Capt. Tommy Thompson’s Top 20 List: Why you should love fishing

 #20 – No matter how much whiskey you’ve had, you can still fish.

#19 – A limp rod is still useful while fishing.

#18 – You don’t have to hide your fishing magazines.

#17 – It is perfectly acceptable to pay a professional to fish with you once in a while.

#16 – The Ten Commandments don’t say anything against fishing.

#15 – If your partner takes pictures or videotapes of you fishing, you don’t have to worry about them showing up on the Internet if you become famous.

#14 – Your fishing partner doesn’t get upset about people you fished with long ago.

#13 – It’s perfectly respectable to fish with a total stranger.

#12 – When you see a really good fishing person, you don’t have to feel guilty about imagining the two of you fishing together.

#11 – If your regular fishing partner isn’t available, he/she won’t object if you fish with someone else.

#10 – Nobody will ever tell you that you will go blind if you fish by yourself.

#9 – When dealing with a fishing pro, you never have to wonder if they are really an undercover cop.

#8 – You don’t have to go to a sleazy shop in a seedy neighborhood to buy fishing stuff.

#7 – You can have a fishing calendar on your wall at the office, tell fishing jokes, and invite coworkers to fish with you without getting sued for harassment.

#6 – There are no fishing-transmitted diseases.

#5 – If you want to watch fishing on television, you don’t have to subscribe to the Playboy channel.

#4 – Nobody expects you to fish with the same partner for the rest of your life.

#3 – Nobody expects you to give up fishing if your partner loses interest in it.

#2 – You don’t have to be a newlywed to plan a vacation primarily to enjoy your favorite activity.

 And the Number One reason you should love fishing:

#1- Your fishing partner will never say, “Not again?  We just fished last week!  Is fishing all you ever think about?”

variations on a winter theme…

Had the opportunity to take Bob Lomprey fishing on New Year’s Eve day. Bob is a retired teacher from Wisconsin who has done a lot of fishing in his life, but primarily for northern pike and walleye in his native Wisconsin and in Canada. Since moving to Gainesville, he has wanted to get in some saltwater fishing, and he wanted to try some flyfishing. As always, the weather is a great determinant and after multiple forecast changes, we decided to try on Friday. The forecast was for 5 to 10 knots from the east, a high of 75 degrees, and sun. One out of three isn’t bad for NOAA; they got the sun right.  Thursday the high was 76 degrees, so I was optimistic the water temperatures had risen above the low 50′s earlier in the week. Admittedly, when we left the Sea Hag Marina at 9, the wind was reasonable…but the water temp was 49 degrees. We tried some of my favorite river spots, and there were plenty of boats around, but we didn’t find any fish. With a mid-day high tide, I wanted to take advantage of the water and we ran to a recently productive creek but found clear water, no baitfish and no redfish or trout. Bob wasn’t getting a great introduction to winter fishing at this point, so I moved out of the creek and onto some close flats. Conventional wisdom says that in cold water, trout move off the flats and into rivers and creeks. Conventional wisdom failed to talk to the trout,  however, and we found some nice trout in 3 feet of water over mixed bottom. We fished Paul Brown Lures exclusively, and when we started landing fish, Bob got out his 8 weight, but by then the wind was a good 15 knots from the south and his backcast was blown into the water, so we went back to catching fish.

These were slightly smaller fish than I had found inshore, but all were solid keepers between 18 and 20 inches.  The bite was very soft and we lost quite a few fish when they took the lures without letting us know about it. They were moving through the flats in small schools; we usually caught one or two fish at a time before we started to drift again.  There was enough activity to keep us out in the wind for some time.  The careful observer of outerwear will be able to determine which of us is from Florida and which is from Wisconsin.

