a busy weekend…

Had great trips with two folks this weekend. On Sunday I fished with old friend Richard McDavid, who has been out of action for a while due to severe eye injury. Richard is a long-time member of the Gainesville Offshore Fishing Club and is one of the great barbecuers of all time.  We went out for a trip on Saturday and fished some flats early in the morning with topwater plugs.  We found a good number of slot-sized fish but never could find any large ones.

We caught several limits of keeper trout, all on topwaters and the occasional fish caught on suspending plugs (I was using  a Mirrodine XL, Richard a suspending Bomber).  After the tide came in we ran to several redfish spots and caught some nice fish on the strong incoming tide.

We ended the day with ten keeper trout and many smaller ones, and five redfish.

On Monday I took out Kay Eoff, a retired physicist at UF. Kay suffered a hand injury recently but he assured me he would be able to fish. We left the marina around 9 and fished the same flats as the day before, but slightly further along in the tide. Kay fishes with baitcasters and all day used two lures: a cork and jig rig with an amber tail and a silver Sprite spoon with a single hook on it.  I was fishing a Super Spook Jr. and we both found several really nice trout, with the largest being five pounds, the second largest 4.5. We also caught a number of smaller fish which were released.  As we had our limit of over-20 inch trout, Kay was ready to try some redfish and the water was high enough to run to some of our structure spots. We found a number of redfish around some offshore rock bars; most were small, but we found one six pounder and a five pounder with the smaller fish. By now the tide was flooding and the seabreeze was blowing at least 15 knots so we tried one of the creeks to get out of the wind and strong tidal current, but there was nobody home. Turned out to be a fine day and Kay got some fish to take home.

The grass is still slow in filling in on some of the shallower flats, and pinfish are just starting to show up in good numbers, which will draw the larger fish into some of the shallower areas. I would say we’re about 2 to 3 weeks behind because of the very cold winter that killed back more grass than usual. But things are getting better every weekend.

simplicity is the ultimate sophistication…

That’s what Leonardo da Vinci said. Herbert Hoover said “Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.” Whenever I hear the word “simplicity” I think of one person: Jeff Evans. I’ve known Jeff for about eight years or so. I met him through a friend, Brian Holt, who like Jeff, is a registered nurse. Jeff and Brian worked in the Williston Hospital but Jeff really wanted to fish more, so he and his wife Debbie moved to Steinhatchee. In the time I’ve known him, Jeff, always fishing with Debbie, has won twice as many local tournaments as anyone I can think of. I know of at least three times when I had the lead in a tournament when I saw Jeff’s truck pull up for the weigh-in and I knew I was about to be bounced. In the last two weeks, Jeff and Debbie won the Carabelle Redfish/Trout Shootout, including the first place overall as a team, largest redfish (7.6 lbs.), and largest trout (5.2 lbs.). Yesterday Jeff won the Steinhatchee Community Tournament with a 7.75 lb. redfish and a 6.4 lb. trout, pictured below. These two tournaments provided Jeff and Debbie over $5000 in prize money. In other words, Jeff and Debbie Evans are amazing at finding huge inshore fish.

So….how do they do it? Winning that kind of prize money, they must have high-powered equipment, great electronics and high-end tackle. Nope, not really. Jeff and Debbie fish, and always have, from a canoe. Debbie uses a Zebco reel. From my perspective, the only change I’ve seen in how they fish is that they added a little kicker to their canoe. They access the gulf from primitive ramps that no full-sized boat can use, paddle or power out to the mouth, and usually fish within an easy paddle’s distance from  the creek mouth. And ordinarily they only use one kind of bait….fresh pinfish filets.  They move with the tide and seem to know exactly where the big fish are and how they move.  I consider this amazing. Having expensive tackle and a nice flats skiff, and fishing the same area for about ten years, I have yet to catch a trout as large as the one he caught yesterday. He catches 6 to 7 pound trout on a regular basis.

I remember about three years ago Tommy Thompson and I were fishing with Roland Martin in the Mel Tillis Tournament. I knew where Jeff was going to fish and it just so happened the tides allowed us to get there first. He would have beaten us there,  launching on a small primitive ramp, but on his way to the ramp his trailer went off the road and it took him a while to get it out. As we were fishing on the spot, I saw Jeff and Debbie come out of a nearby creek and paddle out  about a quarter-mile away and drop their anchor, which is an old piece of rusty metal. We fished the area for an hour or so, I caught one nice redfish, and we moved on to catch a Spanish mackeral and a trout that ended up finishing third overall. However, after we left Jeff and Debbie paddled over to our spot, waited patiently and caught the largest and second largest redfish in the tournament (winning much more money than we did) from the same spot.

