Friday, November 16th

Launched at 62nd Avenue along Park Street for my first voyage of the season into the Cross Bayou Canal. 

Straight off the bat, I spooked a nice redfish that was mudding along in about 8 inches of water. Paddled on to the first mangrove line I like to fish and started throwing the Yo-zuri shrimp. No hits after a half-dozen casts, so I switched over to the Flat Rap. First cast with the Flat Rap I brought to hand a small snook, somewhere in the 12" range. Next cast to the same spot I hooked up with another small snook, but this one got the best of me and tossed the lure after a nice jump.

I paddled up to the Park Street bridge and fished the pilings for a bit -- too long, really, as nothing was biting. That's been a productive spot for me in the past, but it was dead today.

Continued up to where Joe's Creek lets in and fished the mouth of the creek for a good thirty minutes with nothing doing. Saw something busting bait, but it didn't like my offerings. From there I started fishing the north shore of the creek and caught another little snook on the Flat Rap, then followed that fish up with two back-to-back mangrove snapper out of the same spot.

Jumped two more snook up the shoreline, then the bite went dead. I switched over to the south shoreline and also switched over to the Yo-zuri shrimp. I went on to catch six more snook with that lure, including one I caught on a long cast back to the other shoreline.  All of of the snook were in the 12-15" range, with one around 20" (pictured below).

Despite their small size, those junior snook were hitting and fighting twice their size. They were a lot of fun to catch, and it was heartening to know that this young population of snook are thriving. Can't wait till they put on a few pounds...

On my paddle back out I jumped one more snook and caught a couple of hard-hitting ladyfish before wrapping it up for the day. Four hours on the water and eight snook -- that's a ratio I like.

Friday, November 2nd, 2012

I got out on the water late today after dropping the girls off at school. I launched around 9:00am, just thirty minutes before low tide. Despite the bad timing, the weather was ideal. Clean, glassy water, blue skies and 75 degrees.

I fished the channel right at the launch all the way down to Tampa Bay Watch, and after a good hour, had only one topwater blow-up to show for it. The bite was simply off. I did get visited by a manatee, which was cool.

Eventually, I would catch a couple of ladyfish and three lizardfish. I was so pissed at the third lizardfish that I brought him aboard and turned him into cut bait. By then the water had started to fill up the flat I chucked the cut bait out under a float and started to drift the flat. While drifting the flat and throwing the Spook Jr., I started to get blow-ups on nearly every cast, and soon brought to hand about 10 trout, ranging from 10" to 18".

By the time I hit the ATZ, the bite had died down again, and except for a lone catfish that took the cut bait, the bite was dead. Not the best day of catching, but a gorgeous day to fish.