We still had an hour or so, and I wanted to try another frequently productive area in hopes of getting out of the wind so we ran to another close location to fish an area of rocky structure, and had a few bites but lost those fish. I finally had a solid hit, set the hook, and realized immediately this was not a trout, and we put a 5 pound redfish into the livewell. Bob kept some fish for his first taste of speckled trout and redfish and we were back at the dock by 3. A challenging day, but it turned out to be reasonable, except for not allowing Bob to give me some casting lessons, so we’ll save that for another trip. All in all, a great day on the water with an accomplished fisherman, and that’s always a good thing.

Update: time to start fishing again

Summer is always a slow time for inshore fishing, and in the Steinhatchee area, it’s even more challenging because of the hordes of scallopers. Many of us just take it easy through the summer and wait for September 10, the closing date of scallop season. While we tried some trips during the summer, the redfish were few and far between and the trout were in very deep water, and between the 100 degree heat and mats of floating grass, it was more enticing to stay inshore and watch the antics at the boat ramp and marina. The crowds were large and so were the scallops this year, although the crop thinned a lot by the end of the season. I’ve been out over the past two weekends and things are returning to normal in terms of inshore fishing.  There have been some large schools of redfish and they have been accessible on low water with topwater plugs.

 

On a recent trip, we were fishing close to shore on a rapidly dropping tide and when the water ran out, we decided to try fishing around one of the many offshore bars around Steinhatchee. These sand bars, some of which are within 2 miles from shore, can hold schools of whitebait and are a great place to target Spanish mackeral.  With Tommy Thompson in Doug Barrett’s boat, we found ourselves fishing one of these bars and watching the fish swim across them. The first sizable fish we noted was a 7 foot bull shark which we passed on, but a few minutes later a large ray came across the bar; both Tommy and I were trying to figure out if a cobia was following it, and he had the first shot, so he tossed a DOA shrimp on his trout rig on top of the ray; a nice cobia immediately ate it and the fight was on. Without the usual crab traps or channel markers to provide cover, the cobia gave up the ghost fairly quickly.  As we didn’t have a large enough net,  I grabbed the Boga grip, knowing I was going to pay for this later. Getting a cobia into the boat with a Boga grip is guaranteed aerobic exercise. My shoulder managed to stay in it’s socket, and Tommy posed for a pic with the fish.

 

 

 

 

On another recent trip I took old friend and fishing partner Doug Fertig out to explore some old areas I haven’t fished in a while. We found tons of baitfish….schools of mullet, glass minnows, whitebait and juvenile ballyhoo everywhere, with lots of skipjacks, ladyfish and smallish trout paying them some attention. Mixed in where some larger fish, including Spanish mackeral, and we saw several small tarpon but couldn’t entice them. The tide was rapidly rising and the water was a bit high to find redfish, but we caught about 20 or so very reasonable trout mixed in with a number of shorts; Doug caught a fine 25 inch Spanish mackeral. We drifted over flats using topwaters and suspending plugs and had consistent action through the morning. We finally found some excellent fish near the outflow of two adjacent creeks at a slack tide around noon.  It’s clear the fishing is on the way up as the water temperatures are on the way down.  It should be an excellent fall inshore season ahead.

full frontal redfishing…

Sometimes things work out much better than anticipated. Tornados in Missisippi, a strong front passing through Steinhatchee and a forecast calling for 15 to 20 knots is not usually the kind of day we look forward to. But Capt. Thompson and I had donated trips to the Jacksonville Coastal Conservation Association, and we had two guys that were not dissuaded by the forecast. So Saturday morning at 7:30 I pulled out of the Sea Hag Marina with two experienced fisherman, Paul Hibel and Jeff Marks from Jacksonville; neither had ever been to Steinhtachee before. There was a significant early low and I hoped to find some fish early, before the wind really started howling. We went first to a great trout area under the right conditions, and threw topwaters and Corky lures. In spite of a few mullet in the area, the trout were nowhere to be found, and it was clear they have moved into deeper water….and  my flats boat is not the most fun drifting rapidly in 2-3 feet of chop. So the target for the day was redfish. We ran south of the channel several miles and worked in slowly with the tide, which by now was pouring in, hustled along by the 15 knot south wind. Paul and Jeff started with topwaters and a Heddon Swimmin’ Image, but it was clear that topwaters were not going to work in the chop. They were using light action rods with 10 pound Power Pro, so I rigged Paul with my current favorite small crankbait, which is a freshwater bait that requires a hook change to sturdier hooks before using for redfish. We worked our way toward some scattered rocks and Paul was the first to hook up. With light wire hooks, a loose drag is pretty much required, because a big red will straighten out hooks in no time…and this was a big red, making some long blistering runs. After about 15 minutes, I slipped the net under this 30 inch, 10.5 pound red.

