18 November 2008 No Comment

Photos of our trip below.

Below for a second you can get in the mind of a fisherman. These are the emails that Tom wrote me preparing himself for the conditions of the day. His predictions were correct and we had a poor turnout by the actual fish. Ones worth keeping at least. We did catch two black drum fish, but only one worth keeping, so we ended up putting everything back. The adventure, to me, was what it was all about. Getting out of suburbia for a moment and realizing how much nature Florida has to offer it’s citizens if we are only willing to get off our couches and experience it. Within twenty minutes of the trip we saw a Bald Eagle, and at least ten dolphin.  Having never gone saltwater fishing before it is a trip I soon will not forget.

Emails from Tom preparing himself and me for the fishing conditions below:
…………………………..

Looking at the tide…it’s not setting up great because the last of
the outgoing and the first of the incoming is what you want to catch.
Our best chance to catch any of that is to get there super early. 6 am
sunday morning, and we’ll at least catch the early part of the
incoming. That’s better than trying to fish later in the day because
the tide is a 6.o, which means it’s going to be ripping real, real
hard in and out. You almost have to fish the last of the outgoing and
first of incoming to have much of a chance. By 9, it will be getting
tougher to catch fish, and the outgoing tide won’t be done honking
like a freight train until late afternoon. So, if catching fish is
important, we need to go as early as we can…for me that’s about six.
It will be dark and chilly but that’s kinda cool.

I’ll check the weather…and get back to you about sat or sun…if
you’re able to do either…

t

…………………….

So let’s do a super early sunday morning. let’s shoot for fishing by 6
am. That means meeting me at the ramp at 5:45. I’ll take care of
everything else. Do you know where the beach ramp is? You can google
it. Real easy. Go over the intercoastal on beach blvd, and go down to
the first light at the bottom of the hill. Take a left. You’re
basically going behind that big marina there with the big parking lot.
You;ll hit a stop sign just past Rick’s Bait store…take another
left. (the only way you can go) Follow it back. We’ll probably be done
fishing by noon…if all goes well. Maybe earlier. The tide will be
honking by then. You don’t need anything exept a fishing license. (you
can get one at kmart or walmart…I think it’s 12 bucks.) But I
recommend you get one, they always check me for some reason. And,
something to bring some fish home in, if mother nature is willing…

tom

……………….

yeah, 5:45 is optimistic…but the best time to be there would really
be like 3 am, and that’s just fking nuts so we want to there as early
as we reasonably can because the tide is a 6.o. That’s monster. That
means high tide is higher than usual, and low tide is lower, which
means a shtload of water will fill up the river and creeks, and then
dump out like a mfker. When that happens, fish hide because they don’t
want to expend all that energy feeding and swimming against the tide.
LIke a lion doesn’t hunt during the heat of the day. Middle to end of
the incoming and outgoing until half that water is out of the river it
will be very, very hard to catch fish. So by getting there super
early, we’ll catch the first of the incoming at least before there’s
so much water hauling ass no fish will be feeding except catfish and
stingrays which we don’t want to catch. Just saw the weather. Some
kind of cold front is coming through sat night…it’s going to be like
forty something degrees in the morning…warming up to a toasty 61.
That might shut the fish off…or it might make them hungry as
hell…never know. At any case, we’ll have fun.

………………..

B,

Let’s make it 6:15. Try to be at the boat ramp by 6:15.. If you’re a
little late, no worries. It will be nice to see the sunrise from the
water if we can….we’ll launch the boat in the first light of the
day. I’m going to bring water, a few brewskis, and some sandwiches.
You eat meat, right? After we fish, we’ll stop by my house and I’ll
help you fillet your fish, once again, if mother nature is willing
(you have to say that, mother nature doesn’t like it when you make
assumptions)…I’m hopeful you’ll have a chance to bring some black
drum home.

It will be cold. 41 degrees to start, going up to 60. I just hope that
it’s not storming or windy. I would rather have rain than wind. Not
sure how the fish will react to the lowest temperatures of the year.
They might freak out and eat a lot, or they might hunker down and not
eat anything. We also have a full moon, which hurts fishing the next
day, and increases the tide. The theory is that with a full moon, the
fish go up in the grass at night and feed so they’re full the next
day. So the deck is stacked against us…but your idea of just going
out and having the experience is the way to go. That is guaranteed.

t

…………….

Byron. I was up this am at six. Sitll pitch black. If you get this,
6:30 would be fine…

I also drove under the bridge and checked out the tide…as suspected
it’s coming in pretty good by 7 am. So the early start time is a good
idea. I saw a rainbow, a bald eagle and a little family of dolphins
all at once in that ten minute excursion.

Hope we catch some fish. I’m going to prep everything tonight. Mabye
do some pre-rigging so when you snag your line and need a re-rig, it’s
all ready to go. Look forward to hanging with you…

t