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!