the sun came out and no clouds as far as the eye could see to the east. We ended up hitting a creek where I got another flounder, very large, right to the edge of the boat where it hung still for a minute and spit my zulu back at me. Didn't even swim away for a while. ^@$#$^%!!! Mojo and I both choked on several reds. They were biting often but not hard. Weren't in the mood for hook setting today. We ended up in the creek until the tide turned and the bite disappeared completely.
zomg! on a Gulp!
Wind got relatively calm compared to what it was earlier, maybe 5mph gusting to 8 or 10 the rest of the day. We went out and tried deep water again. There were some mackerel and a few trout out there. Moved in a few feet shallower and got diddly squat. couple feet shallowr still and got more macks and trout. ended up drifitng from about a mile south of stoney bayou to the channel, stopping a few times to run north as the wind shifted slightly and was blowing us south as well as west.
A few miles in to our drifts, we ran in to a strange character... A fellow fisherman named Peter. Odd looking. Never seen anyone fishing that looked quite like this before. He just came in flying up to the boat 2 or 3 miles off shore out of nowhere, got IN our boat, sat on Mojo's lap (which we both thought was a little weird, but you know, don't ask don't tell!) and introduced himself.
!
He talked to us about fishing for a while and said he liked trout, flounder, reds and spanish but that small pinfish were his favorite. He said his favorite technique is drifting and gigging or just scooping them up without a pole. I set him up with a Gulp! jerk shad and he sat up on my Captiva where he could get a bird's-eye view, trolling for pinfish.
He didn't get anything on the Gulp and eventually complained about the smell of them, but he started throwing one of Mojo's AllStar rods with a small candy-corn Saltwater Assassin. Eventually hooked up with a NICE 2" pinfish and hauled it over the side. He had such great technique pinching the line to the rod so the fish couldn't tear off drag. When he got the fish in, he did the craziest thing. He picked it up out of the net with his mouth! ...and ATE IT! ...RAW! ...Just ...RIGHT THERE ...on the BOAT! ...What the?!?!?
After that, Mojo landed a very fat trout around 20 on the flutter shad again, and Peter helped with the net but that picture didn't come out very well. He actually held on to it at speeds of up to 30mph (I'm not kidding about that, he really did) and rode with us all the way back to the lighthouse, at which point he took a goodbye picture with Mojo, then just spread his wings and flew away.
YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS $#|7 UP!!!
Peace out Peter!