There’s something wonderfully poetic about a beat-up canoe and a Zebco and a metal chunk for an anchor (which is next to Jeff’s hand in the picture below) whupping up on fancy boats with jack plates and trim tabs and $500 rods and reels.  I am ALWAYS rooting for Jeff  to win (except, of course, if I’m in the tournament).  Jeff also happens to be very soft-spoken, modest and a super-nice guy. Debbie is the more boisterous of the two, usually laughing and the life of the party.  One of the most amazing pair of fishermen I’ve ever known.

back in the saddle again…

The last two weekends have marked the arrival of a consistent spring fishery in the Steinhatchee waters. Fishing with Capt. Tommy Thompson both weekends, we found a great selection of large trout and redfish, in spite of the fact that the grassflats are regrowing slowly after the frigid winter. Areas of rock and grass hold pinfish, crabs and other immature baitfish that attract predators, and some of our usual areas are still lacking in pinfish. In spite of that, going exploring is a great way to keep tabs on the progression of the seagrasses and baitfish.

The trout bite right now is the spring pattern. There are large numbers of keeper-sized trout being taken on cork rigs south of Steinhatchee at the Pepperfish Keys and on the deeper flats in 3 to 8 feet of water. But this is the time of year when larger trout, which are usually solitary and not in schools, move in shallow water in early morning.  Shallow water doesn’t provide as much cover for schools of baitfish, with no excape route downward. Fishing topwater plugs in 2.5 feet of water on two successive weekends, we found a good number of 4.5 to 5 pound fish.

Redfish have also begun their spring antics. While the large schools are still widely scattered, we found several smaller schools of slot-sized fish and a few larger ones, taken on topwaters and on simple jigs with soft tails.

Captain Thompson has begun working on some short videos for a variety of uses, and a brief one about redfish (with an excellent cast)  can be found here:

This is a great time to hit the water. A number of local and regional tournaments are coming up. Take this opportunity to get out in some great weather before it gets too hot to think and the scallop boats are thicker than no see’ums.

brief weekend update…

Been a few weeks since I’ve been on the water. We’ve all been waiting for the water to warm up as things have been pretty inconsistent for the past month. The recent warm spell should have turned them on so there were a variety of attempts planned this weekend.  While the fishing was marginal on Saturday, we did find some bluefish and mackeral and I managed this Spanish on fly.

On Saturday I fished by myself and found, for the first time this spring, a good consistent topwater bite. I caught 6 trout over 4.5 pounds anchored by this 5.5 pounder, which was full of roe. I rarely ever keep fish; this one inhaled a topwater plug so deeply that the lower trebles were hooked around the gill rakers, but the fish wasn’t bleeding. I worked as fast as I could to get the hook out which was not easy, but managed it and put the fish in the livewell for some oxygen. I really didn’t expect her to survive. Amazingly when I got back to the marina she was doing well so she posed for this picture and was put right back in the water.  I’m expecting things to pick up rapidly now; while trout are easily available, redfish have been a little harder to find. That should change within a week or so.

Getting there…

While the fall has been steadily improving, many of us were convinced it was slower than usual. This has been the slowest October in several years for redfish. This is the time of year that the larger fish school to get ready for their move offshore, never to return to shallow water. While we have caught fish regularly, the large schools have been more scattered than usual. While this has persisted somewhat, within the past two weeks things have improved considerably.  We even got in a quick offshore trip that was hindered by the usual problems when people go outside of their element, as well documented by Capt. Thompson in his weekly online blog post from Florida Sportsman (it was all his fault….http://www.floridasportsman.com/4cast/bb/index.html ).   We did come away with one nice kingfish…came within a hair of getting spooled, this fish took a pinfish on a spinning reel with a stinger rig. Doug Barrett, whose boat we were using, came even closer. I could see the metal spool before his fish stopped…but the hook pulled shortly after.

In general, we’ve been doing pretty well. The day before the offshore adventure, Doug Barrett and I found some nice redfish in shallow water and some excellent trout fishing. Interestingly, most of the fish were caught on suspending lures.

 

This weekend there were several events going on….the Big Bend Bash, put on by the Big Bend Sportsman Forums, and the fall tournament of the Gainesville Offshore Fishing Club. Because of some forecasted winds, the tournament was cancelled. Naturally, the weather was beautiful all weekend, and we predict the make-up date on November 6 will be worse…because that’s what always happens.  We fished the early morning extreme low in close to shore and found a great trout topwater bite. I caught approximately 30 trout, all on topwater plugs, and most were chunky 18 to 20 inch fish. We also found this nice 7 pound redfish, taken on a suspending Catch 2000 and another oversize 10 pounder that avoided a picture.

 

On Sunday, because the trout bite the day before had been so excellent, we decided to try and catch some trout on fly, in spite of the windy forecast.  We managed four trout in spite of marginal conditions….and I also found THE clouser pattern for lizardfish, scoring four of the highly sought after gamefish.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get any pictures of them, but I am confident they are tippet records.

