BigBendFishing.Net

Decided to fish this morning since it seemed to be a cold but good forecast. Had lots of people deny my invitation but one of my good friends was able to go with me. Temperature was in the low 20's when we left the house and we were both wondering what kind of decision we had made. We left my house at 6, planning to get to Shell Island around 6 30 since they are the bait shop that opens up the earliest. When we arrived at Shell Island they were not open yet. We sat and waited until about 7 15 when they finally opened, even though they typically open at 6 30. When they finally did open they did not have any live shrimp. We found out that Shields had some so we headed that way and I decided that although we had wasted a good bit of time it was no big deal. We loaded up with live shrimp at Shields and headed for the fort.

As we prepared the boat for launch I noticed what could be a bit of an issue. Since we have been fishing so much we haven't been unhooking the boat at home, we just leave it hooked up to the car. The recent rain in the past week was still in the bottom of the boat since the boat wasn't up enough to drain. All of this rainwater had frozen overnight. It made for a nice ice skating rink in the bottom of the boat but I had not even seen the biggest problem yet. As I went to put the plug in the boat, they hole was frozen over with ice. So....for the next 45 minutes or so I used anything and everything sharp I had as a makeshift ice pick in order to break the ice to finally get the plug in and the boat launched. With all of that behind us I figured that we had endured the roughest part of our trip and it was time to catch fish.

We got the boat in and headed up the Wakulla because I wanted to try there first. After lots of moving around and bearing of the wind and fog, we ended up with only one rat red in the Wakulla. Not the start I was looking for, but then again, is anything going my way today? I decided it was time to idle way up the St. Marks.


We got up in the St. Marks and the bite was decent and better than it has been for me in the past week. We caught about 10 trout and 3 reds in my first spot and we were finally feeling like we were turning the day around. Most of the trout were small but we did put one that was about 17 inches in the cooler. We ran up river to my next spot and as we put the anchor down I put the boat in reverse in order to tighten up the anchor line and make sure we didn't drift over it. When i put the boat in reverse, we didn't go backwards.....so I put the boat in forward gear and we didn't go forward......what the heck is going on? I take a look at the motor and the prop is gone. We never hit anything all day or had any problems with the motor but now we had a very big problem. I hop up front to test out the trolling motor and it is also not working because it seems that the wires connecting it to the battery are no longer connected. We now have no way of moving the boat, but at least we are anchored and there are boats fairly nearby. We have unlimited towing through Towboat US so I make the phone call and then we sit in that spot for about an hour and fish before they finally arive and tow us back to the ramp. Ended up catching about 10 more trout with our biggest one being about 18 inches. With two fish in the cooler, we get towed to the ramp and head home. We saw some of our favorite fishing buddies along the way. Shields did not have the parts that we needed so we couldnt get it fixed right away and Mike's is closed til the beginning of January. I was planning on fishing with my Dad the next couple days but now the Williams Boys will be boatless for a while. Anybody need a fishing partner or two?

I would be scared to let you in my boat after that report.

Stay away from me too.

JT won't let you hold his pole your snake bit for sure.

Were you in the little john boat? I passed you in a 17 keywest twice, if you would have asked we would have pulled you in. I was asked by tow boat on our way out if we saw a john boat. Sorry about your luck. We caught one small red and about 40 trout and 8 keepers. Again i am sorry about your luck but feel free to ask for help next time. Hopefully for your sake there will not be a next time though.

I appreciate it kneeknocker. I just didn't ask for help since we have the towing package and we didn't have to pay anything for being towed in by those guys. I also didn't want to make anyone else go in before they were ready to just to tow us in. I appreciate the offer though.

Sounds like someone put bananas in your lunch box.
FF

That was the worst, well written story I've read in a long time. Honest, I tried not to laugh but every bad turn of events was more than I could take. Something that could have happened to anyone!

Kind of like reading "Cannary Row".

Thanks for your story. I thought nothing like that ever happens to anyone else but me!

"Sounds like someone put bananas in your lunch box."

Actually, no bananas, as Dad wasn't along. I always take a banana with me, never knew about the "curse" until reading it on here a while back.

Luc's had all the luck, the good and the bad. He's had to deal with a number of things that would have sent me overboard if I had been there. Always brings it home like a champ, good training, I guess.

Meanwhile, here I am at work when I planned to be fishing. "That's a life".

i don't need any of your luck either i've got enough bad luck of my own two of my rod and reels were stolen out of my boat this week at home .anyone wanna buy a nice custom made matthew jacobs new spiral wrap casting rod i could use the money to buy me another stradic.