Lizards!

Headed over to the Vinoy basin this morning to try my luck in a different spot. Started with a 1/8oz red jighead and a new penny color Gulp shrimp. The bites came immediately.

On my third cast I caught this feisty 9" lizard fish, which got the skunk off my pole.


The lizard fish were thick in the basin this morning, and just about the only thing biting, probably due to the icy 45 degree weather.

I did eventually catch a nice trout, but it self released near my feet. Still, it felt good to get some catching done, and the new penny color of Gulp shrimp is certainly producing a furious bite from the fish. Unfortunately, my bait was decimated again (see yesterday's photo).

The impossible happens

Left work early yesterday so that I could get the house cleaned up, get a haircut, and fit in some fishing before picking up Reilly at school.


Since I was trying to maximize my fishing to catching quotient, I naturally decided on the Snell Isle Secret Spot, but stopped by Coffee Pot to make a few casts along the way. No bites, but saw a manatee.




The conditions at the secret spot were less than optimal--fifty something degrees with the wind whipping up the water. Using the Yo-zuri was out of the question in that sort of weather, so I tied on a 1/8oz red jighead with a Gulp shrimp (new penny color) and commenced casting.


I had some nice bites here and there, but nothing was big enough to take the whole lure.


I switched to the other side of secret spot and got into a feeding frenzy of some sort. I don't know what kind of fish they were, but they tore up my bait.



By then it was time to head off to pick up Reilly, so I left the secret spot scratching my head, skunked again.

Getting back with the ladies again

Had a spare hour to fish after work today, so I headed over to the Snell Isle Secret Spot to redeem myself from my lunchtime break off.

I started with a 1/4oz red jighead and a white/green Gulp shrimp. I had a few early hits, but no takers. After the bite slowed down, I switched over to a Yo-zuri Crystal Minnow (blue top, silver sides) and hooked up with a ladyfish on my third cast. I managed to get it up the seawall and measure it at 21" before tossing it back in.

I had a few more hits on the Yo-zuri before the bite turned off again. The thing about the secret spot is that it is a very tight space. If I fish too long in a single place, the fish get spooked and go into hiding. It also helps to switch back and forth between topwater fishing and bottom fishing to work different parts of the water column.

After I had fished about 30 minutes, my buddy Kelly showed up and we double-teamed the fish. I switched back over to the red jighead/Gulp shrimp combo and Kelly took over my pole with the Yo-zuri on.

The bite was very hot for the last 15 or so minutes of daylight. I hooked a couple of fish that self-released before catching another 20"+ ladyfish on the jig. Just like this morning, it was a fast retrieve that sparked the hook-up, except this time I reeled the sucker in.

In the meantime, Kelly was getting some nice hits on the Yo-zuri, but couldn't hook up. He had an opportunity to experience the conundrium that is missing a strike on a lure with six hooks on it.

My Gulp lure was shot by then, so I tore it in half, slipped the tail end over the jighead, and commenced casting. To my surprise, the nub started getting hits right away. Toward the end of our trip, I got a monster hit on the Gulp that suddenly released. I was furious when I saw the knot was still intact, but upon further inspection, it appears the knot slipped off the end of the eye on the jig.

By then, we were out of light and the fish had stopped feeding on the surface, so we packed up and headed out. That was some good catching!

Fishyness still does not equal fish

Took my "lunch" by the river again today, and I remembered to bring my camera. Here is the spot I referred to yesterday, which I fished again today. Look at those pilings, look at that swirling water!

I tied on a white 1/4oz jighead (a bit heavier than typical due to the current) and a root beer shrimp tail, and commenced casting.


The only thing I caught was a clump of oysters which claimed my lure.

I walked back up to my car, tied on a 1/8oz red jighead and a grey shrimp tail and went back out to the seawall to fish.

After a few casts I was getting a bit agitated over the utter lack of bites and my inability to properly fish the Hillsborough River. I said to myself, "Maybe I should do something else over my lunch breaks. This is getting ridiculous."

Now, I normally retrieve a jig with a bump, bump, bump followed by a three second pause, then repeat until my jig is back at my feet. I've caught plenty of fish this way. In my irritation, I decided to drastically change my retrieve, and jerked my jig up hard, counted a second, then repeated.

And what do you know, I caught a ladyfish. Unfortunately, I had previously tightened my drag all the way down to break off my line when I got stuck on the oyster bed, so when the ladyfish gave a jump and a pull, it broke my line at the knot.

