Reptilian Souvenir Paradise

Been a while since I've posted, but we've been looking at houses, I've been trying to finalize the job hunt and generally been distracted. I'll post some recent stuff to stir the pot. We stopped by one of the hundreds of tourist shops just of I-95. This one has a taxidermied 13'6" alligator, several of his smaller friends (just the heads), and a handful of babies that get to swim around all day and look at their elder sibling's heads. In all my travels across this great country of ours, and even across several parts of the planet, I have yet to find a more densely packed, consistently cheesy, and brightly colored place for tourists to buy trinkets to remind them of their great visit. I say this with a big smile because I love cheese!!!

Fishing Report 10/8/2014

I tried to catch the flood tide at the salt marshes by Cedar Point. Glassy smooth water and LOTS of bugs. When I get into conditions like that, I always drop into my "SUCK IT UP BUTTERCUP" mode - mind over matter. I had the St Croix Tidemaster and the Orvis Helios 8wt out with me. I had specifically gone out trying to find redfish tailing in the flooded grass. I found flooded grass and tons of finger mullet - and tons of bugs (did I mention that already?). I didn't get any hits on the fly (although I oddly enough saw mud minnows attacking the Waldner Spoon Fly I was casting - they weren't much larger than the fly), but I used the time to practice casting. I am at the point where I can 'feel' mistakes in casting while they are happening, and I can correct them on subsequent casts - the neat thing is this has never become tedious - I'm pretty sure I've found the next thing for my next 40 years (what surfing/windsurfing/kitesurfing was for my first 40). On the way in I was blind casting a Gulp Shrimp on a 1/4 oz black jig head and I got to see color on a big speckled trout - unfortunately it was just holding onto the bait and when it saw me, it left the game. I stuck around the same spot trying to reengage but it didn't happen. What I did get was a hookup with the first Southern Flounder I've caught in a very long time (if you've been keeping up with this blog, you'll recall I caught a small Peacock Flounder out in the Indian Ocean - but that was then and this was a Southern). I got this guy by the "skin of it's teeth" - literally. This guy was 13" (legal keeper is 12") - dinner!!!

Why 'Yes' We Are Enjoying Ourselves in Florida!

Thank you for asking!!!

Made It All The Way Down

We're back in Florida!!!