Changes in Latitude
Posted: November 30th, 2004, 9:27 am
Not really, but a change of plans did occur yesterday afternoon..
I had everything laid out to take the kayak over to Lanark for a shot at the reef,
when Freddy, my neighbor, came over to tell me a destinguished Carrabelle
senior had asked him to go trout and red hunting, and told him to ask me,
if I cared to go.
Normally, I would have declined the invitation, not wanting to be a tag
along, but here was an opportunity to fish with a life-long veteran of the area,
with fishing experience covering 60-65 years.
It was about 2 and we only planned to fish for 2-3 hours, so the rush was on to
get on the water.
The weather was good with partly cloudy sky, a lignt breeze and a ripple, and
temp around 70.
With the boat already in the water, we were quickly underway. The run was short
with a round trip burn of about 2 gallons, so we didn't get far from the mouth
of the CB river.
Luck looked to be with us. We boated a keeper trout on a Mirrorlure on the first
cast and 2 shorts followed suit. Within 30 minutes 2 short reds and a
black drum were brought in on frozen shrimp.
Then, as quickly as it started, they stopped. We moved- Nothing. Moved again-
Nothing. The fish faucet was turned off.
For the next couple of hours, we just tossed and reeled.
This was okay though, because our host was on a roll, telling us 'how it use to be'.
About his guiding days, About shrimping and Carrabelle politics. About, how one year
in Dec, 40 or 50 years ago, they had brought in 28,000 lbs of mullet in one boatload
and another time when they seined 8,000 lbs of trout, up where the rivers split,
Big trout- Some of them 30" or better.
It was an interesting afternoon to say the least, on the water, or if we had just been
sittin' on the tailgate of the truck.
I had everything laid out to take the kayak over to Lanark for a shot at the reef,
when Freddy, my neighbor, came over to tell me a destinguished Carrabelle
senior had asked him to go trout and red hunting, and told him to ask me,
if I cared to go.
Normally, I would have declined the invitation, not wanting to be a tag
along, but here was an opportunity to fish with a life-long veteran of the area,
with fishing experience covering 60-65 years.
It was about 2 and we only planned to fish for 2-3 hours, so the rush was on to
get on the water.
The weather was good with partly cloudy sky, a lignt breeze and a ripple, and
temp around 70.
With the boat already in the water, we were quickly underway. The run was short
with a round trip burn of about 2 gallons, so we didn't get far from the mouth
of the CB river.
Luck looked to be with us. We boated a keeper trout on a Mirrorlure on the first
cast and 2 shorts followed suit. Within 30 minutes 2 short reds and a
black drum were brought in on frozen shrimp.
Then, as quickly as it started, they stopped. We moved- Nothing. Moved again-
Nothing. The fish faucet was turned off.
For the next couple of hours, we just tossed and reeled.
This was okay though, because our host was on a roll, telling us 'how it use to be'.
About his guiding days, About shrimping and Carrabelle politics. About, how one year
in Dec, 40 or 50 years ago, they had brought in 28,000 lbs of mullet in one boatload
and another time when they seined 8,000 lbs of trout, up where the rivers split,
Big trout- Some of them 30" or better.
It was an interesting afternoon to say the least, on the water, or if we had just been
sittin' on the tailgate of the truck.
