We are so thankful
that we had the
chance to spend
the day with you
Your stories and
quick wit will
live on in our
hearts forever
We'll catch up
with you in Heaven
some day Captain
and together we'll
slay some big Tarpon
Until then, every
time we bow down
to the Silver King
we will think of you
and remember the
wonderful time that
we shared
What a beautiful day on the water today. There weren't a ton of boats out, I guess all the HE-MEN were watching the Bucs attempt a playoff game. Yes, I'm a Bucs fan and don't eeeeeeven get me started.
Anyway, once again we made it to the reef on our first try.......Oh Yeah!!! I have even learned how to name our Waypoints on the GPS system now. We no longer have to head out to Waypoint number 009. We can now head on out to the Port Tampa Reef. Hi-Tech fishing chicks, that's us!!
As we approached the reef we noticed that there was a boat sitting smack dab on top of it. Damn it!! Being sure to adhere to the 100 yard rule we pulled up and found ourselves a spot. We fished for 30 minutes or so and didn't even really have a bite. Again, we weren't sure where the reef actually was because we always drift by it after we throw out the anchor.
So, we pulled up anchor and tried another spot nearby. A few minutes after we re-anchored, I noticed that the other boat on the reef was coming toward us. It was an older gentleman fishing by himself. I mumbled under my breath, "well obviously this jerk doesn't adhere to the 100 yard rule, that inconsiderate blah blah bleep bleep bleep!"
"Any luck!?" He hollers. Andrea answers back, "no, not much!!" He then proceeds to tell us that the reef is best fished on a slack tide (which we didn't know) and he said he was headed over to a trout hole that he found and we could follow along if we wanted to. He said he had non-stop action there the day before.
Feeling a little guilty that I had been so quick to judge, I didn't say much, but Andrea said that we were going to try the reef for a bit longer. He told her exactly were to go to find the hole and he said we could look for his boat. What a nice man.
After about 10 more minutes we decided to head for the spot he had told us about and low and behold, there he was flagging us down and shouting exactly how far past him to go and exactly how much anchor rope to let out. What a really nice man. He was pulling in Silver Trout and Whiting hand over fist. Andrea caught a couple small Silver Trout and most of the fish that Mr. Really Nice Man was catching were also very small. We were just fishing away and he was yelling over recipes for how to fix the Trout, how to get the most dead bait for your money, and even what the Fish and Wildlife regulations were for Silver Trout and Whiting. He was just as helpful as helpful could be. It does my heart good to know that there are still people in the world who look out for their fellow man or woman, which ever the case may be.
We thanked Mr. RNM and headed over to another one of our fishing spots, closer to shore. Now I need to interject here that while we were at the trout hole I got a couple text messages from a couple of friends. I don't want to mention any names here but their initials are Tammy and Jacqueline. Anyway, it was not a big deal at all, Andrea was pulling in the anchor and tidying up the boat....She does that a lot, and I was texting. No problem man.
After pulling up to our next fishing destination and deciding which direction the wind was blowing, Andrea tells me to throw out the anchor. Being the first mate, I give it a good hurl. It didn't catch. I pull it in and give it another good hurl. Still doesn't catch. Just after I hurl the anchor for the third time Andrea turns around and barks at me, "if you would pay attention to what your doing instead of texting on your phone then maybe this wouldn't be such a big problem!!!"
Ummmmmmm, first of all, the last time I sent a text was when we were anchored next to Mr. RNM and second of all, "WHAT IN THE HELL DID THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT THE ANCHOR WOULDN'T CATCH HOLD OF THE BOTTOM?" That girl just ain't right. I would, however, like to commend her on her impeccable sense of timing. You notice how she waited until the anchor left my hands before she started her belly aching!!
Honestly though, we had a great time. We caught a couple of Sheepshead, a Mangrove Snapper and a Snook!!! We threw them all back to grow a little so we can catch them when their REALLY big.
It's always a good day when your faith in human kindness is restored. Even if the Bucs did lose the playoff game.
Out to the reef on Saturday afternoon
after Football and Pizza at the local
Sports Pub.
Nothing beats Food, Football, and Fishing!
Well....Almost nothing. Keepin' it clean.
We found the reef on the first try,
of course it did help that there was
another boat sitting on it.
Honestly though, we really didn't notice
until we got there. Really.
What an absolutely beautiful day,
lots of sunshine and a wonderful breeze.
Not a lot of fish biting, but I guess
we can't have everything.
We got enough good bites to keep us happy.
I caught a Spanish Mackerel (check out those
teeth) and Andrea caught a little tiny Grouper.
She wouldn't let me take a picture because
she wanted to get it back into the water quickly.
It was so cute.
We did some flats fishing as the sun started
to set and we got into a school of Lady Fish.
They're a pain when we're targeting Snook
and Reds, because they cause such a ruckus,
but they're a lot of fun when not much
else is biting.
Lady Fish are also called poor man's Tarpon
because they come flying out of the water
and shake their heads furiously trying
to throw the hook, just like Tarpon do.
The sunset was gorgeous but the boat
ramp was a fluster cuck, as usual.
News flash people, common courtesy makes
things run so much more smoothly. Geeeeez.
Peace, Love, and Lady Fish!
Hello!! Just checking in. We haven't been doing a whole lot of fishing lately, as you might have noticed. We did get out weekend before last though. We went out to the Port Tampa Reef. It's a man made reef of concrete blocks that was dumped there to create a habitat for fish and a fishing spot for us fishing junkies.
The weather was absolutely beautiful. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. It was a bit windy but the wind was out of the North so the Tampa Bay waters were protected. The reef is located right, smack, dab in the middle of Tampa Bay. It's right in between Port Tampa and the Wheeden Island Power Plant. I've named it "The Middle Grounds." What's kind of funny about that is that the real Middle Grounds is about 100 miles off shore and if you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know how likely it is that we would EVER go 100 miles off shore in our boat. Ha.
We found the reef some time ago and we marked it on our GPS system. We really thought we were big time that day. The only problem was that we marked about 9 other spots on our GPS that day too and they were all named spot #1, spot #2, spot #3.......You get the idea. The long and short of it was, we should have named the spots and we didn't and it took us about an hour to locate the reef, AGAIN.
Rare, I know, but Andrea was starting to get a little bit cranky. I was certain that the reef was at spot #10 and we kept going and going until we reached spot #10. One problem, spot #10 was located in water that was about 2 feet deep. Now I'm no rocket scientist but I do know that reefs are supposed to be a deep water thing. I wonder what the hell we marked that spot for. Who knows, but we should have named it, "don't dive in head first here!!"
Anyway, after about an hour or so we located the reef. The next issue was how to stay on it because the wind was blowing so hard. We threw out the anchor and I tried to calculate how fast the wind was blowing and from what direction, I then divided that by the number of nautical miles that I thought we had traveled before the anchor caught ground. I came up with absolutely nothing scientific so we just started casting in different directions until we got a bite. LOL.
Andrea caught the first fish!! A beautiful Sheepshead. We love to catch those. it was a big one too. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture because some unprepared boob forgot to change the batteries in the camera. The names were changed here to protect the innocent. Oh fine!!! It was me again!
I caught three Puffer Fish throughout the day. I just love to catch those (NOT), they make me feel like I'm 5 again. On the upside though, I did catch a Black Sea Bass and a Key West Grunt!!! It's funny how we always end up with pictures of the unprepared boob. Oh well, what can I say. Obviously Andrea doesn't hang around for my organizational skills. ;)
It really was an awesome day though. It's days like these that make all the hard work of owning a boat seem worth while!! Fishing Chicks we are.
Peace, Love, and Puffer Fish!!