With the skunk being off the boat, and knowing that this time of  year redfish school regularly, we continued to work the general area for the next hour and half. We had found a great school of fish. Jeff and Paul were doing battle in the front of the boat with a double and at point I had another fish on a spoon.

We ended up with a total of 9 fish, the smallest being a 5 pound 24 inch long fish. After a number of oversized fish,  Jeff seriously wanted dinner, and was ready to start early.

The wind picked up considerably in the later afternoon and after a quick trip into one of the creeks and a try for some trout that resulted in only short fish, we made a wet run in around 2. Jim and Joyce at Fiddler’s Restaurant cooked up some fine grilled and broiled redfish, and Capt. Thompson made it in time for dinner. Unfortunately the weather deteriorated on Sunday and Jeff and Paul didn’t get a chance to fish with Tommy, but they will make up that trip at a later date. The old cliche goes that fishing just before or during  a frontal  passage can be very good, and that worked out for us on Saturday.

Spring tournament time in Steinhatchee

Spring is tournament time along the  Big Bend, and Steinhatchee has some of the best water around for big fish. Here’s a list of the upcoming tournaments being held in the Hatch.

April 10: Steinhatchee Community Tournament (weigh-in at Community Center)  http://www.steinhatchee.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=101&Itemid=1

April 17th: Fishing with Mel Tournament (Mel Tillis-weigh-in at Gulfstream Marina)      http://www.fishingwithmel.com/                                                                       

May 1: Optimist Club Saltwater Tournament (weigh-in at Sea Hag Marina and Keaton Beach Marina)

Also May 1: Shands Hospital Fishing for Kids Trout Tournament (weigh-in at Gulfstream Marina)  https://secure.e2rm.com/registrant/LoginRegister.aspx?EventID=44678&LangPref=en-CA

May 8: Xtreme Redfish Series #1  (weigh-in at Sea Hag Marina)  http://www.xtremefishingseries.com/xtremefishing/xtreme_redfish_series.cfm?site=red

May 14 and 15: Donny Young/Doug Johnson Reeling for Kids Tournament (weigh-in at Gulfstream Marina)  http://www.reelingforkids.com/

May 22: Big Bend Redfish Club Tournament (weigh-in at Sea Hag Marina)

June 19: Steinhatchee Ladie’s Fishing Tournament (weigh-in at Community Center)

August 14: Xtreme Redfish Series #2 (weigh-in at Sea Hag Marina)  http://www.xtremefishingseries.com/xtremefishing/xtreme_redfish_series.cfm?site=red

November 6-7: Cabela’s Speckled Trout USA Tournament (weigh-in at Sea Hag Marina)

Have had a few nice catches recently, so I’ll post some pics of Capt. Thompson and I from two weeks ago with a fine pair of winter trout.

what to do in February…

So for fishing folks, there isn’t a less appealing month than February. Notwithstanding the fact that it’s cold and the weather is challenging, the feds have made it a horrible month for those who make their living associated with recreational fishing. The closures in February include speckled trout, red and gag grouper, red snapper and amberjack. Since kingfish and Spanish mackeral have moved to the south, there isn’t much left….except redfish, sheepshead and other bottom fish like black seabass.  For many years, I actually winterized my boat in January and February…but there are some positives. First, even though trout season is closed, catching them is legal…it’s keeping them that’s the problem. Since most of the people I fish with are catch-and-release anyway, there are still fish to be caught. In fact, mid-winter is about the very best time to catch the largest trout of the year, and in good numbers. You just need to handle them carefully and make sure they are released in good shape. Along with Valentine’s Day, February is also the month of the Steinhatchee Fiddler Crab Festival. This year, the Second Annual festival took place over Valentine’s Day weekend. There were lots of vendors selling everything from jewelry to mounted lobsters, including homemade jams and jellies, hand-knitted items, and great food. One of the highlights is the annual Swamp Water Cooking contest. Visitors can buy a mug and then sample the competitive offerings…soups and stews.

