St. Marks 10/29
Posted: October 30th, 2004, 10:55 am
Took my wife and youngest son out for a rather interesting day. This is how it went:
8:15 Start trying to leave the house.
9:15 Leave the house
9:45 Finally get to the ramp (still whining about the $96 that I just spent on gas.)
9:50 Wife takes son over to the restroom, I go to launch the boat. Like many other times when launching by myself, I tied a rope to the bow and then the other end to the truck with plenty of slack to catch the boat when it comes off the trailer.
9:51 As boat slides off trailer, rope gets tangled around wench. Rope snaps. Boat floats away.
9:52 Unload pockets on dock. Enjoy the sound of laughter from the deck up the river and the bank down the river. Swim to the middle of the river and get the boat.
9:57 Wife gets to the dock and parks the truck. Comes back and asks why I'm wet.
10:30 Stop before the bird rack to catch some bait. Can't catch pinfish for the trout. Hook two monster trout on a bait catching rig. One straigtens out the hook and the other cuts the line near the boat. Spend the next 30 minutes throwing a jig under a CT. Not one hit. Start back fishing for bait. They're gone too.
11:45 Relocate to hunt some bait. Put plenty of big pins in the live well.
12:30 Crank up and head south.
1:00 Throw buoy out on hole. Buoy won't flip. Go get it and try again.
1:15 Anchor up and start fishing. Bring up quite a few short reds and gags. Put three keeper reds in the cooler and the biggest rock bass I've ever seen.
2:00 Wife hooks something that starts stripping line. It runs directly under the boat and towards the prop. I get out on the bracket to try and keep the line from getting wrapped. Then it runs back under the boat headed the other way and the line is free.
2:30 Wife still fighting fish. After two full laps around the boat, she is somehow able to avoid getting tangled in the anchor rope (which I should have already pulled up). Then we drift by the grouper buoy.
Anchor rope cut.
2:32 Crank up and go get buoy before it gets tangled. Fish beats me to it. Able to get the line untangled as the fish goes back to the other side of the boat, but push the buoy away from the boat in the process. Use trout rod to reach out and grab buoy. Trout rod breaks.
2:45 Wife still fighting fish. Won't let me help. The 50 lb. Trilene has come close to being spooled completely from the Okuma about three times now.
3:00 Wife finally gets fish surfaced near the boat. 6' - 7' tiger shark takes a look at us and runs again.
She agrees to let me help.
3:10 Get the fish horsed to the surface again. I notice a lot of frayed line coming into the real while bringing him up. I notice a lot of frayed line going back out of the real when he leaves again. Give the rod back to wife before I get accused of losing the fish.
3:12 Wife insists that we are putting shark in boat. I insist that we're not.
3:15 Leader gets cut off and its all over. Boat is about 1/2 mile from where we started.
3:30 Get back to the hole and start drifiting across with live pins. No bites.
4:00 Still no bites. Wrap it up and head in.
5:30 Get home and clean fish.
8:30 Rub Icy-Hot on wife's back. Makes me feel a little funny.
I'll just stop right here.
8:15 Start trying to leave the house.
9:15 Leave the house
9:45 Finally get to the ramp (still whining about the $96 that I just spent on gas.)
9:50 Wife takes son over to the restroom, I go to launch the boat. Like many other times when launching by myself, I tied a rope to the bow and then the other end to the truck with plenty of slack to catch the boat when it comes off the trailer.
9:51 As boat slides off trailer, rope gets tangled around wench. Rope snaps. Boat floats away.
9:52 Unload pockets on dock. Enjoy the sound of laughter from the deck up the river and the bank down the river. Swim to the middle of the river and get the boat.
9:57 Wife gets to the dock and parks the truck. Comes back and asks why I'm wet.
10:30 Stop before the bird rack to catch some bait. Can't catch pinfish for the trout. Hook two monster trout on a bait catching rig. One straigtens out the hook and the other cuts the line near the boat. Spend the next 30 minutes throwing a jig under a CT. Not one hit. Start back fishing for bait. They're gone too.
11:45 Relocate to hunt some bait. Put plenty of big pins in the live well.
12:30 Crank up and head south.
1:00 Throw buoy out on hole. Buoy won't flip. Go get it and try again.
1:15 Anchor up and start fishing. Bring up quite a few short reds and gags. Put three keeper reds in the cooler and the biggest rock bass I've ever seen.
2:00 Wife hooks something that starts stripping line. It runs directly under the boat and towards the prop. I get out on the bracket to try and keep the line from getting wrapped. Then it runs back under the boat headed the other way and the line is free.
2:30 Wife still fighting fish. After two full laps around the boat, she is somehow able to avoid getting tangled in the anchor rope (which I should have already pulled up). Then we drift by the grouper buoy.
Anchor rope cut.2:32 Crank up and go get buoy before it gets tangled. Fish beats me to it. Able to get the line untangled as the fish goes back to the other side of the boat, but push the buoy away from the boat in the process. Use trout rod to reach out and grab buoy. Trout rod breaks.
2:45 Wife still fighting fish. Won't let me help. The 50 lb. Trilene has come close to being spooled completely from the Okuma about three times now.
3:00 Wife finally gets fish surfaced near the boat. 6' - 7' tiger shark takes a look at us and runs again.
She agrees to let me help.3:10 Get the fish horsed to the surface again. I notice a lot of frayed line coming into the real while bringing him up. I notice a lot of frayed line going back out of the real when he leaves again. Give the rod back to wife before I get accused of losing the fish.
3:12 Wife insists that we are putting shark in boat. I insist that we're not.
3:15 Leader gets cut off and its all over. Boat is about 1/2 mile from where we started.
3:30 Get back to the hole and start drifiting across with live pins. No bites.
4:00 Still no bites. Wrap it up and head in.
5:30 Get home and clean fish.
8:30 Rub Icy-Hot on wife's back. Makes me feel a little funny.
I'll just stop right here.
