Sheepshead fishing trip a success

I fished with Mr. Bill Gass and his sons Chuck and Billy today. Our plan was to specifically target Sheepshead, the "thief of thiefs". I had purchased some nice fiddlers so we got an early start, leaving the north end boat ramp shortly after 7am. Our first stop was at the south jettie where we ended up trolling the rocks, jigging our fiddlers down to the bottom. Mr. Gass picked up the first Sheepshead of the day, a nice 22" fish that put up a ferocious fight. We moved back inside as the water began to crash over the jetties and found some marker pilings that we could back up to and sure enough, not 5 minutes after getting in postion, Chuck picked up a nice "thief" and then another, this one the largest of the day, a 27" fish. We moved on to behind Tiger Island where Billy got in on the action with another nice Sheepshead. They also caught a number of pinsfish, sea bass, mudfish, and even 12" shark during the day. We fished Landsford Creek for awhile then ran back out to the range markers, found a spot, and anchored up to finish the day catching whiting. On a personal note, Mr. Gass hired me to work at Hardee Brothers Hardware (now Fantastic Fudge) during Christmas breaks from college back in the late 70's and it was my pleasure to get to hook up with him and his sons to go fishing.

Three of us travel to Orlando to attend a Rod Building class

Don Hughes, Foy Maloy and myself traveled to the Orlando area (Oveido) this past weekend to participate in a Rod Building class put on by Mud Hole Custom Tackle, a rod building supply company. We left at 6:00am and drove downstate to arrive shortly before 9am. The class was led by Scott Gimbert, Vice President of Mud Hole and Todd Vivian, Vice President, Sales who did an excellent job of getting 14 novice rod builders started on a path to producing their own custom rods. We started with rod blanks, learned how to locate the "spine" of the rod, reamed out our cork grips and slid them down the rod and glued them. Then we glued the rod tip, marked the locations of the guides and then learned how to wrap the guides to the rods. We trimmed the wrapping, then protected the thread with some color guard and finally used epoxy to coat the wraps. Mudhole also provided us all with decals which included the spec's of the rod, a "Custom Built Rod by....label" and then we each got to pick out our own decorative decal (mine was a Redfish- go figure). The class lasted the entire day with mini breaks and a long break for lunch. On the drive back home we all agreed that the $99 fee was great deal: in addition to learning the basics of building a rod, we also learned how to replace our tips and guides on older rods. We got a nice rod "custom" built and we brought home some left over supplies and a new table top rod wrapping kit. The consensus was that we would be planning our next rod building project soon!

Boat Ride/Eco Tour

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Jeremy Hunt and his new wife, Joanna, who were visiting Amelia Island and staying at Addison on Amelia on their honeymoon. We left the dock at 9:30am this morning with only a light breeze and sunny skies and were treated rather quickly to a pair of porpoise's cavorting in the river. We toured Ft. Clinch then crossed over to Cumberland Island and found not one, but two small herds of wild horses. Jeremy showed me a trick to get close up photographs by incorporating binoculars and a digital camera. We cruised up the peaceful Beach Creek that drains out of the interior of Cumberland then crossed the channel and circled the Tiger Islands. Jeremy and Joanna are pictured here as we completed the trip. Congratulations to them both and I wish them a long and happy marriage!!

Talbot Island/Sawpit Creek Boat Ramp alert

Carol and I wanted to do some leisurely fishing this past Sunday and went to the boat ramp at Sawpit Creek on the northern end of Talbot Island. When we pulled up to the ramp we found that another boater had backed their trailer down the ramp and it had fallen off the end of the ramp. There was an extreme low tide and this was the first time I've seen this happen at this ramp. Luckily another boater had pulled up to the ramp and offered to help by using his anchor to "grapple" for the end of the trailer; he lifted it up just enough for the beleaguered boater to pull the trailer up and out of the water. NOTE: The concrete ramp ended just a foot or two past the last cleat on the floating dock. If you're loading or unloading your boat at an extreme low tide, make note of where that cleat is and don't get your wheels too far beyond the cleat. We decided not to chance it with my trailer and ran north to Dee Dee Bartels ramp, launched and got in a couple of hours of fishing. Our live bait had died (that's my excuse) but we were able to get a few fish in the boat and enjoyed a beautiful day out on the water.

9th Annual Times-Union Redfish Round-up

The 9th Annual Times-Union Redfish Round-up is scheduled for Saturday, April 4, 2009. This fun family catch-and-release tournament benefits the Safe Harbor Boys Home and will have up to 500 entries, making it North Florida's largest charitable redfish tournament. The low entry fee of $60 per boat will pay out$7500 (based on 500 paid entries) to the first place finisher, an angler who brings to the table a redfish with the most spots! The Captains meeting is Friday April 3rd, 2009 at Sisters Creek Marina, 6:30 PM. The tournament runs between "safe light" and 2PM