 Friday night kicked off with some fine music, and on Sunday there was a small redfish tournament with only one prize…whoever caught the redfish with the most spots won a rod, reel and tackle box. My buddy Capt. Tommy Thompson (http://www.saltwateranglersguide.com/) donated the rod and reel, and the Tackle Shop in Jena donated a tackle box full of fine tackle. Even though Tommy donated the prize, we figured we would be supportive and enter the tournament, in spite of frigid temperatures. We didn’t leave the dock until around 11, with the weigh-in from 1 to 3. The water temperature was 45 degrees, and the wind was blowing….but the sun was out.  The fishing was not that good, and that is an understatement…but Tommy did manage to catch one redfish, about 6.5 pounds and with only two spots. We figured for sure someone would have caught a redfish before us, or one with more spots, but when we showed up, Tommy had caught the only redfish….this one.

So seeing that neither of us really needs another rod and reel….he is now going to donate the combo to the upcoming Doug Johnson/Donny Young Reeling for Kids tournament. We encourage everyone to participate May 14th and 15th to benefit the Boys and Girls Club of Alachua County.

My other fun trip was taking my old fishing buddy Doug Fertig out on the 21st.  Doug finally retired a few months ago and we’ve been waiting to get a chance to get out, but the weather and schedules didn’t cooperate. Doug actually got me involved in fishing Steinhatchee many years ago, and showed me many places I fish on a regular basis now. We finally got a break with reasonable winds, slightly warming temperatures, and mutual availability.

We left the Sea Hag around 8 with a soft breeze from the southeast and a warming sun.  We ran south of the river to one of our old favorite spots that has held good numbers of trout and redfish during winter months. We were fishing suspending baits, primarily Corky mullet and soft-plastic unweighted Texas-rigged jerk baits. It didn’t take very long for us to find some fine trout.

     

Although we never found any redfish, we did find the usual winter pattern…large schools of large trout. We worked the general area for a number of hours and caught somewhere around 15 trout, all but one over 20 inches, and several flounder. The biggest fish of the day was this beauty, a bit over 6 pounds.

We also did some kayak explorations this month when the weather allowed. One of the great things about our area is that there is almost always something to do, even in closed seasons with marginal weather.  What do we have to look forward to? The sheepshead run is right around the corner, and some of the best fishing of the year, and many of the year’s best tournaments, are coming up in April and May.  Given the unbelievably cold winter we’ve had, we’re all looking forward to some more comfortable fishing in the near future.

Busy weekend…and why you should join a fishing club

We’ve had some very weird weather for October…record-high temperatures, and later in the month, persistent winds and floating grass. A good time to have some work done on your boat…so I did.  At the Florida Outdoor Writer’s Conference in Ocala last month I won a $200 gift certificate from Bob’s Machine Shop, one of the nation’s best known makers of jack plates. I had been thinking about getting a jack plate after talking to Ray Markham at the meetings, who has a similar hull to mine and loves his jack plate. This was a great opportunity to get it installed. If you’re unfamiliar with jack plates, essentially they are just a hydraulically operated plate that the motor is attached to that goes simply up and down. That means you don’t really need to tilt the motor, and by just raising it when idling in shallow water, the propeller is actually above the bottom of the boat, causing less seagrass damage. Additionally, it can make jumping up on plane in very shallow water much easier with a pocket tunnel hull like mine. Charlie Norwood at the Sea Hag Marina installed the plate and Tommy Thompson and I decided to take it out for a test run on Friday, which looked like the only day with a forecast of less than 15 knots of wind. The jack plate worked fantastically, and I was able to idle in very shallow water without churning up grass.  It didn’t affect the handling or the ride of the boat.  We didn’t fish long, but Tommy did find this nice red on a topwater and we caught several trout as well in the 2 hours we were out.