I must apologize for posting all the pictures of this ugly mug….that’s the way it is when you catch all the fish. Now that the weather’s improved, along with the light-tackle fishing, I’ll be posting more regularly with pics of others.

 

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.

reeling for kids…a great event

I was glad I could fish the Reeling for Kids event this year, for the first time since the first tournament in 2005.  Two former Gator and NFL football players, Doug Johnson and Donnie Young, have sponsored this tournament to raise money for the Alachua County Boys and Girls Club, and have gotten a great response; it’s become the largest tournament in Steinhatchee.  This year was a tournament record, with over 100 boats fishing.

Tommy Thompson and I donated two days of trips to dignitaries and sponsors, and in exchange we get a free entry into the tournament. Such a deal! On Friday I had the great pleasure of taking Bill McQuillen, owner of McCallister’s Restaurants, and his friend Chris Spann. Because Bill is recovering from an illness, he mostly rode while Chris and I fished. We found a redfish early, in the 6 pound range, but it was clear it would take a special fish to place in this tournament. In order to be a tournament-grade fish, first the fish has to be legal…27 inches or less after the tail is pinched. Then there is a tremendous variation in weights. Only the particularly chunky fish who are near the top of the slot size are going to be competitive.  For instance, on day 1 of the tournament, Tommy caught a 26.75 inch redfish that weighed around 6.6 pounds. I was fishing a small crankbait and landed what looked to be a good fish…but he was 1/8 of an inch too long, and went back in the pond. Within minutes, Chris had a fine fish on that I knew would be competitive….he was a chunk.  I quickly measured him, to find he was only a little over 26 inches….but when I weighed him on the Boga grip, it showed over 7 pounds.  By way of comparison, in 2005 Brian Holt and I fished the initial Reeling for Kids tournament and won the big redfish with a weight of 6.9 pounds.

We continued to catch redfish, catching a total of 5. Because the tournament format was such that the best combination of a redfish, trout and Spanish mackeral would win the Inshore Masters title, we tried for trout next in some deeper water. The wind was sporty, and the water was choppier than I would have liked for my flats skiff. We tried fishing jigs, popping corks, and topwater plugs in water ranging from 8 to 2.5 feet and managed a number of smaller fish but couldn’t find that single good trout we needed. We ran to a nearshore bar and tried trolling spoons and plugs for a Spanish mackeral but caught only blue runners in the heavy chop. We fished hard until the mid-afternoon and headed in for the weigh-in. At the end of the first day, our redfish was in first place.  Several fish were disqualified for being too long. However, with so many entries, I was far from confident the fish would hold up through the second day.

On day 2 I took out Noah Brindise, former UF quarterback and Washington Redskins offensive coach. After several years of college coaching at ECU and UNLV,  Noah decided on a more stable lifestyle than a coaching career for his family, and works with a medical technology firm that provides structural support for orthopedic surgery, mostly sports injuries.  Noah doesn’t fish as much as he would like, but knew his way around the boat and quickly picked up the shallow-water fishing patterns we were using. Noah caught an early fish on a small crankbait, and the bite continued for much of the day. We ran to several different areas, not finding the big trout we wanted, but finding lots of excellent redfish. We ended with a total of 9 redfish, from 6.5 pounds to 9 pounds. In spite of the good number of fish, we never could find a legal fish that was better than our fish from the day before.

We were fishing both crankbaits and the classic redfish lure…a gold Johnson spoon. Spoons are hard to beat when targeting redfish; you can throw them a mile, and they have a large strong single hook which makes unhooking the fish much quicker than a small plug with multiple treble hooks. This time of  year, and throughout the summer, redfish caught on light tackle are at major risk. Unlike many fish, redfish will fight to the death. Getting them into the boat for pictures, weighing, and then resuscitating them at the time of release is essential to make sure they survive. I have spent 20 minutes trying to revive a fish, but it’s time well spent. When the bite decreased, we both noticed that something about the angler’s tobacco usage seemed to start the bite up again.

Again, the wind prevented us from going to the nearshore areas we need to get to in order to find the large trout and mackeral we needed, but we were having great fun and headed in for the weigh-in. As I glanced at the large board, I could immediately see I was bumped out of first place by a  friend and regular Steinhatchee fisherman, Mark Mcready, who found a freakish 8.3 pound 27 inch redfish that weighed more than a pound more than my first day leader. We did manage to hold onto second place, and with Bill and Chris’ approval we donated our winning check back to the Boys and Girls Clubs.

