I came close to giving up on it, but there's still something inside me that wants to keep writing, at least periodically.
So - I am going to re-dedicate myself to keeping this blog somewhat constantly updated. No matter how worthless and mundane the nonsense that comes forth actually is.
I'll start by going back to my roots - fishing.
I just returned back from a long weekend in Captiva FL. The plans were to split time between fishing and fossil hunting. In keeping with my past experiences, the weather turned to shit while I there - fronts blew through, temps dropped to the mid to lower 60's, brisk north winds. On the one good day, it was only raining. Like, raining buckets.
So, the one day I had set aside for fishing only got cancelled. I was going out with an old friend - Dave Gibson - and after talking the nite before, we mutually decided that, for a simple, fun day of fishing, Friday wouldn't be much fun. We'd be battling cold temps and high winds, post-front conditions, and the bay was a little torn up from the relentless winds and rain the day before.
No problem - I'd sleep late, and spend the day looking for shells, or drinking, or something.
I went out to the beach on Friday morning to look for shells and get some exercise. Winds howled, and I was glad I didn't go out fishing. Then I saw a guy walking up the beach, throwing a lure into the surf. Of course, I had to ask him if he was doing any god. "Not from this beach", he said, "but I got snook yesterday and jacks this morning from the beach between Captiva and Sanibel. Throwing a spoon." Of course, my fishing subconscious kicked in, and I was off.
I always bring a 3 piece spinning rod and a very basic assortment of lures on trips like this. Bucktail jigs, Stingray grubs, spoons, Mirrolures, swimbaits. I grabbed the one other guy on the trip who fished and we went to the cut between the islands.
The incoming tide was pretty heavy - a good thing. I have no idea what works here, but I have a little bit of an idea on the basics. Everyone seemed to be using live shrimp, but I felt like throwing lures. We watched a small (20") snook come in, then a flounder and a catfish. I rigged up a 1/2 oz. swimbait and started to cast. And cast. And cast.
2 short hits (or maybe they were just mullet that I hit with my bait on the retrieve). I was getting pretty close to calling it a day, when I got a hit. A SERIOUS hit. Lure stopped dead, fish jumped and took off. By some unfathomable stroke of good luck, I had actually looked at, and set, my drag. It screamed but held. Long story short - about 10 minutes later I held my biggest snook ever. Not a giant by Jupiter Inlet standards, but I'm pretty happy with it!
Hopefully, this is the beginning of more good things to come.
There are certainly more fossil stories coming!