 

On Saturday I was invited to fish with Ken Knopf, a long-time Gainesville fisherman and dentist, and Ed Ellett, every fisherman’s favorite insurer, whose father was one of the driving forces behind the Gainesville Offshore Fishiing Club (http://www.gofc.us/). I’ve been a member of the club for over ten years and have made many friends through the club, including Ed, Ken, Wiley Horton, and even my regular fishing buddy and alter ego, Tommy Thompson. These are some of the finest fishermen in the Big Bend area and I have learned a great deal from them. The club has changed a bit over the past few years and is now very active, with great attendance at our meetings and many tournaments, learnaments and other activities that can be a great source of information for beginners in our area.

The club has several year-long tournaments that members can enter, receiving points based on the heaviest caught fish among 8 targeted species, four offshore species and four inshore.  The highest  point total for the year wins the most prestigious award, the John Ellett award.  I won the award in 2001, but I had caught only 7 of the 8 species. In spite of the fact that a number of other anglers have caught all 8 species in one year, I have been unable to pull off that feat for the past 7 years. Each of those years I had 7 of 8; sometimes I lacked a cobia, sometimes a kingfish. Given the cobia I caught a few weeks ago, I was finally in a situation to have caught all 8 species in one year if I could only catch a kingfish. Ken Knopf, last year’s Ellett award winner, took on this task.  Ed Ellett, who needed a cobia for the year, and I were hosted by Ken on his beautful 30 foot Whaler, Knot on Call. After a false start at Cedar Key, which was getting hammered by storms, we drove up to Steinhatchee and fished in heavy seas on a special spot relatively close to shore in just over 20 feet of water. Using live pinfish, we chummed for a while, but the rough seas made it difficult to determine if there were any pods of baitfish around. Ed fished a weighted bait on the bottom for cobia and I free-lined a pinfish on a light stinger rig for kings. After a short period of time, I had a pickup, set the hook, and then endured several long runs until this 28.15 pound king came aboard, which as of today is the largest king weighed in so far this year in the club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ed and Ken also nailed several cobia and one gag but unfortunately they were just short of being legal. Ken also landed this fine Spanish.

 

For someone like me, who almost never gets to go offshore, being in the club has allowed me to share trips with offshore captains and expand my knowledge considerably. I usually go offshore every year with Wiley Horton (http://tunersportfishing.com/) and trade trips with him, and I will do the same with Ken and his wife Debby. If there is a local fishing club in your area, put forth the effort to join and make some time to get to know the current members. It’s a great way to improve your own fishing and you’ll make friends that will last for many years.

Scallop report for Steinhatchee….

Everyone in Steinhatchee has been waiting for July 1st. Fisherman have been waiting to know when to forget about drifting over quiet crystal clear water with little company. But most have been waiting expectantly to see what kind of scallop season we will have this year. In spite of some incorrect state surveys from a few weeks ago, it appears this will be one of  the best years in some time.  While I missed the madness on the first, I did manage to get to the coast on Friday afternoon, the 3rd, to be quickly reminded of what scallop season is like.  Friday was tough, with strong west winds, rain coming onshore, and massive crowds.  When I first arrived, this was what I saw as Capt. Tommy Thompson, in the foreground, was just coming off the water from a picture-taking trip. Shortly after, a call went out over the radio that a storm was headed toward the river….so lots of people came in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things got a bit crowded while people waited out the weather, since there weren’t enough places to dock. This group of boats were rafted up to the channel marker.  Most however, sat quietly waiting (and having some liquid refreshment) for a chance to get back out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But when they did, they found much improved weather and lots and lots of scallops. Multiple reports found people getting four-person limits in an hour without moving their boats.  Scallops were plentiful at Big Grass Island in 3 to 4 feet of water, and similarly south of the river near Hardy Point and Rocky Creek.