It was a great weekend, with lots of good people doing great things.  A shout-out to my good friend Captain Wiley Horton, who serves as the Tournament Master every year, and got me involved in the tournament the very first year.  Doug and Donnie commit an enormous amount of their own time and money for this event, and it started because Doug, who grew up in Gainesville, spent a lot of his time growing up at the Boy’s Club, and feels it contributed to his later success in life. This is his way to give back, and there isn’t a more pleasant caring host. Thanks to both Doug and Donnie for their efforts on behalf of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Alachua County.

Doug Johnson, Chris Spann, Rick Davidson, and Donny Young

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.

a good day at the office…

I had a good trip with Martin and Vance Elshire in the fall, and they were interested in fishing during a warmer time of year, so we decided to try it today. I’ve been looking forward to this trip because both Martin and Vance are good fisherman with good casting skills, which really comes in handy in shallow water fishing. Tommy Thompson and I had fished the day before so I knew the morning low tide was going to make shoreline fishing a challenge, and the forecast was for strong easterly winds, making the shoreline very desirable. We left the Sea Hag marina around 8:30 and ran a few miles north to some rocks in 3-4 feet of water that had been holding some trout recently. The water temp was 67 degrees and the wind was a brisk ten knots. We began fishing some suspending lures and lipped crankbaits. The trout bite had been off a little from the excellent winter bite, but we managed several four-pounders before the bite quit.

 

Although we had caught some reds in the area the day before, the action slowed considerably and we ran across the river to a rocky area south of Hardy Point. This is a “redfish” area, which means that usually after telling someone that, they immediately catch a huge trout, but today the redfish were home, and schooling. Martin was nailing them left and right using a lipped crankbait. The first one he got was a fine 25 incher.

 

As sometimes happens when there’s a school around, Vance and Martin continued catching fish. At one point Martin caught two fish on consecutive casts. One of the last fish out of the school was clearly a biggie, as we noticed when his spinning reel was well down into the backing. He turned that fish, however, and it turned out to be this fine 26 3/4 fish weight in at 7.25 pounds on the Boga grip.

The wind was still a problem, moving around to the north, and still blowing at 15 knots, so we tried running into a small creek near Sand Point. Martin caught another trout and another redfish, putting an exclamation point on his mastery over his son, at least on this trip. We had a fine day,  and hopefully we’ll get a chance to try some topwater fishing the next time Martin comes through town.

As I mentioned, Capt. Thompson and I fished the day before and we had some decent fishing with some nice trout and Tommy found this fine redfish as well….but we didn’t place in the Steinhatchee Community Tournament. There were some excellent fish weighed in, and our friend Jeff Evans scored the second largest trout, second largest redfish, and his wife Debby caught a nine-spotted redfish. They had a very good  tournament, taking in almost $1000 in prize money.   Jeff and Debby fish out of a Gheenoe launched in small creeks, and when he’s in a tournament it’s a good bet he will do well. Congrats to Jeff and Debby. As for me, my fish weren’t that hot, but I did win a giant Budweiser mirror which is displayed proudly in the boy’s clubhouse at Steinhatchee.

It’s April. Yay!

Frankly, although we found some nice trout in February and March, the fishing has been as tough as the weather. When grouper season opened on April 1, I expected to see things change a bit around the old Sea Hag Marina. Took my buddy Doug Barrett out on Saturday, with a great forecast….5-10 knots. It was even less than that when we left the marina around 7:30 in a fairly dense fog and dead calm. We ran to the south, and the fog was dense enough to make things complicated even with a GPS. We had a few follows on plugs, but couldn’t get anything to take. We went to one of my favorite redfish places first, to find nothing. No mullet, no pinfish, no grass, and certainly no redfish. Very disappointing, so we ran further south to one of my favorite trout spots. Naturally, given that set-up, the first fish I caught was a redfish, a 6.5 pounder which was the first good red I’ve caught in several months.

Doug promptly followed with two five-pound trout in three casts. We were suitably impressed.

We continued to work the area. The fish were moving around a bit, but about ten minutes later I found this nice trout, followed by another redfish, this one multi-spotted.

The bite persisted for a while in the 67 degree water. Around 10 AM the tide slacked and the wind picked up considerably, which was NOT in the forecast. We continued to catch a few fish, ending with a total of around 7 trout, the smallest being 4.5 pounds, which is a fine day. Then the bite ended, and in spite of trying to track down some more fish in the area, it appeared they were gone. We came off the water around noon. All fish, even the redfish, were caught on Corkys (Oops. I forgot.  There are no more Corkys. Now they are “Paul Brown Lures”, available through Mirrolure).

Things were hopping at the Marina, especially at the cleaning table. Shane was cleaning fish until 11 on Friday night, and there’s no telling about Saturday. The sheepshead bite is very good right now, the offshore boats are back in business catching some fine grouper and amberjack, and everybody was having a great time. The bottom pictures are from Steve Hart’s trip. We’re hoping the Tiki Bar opens soon!