Saturday, March 17th, 2012

This morning I launched solo from the improvised ramp off Bishop's Harbor. Since Kelly was out of commission this weekend, I opted to do some scouting in a new spot. Don, my barber, had suggested trying out Bishop's Harbor, so on a whim I figured I'd give it a shot. With the tide flowing low to high, our usual spots would not have been great today anyway.

I paddled out at first light.

Bishop's Harbor is lined with mangroves, and from the start I had to choose whether to follow the shoreline on the north or south side. I chose the south. A few hundred yards up, I saw another boat on the north side, and they seemed to be having some luck pulling in some fish.

I decided to drift and throw the Spook to try my luck. First cast I had a big trout take three hits on my lure, but with no hook-up. The next cast I got a hit and hooked up right away, thinking I had caught the trout, but when I got the fish in close, saw that it was a 15" snook. I was pretty happy to have a snook to get the skunk off, and was optimistic that the day was going to be a good one.

That was the only fish I caught.

To be fair, I did a lot of paddling and scoping out different areas, instead of settling in to really fish an area. It sure was fishy out there: lots of varying depths of water, some good sea grass concentrations, clean water, good current and plenty of mullet jumping. It was fairly busy with boats out there, and they all seemed to be fishing the north side of the mangroves. Most boats I watched caught a least one fish.

I paddled on, all the way out of the harbor and into the bay. I could see the Skyway in the distance.

No catching for me in the bay either, but lots of pinfish and other bait out there, which is a good sign for the future.

Overall, it was a good, relaxing trip, a beautiful day to be on the water, and I definitely like Bishop's Harbor as a good low tide spot.

Tuesday, March 7th, 2012

Took a half day at work and met Kelly out at 4th Street for a little afternoon fishing. True to form, the wind was 15-20 knots. We decided to give it the old college try anyway, and paddled out with our beer and bait buckets.

Despite the wind, it was gorgeous out.

We spent most of our time like this:

We hit a half-dozen spots before Kelly finally hooked up with a trout just outside Steve's Hole. We anchored up and caught a good half-dozen fish each before calling it a day around 5:30pm.

Sure beat sitting at my desk.

March 3rd, 2012

Sunrise found us at the 4th Street launch. Kelly and I were both eager to fish after having to cancel our time on the water last weekend due to unfavorable wind conditions. When we launched this morning, the wind was around 10 knots with gusts to 15. Not great, but we were still able to throw the topwaters.

I got the skunk off early with a ladyfish, and Kelly followed soon after with a 15 inch redfish, both on topwater.

A short time later, he picked up another little red on topwater, and both of us had several follows and misses to keep things interesting.

We were stuck fishing close to the mangroves to provide some cover from the wind. The tide was working against us today, a slow incoming tide that didn't give us enough water to fish the shallows. When the wind would die down, Kelly and I would drift out into 3-4 feet of water and throw our lures.

I was mostly throwing my spook and Yo-zuri shrimp, but at some point decided to toss out the flat Rap, and on my first cast hooked up with a lunker. The fish ran hard and long, but I got it turned and worked it in slowly. After awhile I saw that it was a big red, and I called Kelly over to take my hero shot. It was 24 inches on the dot:

Though we would fish another couple of hours, that red would be the last we would catch on the day. I started paddling back at 11:00am and ended up back at the launch at 11:30am after a continuous, arduous paddle. The wind was so fierce that at one point I was paddling without moving forward. When I got back to the car I checked my wind app on my phone and it showed a steady 20 knot wind with gusts to 20 knots. Crazy.