Lanark 3-4-06
Posted: March 5th, 2006, 8:39 am
Finally got a free day when the weather was decent. Boat has not been wet since December. NOAA says 15-20 offshore, but laying down in the afternoon, and a late afternoon high tide. I took my time getting ready - needed air in 2 tires, greased all 4, got the tree frogs and wrens out of the boat, bought fuel, food, etc. and headed towards Lanark.
I had seen that Dukesfin was looking for a ride, so I called him on the way down since I had not rounded up anyone else to go. He was at St. George and essentially told me to turn around because the wind was so strong. When I got to Medart, I thought about turning left to go hit a creek near St. Marks, but figured I would simply stay inside the Lanark reef hunting reds and trout if it was that bad. I really wanted to just get out and see if the boat still worked.
Arrived around noon and there was not much water, and fortunately not much of a crowd at the ramp. Wind was stiff, but not too bad close to the hill. Headed over to the docks and started a red hunt. Sighted a few, but the water was so skinny that they were all spooky, so I went to the reef and looked for action there. Finally got the skunk out of the boat with an 18" trout. Tried that pattern for a while but could not get any more, so I decided to go back in for reds since the tide was coming up. Noticed the wind was laying down a little, so I thought I would head outside the reef to see how things looked. Things looked GOOD, so I blasted off for DI and points beyond.
Put out Stretch 30's in 45' and went over some numbers. Bent a rod at about the third spot. Reeled up a small gag, de-hooked and started to throw it back when I decided to measure and discovered it was 22 1/32". Into the box! Looked out to see where the other Stretch was floating, and noticed that it had fins! So I reeled in and had a truly short gag. Kept trolling but found nothing, so I went back over the spot, and this time they sent up the bigger boys - put a 28" in the box. More trolling around, went back to the spot, and bent the rod again - a 26". Boxed it and looked around for the other Stretch, but could not find it, so I reeled till it got tight and dragged a 27" gag to the boat. Two doubles! Took one more pass with no hits and headed in, hitting the ramp at 5:00.
Beautiful day on the water - light crowds - guess they were all at the Chili-fest. The wind never went around to the north, but it went down to about 5-7 in the late afternoon and the seas laid down enough for a bay boat. Boat cleaning and grouper cooking on the agenda for today...
I had seen that Dukesfin was looking for a ride, so I called him on the way down since I had not rounded up anyone else to go. He was at St. George and essentially told me to turn around because the wind was so strong. When I got to Medart, I thought about turning left to go hit a creek near St. Marks, but figured I would simply stay inside the Lanark reef hunting reds and trout if it was that bad. I really wanted to just get out and see if the boat still worked.
Arrived around noon and there was not much water, and fortunately not much of a crowd at the ramp. Wind was stiff, but not too bad close to the hill. Headed over to the docks and started a red hunt. Sighted a few, but the water was so skinny that they were all spooky, so I went to the reef and looked for action there. Finally got the skunk out of the boat with an 18" trout. Tried that pattern for a while but could not get any more, so I decided to go back in for reds since the tide was coming up. Noticed the wind was laying down a little, so I thought I would head outside the reef to see how things looked. Things looked GOOD, so I blasted off for DI and points beyond.
Put out Stretch 30's in 45' and went over some numbers. Bent a rod at about the third spot. Reeled up a small gag, de-hooked and started to throw it back when I decided to measure and discovered it was 22 1/32". Into the box! Looked out to see where the other Stretch was floating, and noticed that it had fins! So I reeled in and had a truly short gag. Kept trolling but found nothing, so I went back over the spot, and this time they sent up the bigger boys - put a 28" in the box. More trolling around, went back to the spot, and bent the rod again - a 26". Boxed it and looked around for the other Stretch, but could not find it, so I reeled till it got tight and dragged a 27" gag to the boat. Two doubles! Took one more pass with no hits and headed in, hitting the ramp at 5:00.
Beautiful day on the water - light crowds - guess they were all at the Chili-fest. The wind never went around to the north, but it went down to about 5-7 in the late afternoon and the seas laid down enough for a bay boat. Boat cleaning and grouper cooking on the agenda for today...
