Been warm enough the ice is opening up in a few spots. so close, yet so far away I did find a deal on some Whopper Plopper's on EBAY so as long as a Wupper Pooper doesn't show up in its place, that'll be nice.
I’m really contemplating just liquidating my shit at this point. So frustrating. It’s March 4th. https://myfwc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=87162eec3eb846218cec711d16462a72
This is where I turned around today. I'll go back and get above the falls. Caught 10 natives, all small. Hitting blue duns. An awesome day.
What elevation is this at? I've been itching to go up to the Parkway but assumed it was still too cold. Most of the streams I go to are ~4000 ft or more.
Think we caught then early. Between all the rain and this coming cold snap, I'd bet they'd be I the rivers in the coming weeks.
For some reason I've never used a knocker rig inshore or offshore. Always fish finder /carolina rig. That changes tomorrow. Fishing from noon to around 5pm. Winds are about 10mph with 2 foot seas. So not awful but gonna have a little chop. Probably need to stay mostly inshore. Water temps are mid 70s and the cobia are running. Tempted to go looking for them. But inshore the sheepshead are spawning. I want to fish a bridge with the knocker rig and see if I can find sheepshead. Also want to fish an artifical reef for white trout and specks. And in the same area there is a bayou where I have a shallow marshy bank that holds reds. So that's the plan.
It was blowing its ass off lol. Easily 15-20 knot wind and 2 foot seas in the protected bays. When we got to the first spot I noticed my engine wouldnt trim up Engine trim won't work and it's stuck in the all the way down position. I had to trailer the boat home looking like a complete newb with the engine trimmed all the way down almost hitting the road. I probably have 8 inches of ground clearance. Was scared shitless going over a train track. Mobile marine mechanic guy is going to work on it tomorrow and hopefully fix it. Bust out another thousand. We caught 1 keeper sheephead and 1 20 inch speckled trout and some hardhead catfish. Edit there's a way to use a screw drive and manually move the engine up I'm just now sure how to do it. Probably need to watch some youtube videos.
New rods should arrive tomorrow Fuck yeah, 3 day weekend, let's break them in Eat a dick Spring Fwiw it's 66 right now. Tomorrow, 2-4 inches of snow and 40-55 winds. Starting as rain, so who knows how much ice we end up with. Guess I'll be wearing pants.
1. Little heavier duty for power fishing, it's getting a high speed spinning reel that's on backorder 2. Better quality stick for finesse stuff
There are a decent number of great whites in the northern gulf. Videos of divers filming one seem to surface every year and I’ve seen one at a FAD, but I don’t recall anyone ever seeing one next to the beach. Pretty cool surprise for the angler, I’m sure.
I have an addiction to spending money on fishing and boating. It's a sickness. I think my next purchases are about to be siriux/xm marine weather antenna and a marine bean bag. I thought a radar dome would be great for weather but then realized you can't tell the direction of a storm with radar, you can only see where it currently is. Not where it has been or where it is likely moving to. Radar is still nice for low visibility situations. With siriux xm weather it overlays weather and storms on your chart plotter/map and you can animate it so that you can see it moving like on your phones weather radar app. $500 antenna and then $19 a month and you can just turn it off after the summer. Also going to get some ocean tamer bean bags. Getting the small wedges. Will be good for women with babys or small kids and also on long runs for offshore fishing trips the jump seats in the stern are decently comfortable but a bean bag is going to absorb the shock better.
RJF-GUMP those ocean tamer bags are nice. My buddy got one for his flats boat. We’d take turns napping running like 30 miles in and out of the Everglades. The bigger ones are probably even more comfy
One of their salesmen posts on THT and puts his contact info on there so I emailed him. He gave me his phone number and said call him . Then I've been calling and texting with him. 1st class customer service. He got me to take measurements. I have around 20 inches from outside of my leaning post to gunwhales. The large wedge is 20 inches. He said it would fit with some pushing down on it but the small would drop right in. He said he's 250 pounds and fits well in a small wedge. The tear drop is their most popular model but I don't think my boat has enough room for it. Probably works best in an open stern boat that is like a 26+ ft boat. My wife wanted something that she can ride with the baby in and feel more stable and same for other passengers that are mom/babys
I've noticed that many salesman in the cottage industries surrounding boating/fishing monitor facebook pages and THT and get customers that way. They look for people asking questions, give helpful responses, then provide you their contact info. Pretty smart. There's a guy that sells boat covers that gets a lot of customers that way.
I just picked up a Garmin Echomap UHD 73sv with the GT54 transducer for my kayak yesterday. Looking forward to getting it running. I’ll be fishing the flats 80% of the time but I hate pulling my phone out to look at a map. Plus the other 20% will be on a local lake for specks and bass. I also did the Yak-Power project and installed some lights and power ports on an 8 circuit switch. Overall, I think it’s pretty cool and it was pretty simple install, but drilling the first hole in the hull was pain. The plan is to go out in Port Canaveral in the evenings and fish until 10 pm or so. Tons of snook, redfish, flounder, pompano, etc in there
That is pretty badass. Cool to have a MFD in a kayak. I've been watching videos on side scan and trying to incorporate that into my repertoire. Still not sure exactly what I'm looking at when I use it. Been super windy and will continue to be through March and April. Might have some days where I can go out but it's like 20-25 knots this weekend. Instead I'm having some trailer work done and maintenance.
Thanks. It’s a beast and my first rig so I’m quickly learning why boats and the like are money pits. It’s a fun time, though.
They’re running a deal on them at West Marine and I wanted the button version. I showed up yesterday and they only had the touch screen though inventory showed they had both. The associate gave me the touch screen version at the button version with another $50 taken off. No complaints here.
Good to know, makes me feel even better about the purchase because I’m really good at overthinking stuff like this
my slump continues, cold snap on my first free weekend in a month. oh and some campers didn’t have their 4 large dogs tied up and they charged me on trail. only one was really aggressive. i had waders on and one of the dogs got hold of my gravel guards before i could kick him off. i was able to get a knife out, but before it charged again the owner came in and got them under control. i really didn’t plan to hike much further but kept going another half mile just to cool down. i had to walk past them again heading out a few hours later. the guy ran up to me to apologize, and i told him that i was okay, but a lot of guys here carry firearms and it could have been a lot worse. tl/dr: skunked
Just ordered some 1/0 Gamakatsu Octopus Hooks for inshore live bait fishing. Heard good things about them but don't know shit about Octopus hooks.