St Marks - A memorable afternoon
Posted: April 20th, 2006, 12:11 pm
Had a good friend bring his 10 year old boy over from MS to try to get him a redfish. Seems simple enough. He just happended to bring his triton aluminum duck boat to fish the lakes during the evenings and that turned out to be important cause my boat had to go to the shop the day before we were supposed to go 
. This time of year, they want a left n*t and 6 month wait. So, I'm hosed.
His boat has no troller so I brought my old transom mount to hook on and we launched at Wakulla Beach instead of running to my favorite areas (where TC wore them out as it turns out). Speaking of launching, he had to put his truck way in the water
to launch. Oh well, dodge is known for their rust resistance 
.
Well, my good buddy had 6 rods, a 4' net, a push pole, 2 paddles, 3 gas tanks, 2 batteries, a cooler and us 3 bodies. Tight, but comfortable, for the 3 of us!
We motor out to find some trout and to drift a bar for reds. First couple drifts the little fella lands a nice trout (17") on top, and a big lady fish that he really enjoyed fighting. I have a roll on top near the bar and tell him to cast over there. Low and behold he places it on top of the roll like lefty kreh or something. Bam! A nice red is on! The Red runs towards and under the boat and I notice his spool aint turning. Pops had the drag set for tarpon or something. Much to our chagrin, the red breaks off on the good run they make upon first seeing the boat. That turned out to be a costly mistake!
We put another 16" in the boat that my friend catches and then off to another spot. I see reds working the shore, but can't get the kid close enough for a cast (his dad had 17lb mono on the reels). So, off we go to find more reds up a creek. About this time the tide is rolling inand of course here comes the wind
.
Now were up goose creek with 12-15 winds, incoming tide, a troller on the back, a few holes in our shirts from the little fellas missed casts, a couple broken down rods from the little fellas missed casts, and having a blast. But, it was hard as hell to control the boat to get in position for a cast to a likely place. Pops is being very good and letting lil fella take all the casts. Then I see a honey of a spot. Tell the lil' fella to fling his spoon right up the cut and he makes a perfect cast, despite the 17lb test mono that appeared to have been spooled in 1983. As he returns it to the boat a upper slot to over slot red just missed the spoon as he pulled it out of the water . By this time were blown away on to find another spot. On and on, we caught alot of shoreline, oysters, shirts, and engines, but couldn't find him a red.
Well, for a fitting end. We get between two likely spots with the two of them in the front of the boat I see a cast that cannot be refused. So I shift from port to starboard. Of course, this rig has no rear platform, so I kinda had to jump across the rear end. Upon landing on the other side, I noticed some arms flailing in in circles at the front of the boat . I give him credit he held it for a good 10 seconds before belly flopping in the water rod in hand. My old buddy, taking a swim and messing up a good spot! As well as a perfectly good cell phone! When he pulled it out of his pocket the lil fella says " is that your cell phone daddy?" "Yes, son." Lil' fella "it is probably dead like those fish now".
I tried to talk pops into waiting for the outgoing tide as I knew we would wear em out! But, he was spent. Lil fella was a trooper and had a great time and was the source of many a good laughs for me, altough his pop looked a bit miffed untangling line all day.
Boatless in Tally.
. This time of year, they want a left n*t and 6 month wait. So, I'm hosed.His boat has no troller so I brought my old transom mount to hook on and we launched at Wakulla Beach instead of running to my favorite areas (where TC wore them out as it turns out). Speaking of launching, he had to put his truck way in the water
to launch. Oh well, dodge is known for their rust resistance . Well, my good buddy had 6 rods, a 4' net, a push pole, 2 paddles, 3 gas tanks, 2 batteries, a cooler and us 3 bodies. Tight, but comfortable, for the 3 of us!
We motor out to find some trout and to drift a bar for reds. First couple drifts the little fella lands a nice trout (17") on top, and a big lady fish that he really enjoyed fighting. I have a roll on top near the bar and tell him to cast over there. Low and behold he places it on top of the roll like lefty kreh or something. Bam! A nice red is on! The Red runs towards and under the boat and I notice his spool aint turning. Pops had the drag set for tarpon or something. Much to our chagrin, the red breaks off on the good run they make upon first seeing the boat. That turned out to be a costly mistake!
We put another 16" in the boat that my friend catches and then off to another spot. I see reds working the shore, but can't get the kid close enough for a cast (his dad had 17lb mono on the reels). So, off we go to find more reds up a creek. About this time the tide is rolling inand of course here comes the wind
. Now were up goose creek with 12-15 winds, incoming tide, a troller on the back, a few holes in our shirts from the little fellas missed casts, a couple broken down rods from the little fellas missed casts, and having a blast. But, it was hard as hell to control the boat to get in position for a cast to a likely place. Pops is being very good and letting lil fella take all the casts. Then I see a honey of a spot. Tell the lil' fella to fling his spoon right up the cut and he makes a perfect cast, despite the 17lb test mono that appeared to have been spooled in 1983. As he returns it to the boat a upper slot to over slot red just missed the spoon as he pulled it out of the water
. By this time were blown away on to find another spot. On and on, we caught alot of shoreline, oysters, shirts, and engines, but couldn't find him a red. Well, for a fitting end. We get between two likely spots with the two of them in the front of the boat I see a cast that cannot be refused. So I shift from port to starboard. Of course, this rig has no rear platform, so I kinda had to jump across the rear end. Upon landing on the other side, I noticed some arms flailing in in circles at the front of the boat
. I give him credit he held it for a good 10 seconds before belly flopping in the water rod in hand. My old buddy, taking a swim and messing up a good spot! As well as a perfectly good cell phone! When he pulled it out of his pocket the lil fella says " is that your cell phone daddy?" "Yes, son." Lil' fella "it is probably dead like those fish now".I tried to talk pops into waiting for the outgoing tide as I knew we would wear em out! But, he was spent. Lil fella was a trooper and had a great time and was the source of many a good laughs for me, altough his pop looked a bit miffed untangling line all day.
Boatless in Tally.
.
He gave his cell phone a bath last time too. 2 cells in 2 trips. He is actually a good fisherman, but things get hectic with his boys in the boat.