Fishing Report 8/18/2014

From all the talking about fishing in the Banana River, the Mosquito Lagoon and on the beaches of Patrick AFB that I've been doing with several folks over the past several days, I felt compelled to try one last time with the rod and reel. I could see this pier from my window in the camper (in fact the two white lights just over the railing on the left are from the camper) so I went out to see what fish would cooperate. I've read tons of articles about fishing docks with lights at night - and I saw some mullet schools breaking and several larger needlefish eating all the bugs that fell to the water. But despite my best attempts - I got skunked. At least I tried... We'll be back down in this area again - fish beware!!!

Fishing Report 8/17/2014 Part 2

Nice Florida sunset. For the past several nights, as I've done errands in the evenings, I would shine a headlamp beam over the water and the mullet would explode - much in the same way the Asian Carp go nuts on the TV shows. I figured fish that eat mullet would be swimming around in the mix also, but no matter what I pitched - surface poppers that look like mullet, popping corks with DOA shrimp, flies, rocks and cuss words - I got nothing. Well - I broke out Marlon's cast net and I caught what was swimming around. Mullet - several, and some twice as big as this guy, and a Needlefish. I felt like I had cheated in a way - but that feeling didn't last long.

Fishing Report 8/17/2014 Part 1

One decent sized whiting. I got it on the St Croix 10' Triumph Travel Surf Rod. Still a little too much backbone to give the fish much of a chance, but that's the cost of being able to pitch a 2 ounce pyramid sinker out 100'. I actually went out first thing in the morning to the beach just down the road from this one and was casting a shrimp fly in the surf with my Orvis Hydros 8wt lined with an intermediate sink 300 grain line. I didn't see any fish in the surf so I called it quits after 20 minutes, but with this clean up shot whiting, I wasn't skunked!!!

Surf Report 8/17/2014

We surfed 2nd Light Beach down here at Patrick AFB. The surf was getting flooded out by the high tide, but we had about an hour of ridable waves. Once I was able to coax Marlon out to the lineup (which was a bit further out than he normally paddles), he was able to get into several waves. So that he wouldn't have to fumble with the remote, I stayed close to him to activate the camera while he was paddling for his waves. There are pictures of his other waves, but most had the camera pointing too low and his head got chopped off the picture. La also paddled out on the ULI and even caught a couple of waves and rode them in (SUP Surf, not prone). Good time had by all!!!!

Fishing Report 8/13/2014

So after watching the crew casting poppers into the surf (and one kayak angler flyfishing), I broke out my equipment to try and get a fish to play tug-o-war. No joy on the spinning gear with a popping cork/shrimp lure or a mullet popper. No joy with the Cabela's CGR 7'6" 7/8 lined with Orvis Redfish 8wt (although a needlefish keeps biting the heck out of my electric chicken colored shallow clouser minnow - just can't get it to bite near the hook). I did get the paddleboard wet to do some recon on the bathymetry and to see if there were any holes where the fish could be lying. The water was brown and I couldn't see 6" into it. But it does drop off pretty quickly (so better to fish off the board rather than wade - oh - did I mention the stingray I saw). I think tomorrow we are going to Legoland, so the next fishing report will be on Friday.

Surf Check 8/13/2014

Driving down A1A. Stopped at the Ponce De Leon Beach Park to check if there was any surf. We found a bunch of guys trying desperately to hook into whatever was chasing a huge baitball pressed up against the shallow surf line. From the vantage point we had, the protagonists were sharks. Fisherman 0, Sharks full bellies. Of note, Ponce De Leon did not come to the New World looking for the Fountain of Youth - that was a myth. He did make landfall near this area. And this statue makes him look like he was really chasing vampires. Where's the surf????!!!!

The Pilgrimage

Now that the kiddoroosters are full fledged surfers, we had to make the pilgrimage to Ron Jon Surf Shop. This is probably the first time I've gone there and NOT bought a t-shirt. But I did buy a trucker hat! Surf shops rule (and they sell about the only thing you don't want to buy online - a surfboard!)!!!

I'm On A Boat!!!

Almost... Our current RV slot has us butted up to the water though. That's the Banana River in the background. Besides the mosquitoes (and the fish that are NOT taking my lures/flies), this place is perfection. I still don't have a job so we are preparing to home school the kids, but with views like this, I'm starting to NOT want to get a job.