 It will be a banner year for scalloping at Steinhatchee, so plan on taking a family trip to the gulf. Remember you need to have a diver down flag and fishing license to harvest scallops, and finding accomodations at this late date may be challenge…but you can count on having lots of fun in the clear waters around Steinhatchee. For more information, check out the Sea Hag website or Capt. Tommy Thompson’s Saltwater Angler Guide link, both included among my links.

It’s all about timing…

Just about everyone who fishes for redfish seriously never quite knows how to respond when you catch a classic tournament redfish when you’re not in a tournament.  Naturally, you’re glad you caught a nice fish, but it never seems to happen at the right time. I slogged through a tough day fishing at the Reeling for Kids tournament and couldn’t find anything bigger than 6.3 pounds. The Big Bend Redfish club had a private tournament on Saturday and the largest two-fish catch was 12.5 pounds. So naturally, on Sunday, Doug Barrett and I were bound to have day that makes you say “what if….”.  We had some hints from Capt. Tommy Thompson that there was a school of reds in an area we occasionally fish.  In fact, he had caught 18 fish there the day before. We went there early, in slight fog, fished in the right place, and caught…..nothing. Nada. One blow-up on a topwater. We tried suspending lures, topwaters, crank baits….nyet.  True, it was near a slack tide, but really…we expected better.  We ran further south, to some beautiful water and bottom. Nothing except a small Spanish mackeral. We drifted along fishing subsurface lures and found a nice school of trout anchored by this four pounder and picked up a small red as well, but nothing spectacular.

The skies looked like thunderstorms were brewing, but we figured we would go back to our first location and try it on a flood tide. Lo and behold, the fish were right where we had fished in the morning on a slack tide. They were hungry and plentiful.  Doug caught the first big fish:

I caught this one a few minutes later:

We caught a total of 16 reds, from 20 inches to the pair pictured above. This is the first time this has ever happened to me, but both our fish measured exactly the same: 26 3/4 inches, and exactly 8 pounds on the certified Boga. It’s very likely that either of those two fish would have won any tournament in our area. Not that I’m complaining, as I’ve won a few myself, but I sure would like to be able to track these dudes down during the next tournament.  Finally we caught enough out of the school so that they moved off and we couldn’t find them.  In spite of the challenging and frustrating mornings, we ended up with a fine day.

Fishing Weekend….finally!

After trips and bad weather, this looked to be a good one, so I fished on Saturday with Doug Barrett in his Scout and on Sunday I took Capt. Thompson out for a brief trip. Saturday started off dark and windy, but we found some fish early, scoring on 5 trout within a half hour, including these two nice ones, both taken on topwaters. To give you an idea of the conditions, note the streaming foam on the water behind us…

Unfortunately, things slowed down as the weather improved slightly, but the wind never got below around 12 knots. The weather was worsening so we went in for lunch and came back out around 2. We did some exploring of new spots, picked up some more trout later in the day, losing a big one at the boat, before we found ourselves in schools of 5 to 6 pound jacks. Some of the topwater hits were so explosive, and right next to the boat, that we were both flinching.

 

Great fun; we caught as many as we wanted and had a few fun fire drills with doubles.  Capt. Thompson met us at the dock and began planning Sunday while having dinner at Fiddler’s. We left from the Sea Hag around 7:15  just before sunrise, and found lots of mullet but not a lot of great fish. The wind was forecast for 5 to 10 but was probably closer to 12 to 15. I picked up two smallish reds early, we caught a fair number of short trout, and Tommy caught the best red of the day, a 6 pounder….

We only fished until around noon, but all told it was a fine weekend….but we’re all wondering when we’ll get a great fishing weekend. Lots of tournaments coming up, so keep your fingers crossed…..