This whole line breaking thing has got my boxers in a bunch, so it was with great excitement that I read an article in my new Field and Stream magazine about the best fishing knots to use. They all tested above the pound test of the line, which means that the line will break before the knot slips.

We shall see.

Fishyness does not equal fish

I took my lunch out by the river today, which is to say that I brought my fishing rod and not my sandwich.

I spent 30 minutes fishing the spot where I caught the ladyfish a couple of weeks ago. (See this entry for a review of that day.) I fished the whole time with a Yo-zuri Crystal Minnow (silver sides/blue top), and didn't get a bite. I was encouraged to see a large school of mullet around the seawall, so at least the river doesn't look as barren as previous trips.

Next I worked my way down to the Cass Street Bridge. I was able to get in-between the two spans and planted my feet in front of the fishy-est water I've ever seen. I was convinced that I would hook a fish on my first cast. Unfortunately, and much to my disappointment, I didn't catch a fish on my first cast or any of the other casts I had in that next half hour.

I think the level of my disappointment was higher than usual due to the fact that today is marked as one of the four best days to fish in the month of January (according to the solunar tables). One of the other days was January 11th, when Kelly and I were catching fish on nearly every other cast. The tide was just ripping past me today, surely stirring up lots of bait, and yet not a bite. I wonder if it was a case of using the wrong lure, but with the air temperature in the 70's the past few days, the water should have been warm enough to get fish feeding in the top foot of water.

Tomorrow is the last peak day on the solunar tables for January, so I'll be out there again, probably with a different lure on for the sake of comparison.

Squid-ed

I was able to get out to fish around 7:00 this morning, and opting to mix things up a bit, drove over to the St. Petersburg Pier to try some deep water fishing. I was the first one out there; had the first parking spot and everything. It was just me and the elite runners out training for their marathons and 10K's.

At the pier I tried my Gotcha lure and a Gulp on 1/4oz red jig head. The only thing that got a bite was the Gulp/jig head combo. The bite was a little odd--it wasn't the tap-tap-tap of pinfish or the POW of ladyfish. It was more of a gentle pressure that increased steadily. It took me awhile to figure out what it was, but eventually saw that the fish I was catching was actually a big 'ol squid.

Meh.

I hopped back in my car and drove over to the Vinoy Basin, hoping to repeat my luck from yesterday. I had a few pinfish bites and that's it.

After a few days of sucessive catching, it felt a little strange to get skunked.

When I told my dad the fishing report from today, he laughed and said, "You didn't get skunked, you got squid-ed."

Fishing with the road crew

This morning I got up while Reilly and Shawn were still sleeping and drove over to the Vinoy Basin for what I was sure would be some good catching. I even brought along my camera, ready to get some shots of my catches.


I started fishing the marina docks (to the right of the photo above) with a Gulp shrimp threaded on a 1/4oz red jig head. In a dozen casts I only had a few little bites--pinfish most likely--so I worked my way up to the neck of the channel to try my luck there. This was my fishing partner:

He wasn't catching anything either.

Desperate to drum up a catch, I tied on old faithful--a Yozuri Crystal Minnow. Cue uplifting music.

I fished the Yo-zuri in the channel and then along the seawall that borders the bay. The tide was low, but the water was still a good three feet deep. I worked that Yo-zuri every way imaginable: slow retreive, fast retrieve, patterned jerks, random jerks. I even tried to troll it by walking along the seawall with the lure trailing in the water behind me.

The smell of skunk was upon me, so I decided to switch out the Yo-zuri for the jig/Gulp combo and to change my venue as well.

I walked down past the Vinoy to the seawall that borders Straub Park. From there I could cast to the docks on the westermost side of the marina. There were some workers there laying new sidewalk, and a couple came over to chat me up. It turns out they were my good luck charms.

About three casts after they walked over, I got a nice hit on the lure and set the hook on what turned out to be a spotted trout. I wasn't too shy to pull out my tape measure and get his stats (12.5") but didn't want to take a picture of the fish with the guys there. They would have thought it was the first fish I ever caught.

Just as I tossed the trout back in the water, my phone rang. It was Shawn, who was bringing Reilly to meet me at Hooker Tea for breakfast. I packed up my gear, walked across the park to the tea house and met up with my girls:

Now that's a photo of a good catch!