15 Jun 2008

I arrived at Galvez Landing at 0620 to find it full of emergency vehicles, including Life Flight. The helicopter was taking off as I tried to turn into the parking lot. The emergengy crews were really nice and moved the ambulance and the fire truck to let me through as soon as the scene was safe. Ben, his son Kevin, Jim and Bob showed up a few minutes later, as the fire engine was leaving, wondering what was going on. I gave them a brief recap, launched the boat, and we were underway, only a few minutes late.

First order of business...get bait. I'd set traps on friday for todays trip, and picked them up this morning (for a total of 3 dozen or so nice Pinfish). We proceeded out of the pass and headed straight for the bait boat to get some live Cigar Minnows.

Around this time Jim asks "Is this a dolphin cruise or are we going to fish?"
I respond "When we're ready, we'll fish, and what, you don't like dolphins?"

I've fished with Ben and Jim a lot, and were constantly messing with each other...all in good fun. Check out some of our other adventures 11/17/07,7/20/07,05/27/07

We run from the bait boat to the Sea Bouy and I set out 2 live Cigs. I barely had time to get the 2nd rod in the holder when the first bait got eaten. Kevin was hooked into a nice King on 12lb, and was loving every minute of it. I proudly announce that the dolphin cruise portion of the morning was over and now the fishing would commence.

We continued slow trolling livies for a little over an hour; toward the nearshore public reef we were fishing yesterday. We boated one more nice King, pulled the hooks on 2 more, and had a few baits mangled. The action slowed so we polished of the remaining miles running. Once we got to our spot we baited up with Pinfish and fired away. Kevin was the first to connect, with a nice Amberjack (on a Trout rod).



Baits were lost, a few fish made it to the wreck, we got another AJ to the boat, then Bob had a tug-of-war with the fish of the day, or should I say dinner of the night. A beautiful 10lb Gag Grouper.


A nice Lane Snapper was added to our tally just as the wind was picking up from the NE and the clock was winding down...it was time to go.

Back at the ramp I cleaned fish and we said good-bye, until next time (which for Ben and I is this comming Friday)

Thanks again guys, there's never a dull moment around you.

14 Jun 2008 Fishin' Chix PRB Pensacola

I picked up Bette, Amanda, Sandra, and Jan at the Atlas Oyster Bar at 0600. My friend Randy was running late and he had the bait I'd caught yesterday. To facilitate getting my bait Capt. D.P. and I split Randy's group between us and took them to him. We met up in the middle of the bay and traded people for bait, then were on our way.

Redfish were our first target. We approached our dock, both me and DP, and began tossing live shrimp. No Redfish. DP's crew hooked and lost a nice Ladyfish and Jan put us on the board with a Flounder. We moved around, fishing a half a dozen different piers, with nothing but Pinfish to show for it. The weather was deteriorating to the north, but it was all moving to the west, away from us. We decided to head out for a King before the weather got too bad and we couldn't make it out there. At least we'd have a little while to fish til we needed to get back inshore and away from the t-storms.

It took 30 min to get enough baits to Kingfish with. Then we ran straight for one of our nearshore public reefs. A dive boat was already anchored but the crew was sitting on deck having lunch. We'd have a little while before they got in the water, so we had to make the most of it. Two Cigs went over and minutes later Amanda was hooked up with the fish of her life. A 10lb Amberjack on 12lb tackle put up one heck of a fight, but Amanda persisted, and after a few minutes we subdued the beast. Amanda was so excited!!


We reset the baits and upon one full circle of the wreck one of the reels starts to sing that sweetest of songs...Kingfish!!! Bette was on the rod and what a great job she did! We landed our King and struck out for the beach in search of Ladyfish, Bluefish, and Spanish Mackerel. Once to the beach, white jigs and Gotcha's were deployed, and we began trolling. It wasn't long and Sandra was on with a BIG Ladyfish. That's when the dolphins showed up, all the women got excited and I got upset. I raised my voice at the dolphin, and got funny looks from the chix. They didn't realize that the dolphin was, at the moment, EATING our tournament fish!!!

Sandra pulled in her Ladyfish head, all that was left after the dolphin was done with it. We did manage to pull 4 Ladyfish in before they could get eaten. A quick move to the other side of the pass produced our one Spanish of the day.

About this time my Dad calls to tell me that I need to get off the water. I told him that all that stuff was moving west and we'd be fine where we were. He says that its turned and is heading directly for us! Sure enough, here it comes.

We ran back into the bay and down towards Gulf Breeze hoping to fish a little while longer. By the time we got to the breeze the wall of water was rapidly approaching. It was 1230 or so and we figured the smart move was to head back to the dock, and that's what we did.

Our fish looked good on the leaderboard, for the time they stayed there. Our last fish on the board, Jan's Flounder, got bumped by one of the last boats to get back. Oh well...maybe next time. We all had a great time, got a free shower, and made it back safely.

Thanks again ladies, looking forward to the next one.

07 June 2008

I met Capt. DP and Jerry (from George's Marine Electronics) at Shoreline Park at 0500 for a morning of Trout fishing. We decided we'd head east and hit some docks near Navarre, nothing but artificials on todays menu.

The catching wasn't red hot, quite a few fish swatted at our baits but wouldn't commit, we pulled the hooks on a couple more. A few fish, however, did find their way into the net; by 0900 we had caught 4 Specks (2 legal fish and 2 shorts), 2 Redfish, and a Flounder.

A small electrical difficulty cost a half hour or so to resolve and we elected to head it back to the ramp; stopping to check a select few more docks on the way. On our last stop: Capt. DP got run into the pilings, I got hung up like 3 or 4 times, Jerry caught a short grouper, and my wife called me and placed a pick up order for lunch. We all had wives to get home to and afternoons full of family time. It was just after 1100 when the boat bumped up to the dock.

Thanks again D.P., for another successful morning, it was a pleasure to fish with you guys.

01 June 2008

Cindy and I have been trying to get a trip set up for months now. Her Mom just had back surgery a few months ago, putting a damper on our fishing for a little while, and is finally in good enough shape to take on some fish!

We met at Shoreline Park at 0630, launched the boat, and got underway before the crowd showed up at the ramp.

We started the day looking for a Trout around some piers. Never a Trout did we find, but we did locate some Mangrove Snappers that were hungry. Unfortunately, all the Snappers we caught (6 or so) were just shy of the 10" minimum set by the state. A quick run to another of my favorite docks, that's been holding slot Reds. 4 casts, 3 bites, 2 Redfish, 1 broken leader.

Once we got our Reds in the boat, we decided to mix things up a bit. I haven't gotten on a Spadefish bite since last summer. I've recently gotten a few reports of them around so I headed to see if the reports were true. Indeed they were and, even with the poor water clarity at our spot, we hooked 4 and landed 2. With dinner in the well, and the sun rapidly rising, we returned to Shoreline Park. After 20 minutes of waiting to tie the boat up and another 20 min to get the truck to the ramp I got the boat loaded and cleaned our catch.


Thanks again Cindy, I had a great morning.

You guys keep an ear out for Cindy (MY 107.3 in the mornings)