Surrounded by wildlife

I finished up a few errands today and then dropped the boat in at Wilson Neck Boat Ramp, located in the Wilson Neck area of Yulee off of US17s. The ramp is on Gardner Creek which runs out to Nassau Sound so I eased out of the creek and ran West towards US17 and I-95. I've heard of folks catching Stripers up there so I took a couple of my Shimano Stradic 1000's on their 6' rods, rigged with Power Pro braid, Berkley Vanish leader and Sure Catch jigs tipped with Gulp shrimp. I ran all the way up to I-95 and fished the pockets and run-offs on a high, but outgoing tide. I Didn't have a bite. I fished some old wooden pilings at the Railroad bridge - no bites. I eventually picked up and ran east, past Gardner Creek and past Lofton Creek, all the way to Broward Island. The tide was still ripping out so I started on the south end of the island and fished with the current. I had a few small fish hitting a Gulp Swimming mullet - Pumpkin Seed color but no real bites. There was a raccoon on shore hunting for his dinner - looked like he had missed a few meals! Sure enough, as soon as the tide changed and started back in - WHAM- fish on!

The 17" redfish hit the Gulp swimming mullet and I had a good battle to the boat. Shortly after that, I started picking up trout on the same rig. As the sun went down I had another visitor, this one very inquisitive. An otter swam out and circled the boat. Every once in a while he would rise up out of the water and check me out. I also saw a dolphin, a woodpecker and plenty of shore birds.

The sand gnats tried their best to eat me alive.

Trout season opens back up

The Speckled Trout season opens up in North Florida March 1st. The season has been closed all through the month of February but now anglers can keep legal bag limit of (5) trout per anlger. The fish need to be 15" in length with only one over 20" per angler.

Whiting Biting

I got a call from a friend of mine -Leon Freeman- yesterday who was on the water fishing near the bridge at the south end of Amelia Island; he said he had mess of whiting in the boat fishing the last of the outgoing tide. He was using pieces of peeled shrimp with a fish-finder rig on the bottom. These fish don't put up much of a fight, but they're plentiful and good to eat!

Shoreline Expemtion to Fishing License

This letter came from the Coastal Convservation Association (CCA); I'm trying to stay away from politics but this directly relates to the fishing experience in Florida:

For the past 20 years Florida residents fishing in saltwater have been purchasing a saltwater fishing license. The licenses have generated over 200 million dollars which has been dedicated to marine research, management, and law enforcement. Since 1990 Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWCC) have been working together to remove an exemption put into the bill at its inception. This exemption is known as the shoreline exemption, which allows Florida residents to fish in saltwater from the shoreline without a license.
Supporters believe that a recent amendment to the federal Magnuson - Stevens Fisheries Management Act, requiring states to “register” all saltwater anglers by 2010 and require payment for the license by 2011, should provide the push needed to eliminate the shoreline exemption in Florida. Florida’s current saltwater license would likely qualify for the federal angler registration program if the shoreline exemption was removed. If the exemption is not removed by 2011 recreational fisherman in Florida will have to purchase a federal fishing license that will cost between $15 and $20 on top of your Florida fishing license.
Currently, the Florida saltwater license brings in about 15 million dollars annually. The FWC has estimated that removal of the shoreline exemption would require an additional 208,000 to 302,000 anglers to obtain a license. Using the current base price on the resident license an additional 1.7 to 2.5 million dollars would be generated for marine fisheries research, management, and law enforcement. Also, every certified fishing license holder helps Florida obtain approximately $7 in Federal sport fish restoration funds.
Please contact your State Legislator and ask them to support the removal of the shoreline exemption in the saltwater fishing license. The removal of the exemption will start in the committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation on the Senate side and Agriculture and Natural Resources policy committee on the House side. The Senate Chairman for the Environmental Preservation and Conservation committee is Sen. Lee Constantine and the House Chairman for the Agriculture & Natural Resources Policy committee is Rep. Trudi Williams.
Senate
Environmental Preservation and Conservation
Chairman Lee Constantine
constantine.lee.web@flsenate.gov

House
Agriculture and Natural Resources
Chairwomen Trudi Williams
trudi.williams@myfloridahouse.gov

Fly Fishing in February

I had the pleasure of fishing with Gary Spielmann who was visiting Amelia Island with his wife and staying at the Elizabeth Pointe Lodge. Gary's fly fished all over the world -Russia, Alaska and the Northeast and he wanted to try his hand at the fly rod here on Amelia Island. I picked Gary up at Elizabeth Point and we drove to the south end boat ramp, launching around 12:30pm. The tide was due to be low around 1:45pm so we headed up to Broward Island and caught the last of the outgoing. As usual, the current was really ripping, but Gary was making some beautiful casts up around the downed logs, limbs and stumps. We didn't get any strikes so we moved around to a small feeder creek in Pumpkin Hill but didn't see any movement. The tide finally bottomed out so we cranked up and ran back to Broward to catch the incoming tide. I asked Gary to give the jig -n-shrimp a try and it wasn't long before he hooked up to a fiesty fat 18" trout. Gary had never fished with the jig-n-shrimp combo but he quickly got the hang of bumping the bottom and picked up a few more trout. There were a few times when he hooked up and fish broke off in the limbs. After a very cold week, Saturday's sunny weather was wonderful. We saw an otter, porpoise, an osprey and tons of other birdlife.