Monday, February 25, 2013

Time to resuscitate this blog

3 months is an eternity to go without a blog post.  It really means you've pretty much given up on the beast.

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!

6 comments:

Mark Kautz said...

Hi Joe. Yeh, Florida do tend to rain in buckets. Nice Snook. I'm guessing maybe 12 - 15 lbs. Would have made some tasty fillets.

Casey said...

RIGHT ON! Congrats, Joe. Nice hearing from you, as always.

Unknown said...

Hey Joe, glad to hear you're still alive and kicking. Great snook. Wish you would have lied and said you got it on a fly rod. But, it's all good.

Bill said...

Good hearing from you again! Nice snook!

Fish Whisperer said...

Nice snook. Good to see you posting again.

Fat Boy said...

Nice fish Joe! Congrats! Did you find any fossils on your trip?