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Unlucky/dumb - Same fishery on our very next trip out, we had 5 or 6 giant bluefin already released and I was quickly trying to rig a big swimming mullet on the fly. With the mullet rigged, I fired it over the side, set it out, then put it up in the outrigger. It was swimming like a champ and didn't last 5 minutes when another giant tuna clobbered it leaving a massive hole in the wake. Only problem was we didn't hook up. Extremely odd since giant bluefins just don't miss when they eat a trolled bait. I reeled the destroyed mullet to the boat where I discovered I rigged the mullet so quickly that I didn't rig it with a hook! DOH!!! You can bet I didn't make that mistake again. We released 8 that day, including my very first giant bluefin as an angler. Incredible fishing and most memorable trips to date.
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First was in February. It was about 3AM and 40 something degrees outside. I snuck onto this dock just north of Dunedin Marina. It was glassy and so foggy you couldnt see but 10 ft. I was using a ghost lure on a jig head. I had cuaght a couple big troutabout 24". I was retrieving the lure and I got a call from gf at the time and I let the bait rest on the bottom about 2 ft from the dock. After chatting for about 5 minutes or so I reel up and the line comes tight and starts singing. I am thinking I have a big red but it is thrashing like crazy. After a good fight I go to hoist the fish up and I realize it is a giant trout. I miraculously hoist it up and lo and behold I have trophy seatrout. Measured 33", best in my life and the biggest one I have ever seen caught over here. LOL, The bait was sitting motionless on the bottom for like more than 5 minutes and it was not any type of scented bait.
Nxt was later that year in the summer. I was fishing a creek near my house with a CAL paddle tail and jighead throwing at snook that were busting after a rain storm. I was using a bait caster which I suck at casting and I make one of those casts where you let go too late and the lure just rockets like 20 ft away from you straight at the water with no arc what so ever. I expecting the bait to make a big splash but there is an EXPLOSION and startled the heck out of me. The rod bends deep and I have about a 30" snook on the line. I happened to cast right at the spot where the fish was busting. I hooked the fish on the bottom of the lower jaw. I actually landed that fish. It was like throwing your bait into a yawning fish's mouth. HAAHHA That might take the cake for me for the most ridiculous lucky thing that ever happened on the water for me.
http://tampaurbanangler.blogspot.com/
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Bad part of the story-- two weeks later im at the dive shop talking to the guy there. He says hey where you going? I said "shooting some sheeps for dinnerin the pass' he says, "did you hear the huge lobster some guy caught in there a few days ago"
He showed me the picture and it was the same bug missing a couple legs on one side, barnacles on antennas. He called the guy and asked him exactly where in the pass? Same spot I caught him and put him back..
it will be when I finally land a Sailfish.
I'm lifetime 0-13:banghead
LOL, that's amazing
Fishing a cajun thunder/gulp shrimp, hadn't caught ***** in 3-4 hours of fishing. Real slow day scouting some new creeks which looked good on google earth. Went for a long hard throw and my stradic flipped the bail on me (Idk if this happens to anyone else, but if my bail is in the wrong place during a throw, this is almost automatic.) and the bobber/bait snapped my 15lb braid. I cursed the beard of Zeus and went after it. Upon retrieving my bobber I found I had the very first trout of day attached to the gulp on the other end. I'd rather be lucky than good.
In my case, I wasn't the lucky one---the sheepshead was. So, I'm out with my first bridge net (got my new one half-finished,
but no longer have the cooker for the leads for the lead line, so it just sits there). It's a 13.5 foot, 18.5 lb (original weight)
cast net. Anyways, looking out into the Destin East Pass from the bridge, I see a BIG sheepshead swim out into that
perfect spot (kinda like in racquetball, where you never EVER put your return waist-high on your opponent's power side
or you'll get a kill shot for sure ... except it's a spot in front of you that's the perfect spot to throw). Anyways, the net hit
the water with the net's collar right directly on top of the sheepshead. I got him. Or...not. As the lead line was just
sinking below 1 inch from the bottom, this guy charged the net at full speed. No way, I thought, until, just before he hit
the net, he turned on his side and went right under it, turning back upright as he passed under it. A second later, when I
got over the shock from what I'd just seen, I just took my hat off to the sheepshead and reminded myself that they don't
get that big by being stupid.....
Now, those who have fished with a cast net, picture that crazy escape in your mind...just picture it. Amazing, huh?
And it was all in one smooth motion, too....
Later,
--jim
PS: Oh, and I only made braille (sp?) nets. NEVER made a bag net and never will.
Another lucky fish story. I had taken a friend offshore in the gulf for grouper. My friend had an old Penn 4/0 on a very old 2 piece solid glass rod, the type where the rod tip fit's hal;f way into a collect at the reel seat and the butt comes out of the other end of the reel seat. The butt was made of oak. I was fishing in the stern and my friend was in the bow. I heard a CRACK and looked up to see his rod and reel go overboard. He was left holding the broken butt. He started complaining and moaning about how this rod and reel had been his fathers, more of a keepsake and should have been hanging on his wall instead of actually fishing with it. Not a lot we could do about it in 90' of water, so I lent him a rod and we continued fishing. An hour later, I decide to move and crank up to pick up my marker buoy. Half way up I found his line wrapped around the buoy line. So we not only got the reel back, we got the AJ that was still hooked.
usually what you bring over the bridge's rails (or onto the dock with a dock net). In cases where you throw on a bunch of black mullet
in their packed-tight breeding time, you may overload the net and have some spill out, but in that case, you'll still need two or three
(or four, sometimes) BIG guys (also fishing with cast nets) help you pull the net up, and then over the rails (after which you let them fill
their coolers).
With a bag net, even a modest amount of fish will fall out, because the net doesn't close up all the way to the collar, only about 1/4
of the way up, and beyond that, my memories of the last time I saw one in use were well before my first cancer, and are very blurry.
I do distinctly remember those of us with brail nets used to watch people who were using bag nets, watching all of the mullet fall
out of their nets, while we just pulled 'em all up, wondering why...why were they using bag nets......
Unfortunately, it's been about 15 or 20 years since I've seen a bag net, and since then, I've had three brain surgeries, whole-brain
max-dose radiation therapy, and massive chemo leading to chemobrain from my first cancer, and the rest of my memory about bag
nets is too fuzzy to adequately describe, except to say, don't buy one (they may be fine for bait, though---I've never used a cast net
for bait).
Later,
--jim
Bass fishing a canal with my brother many many years ago. Sitting on a drain wall, two nice bass come by and I tell him to cast at the one going left, I will take the right one. Don't know what he was doing, but he wasn't casting so I started yelling at him to cast. Suddenly feel a whack across my back and I knew it was the rod. I scream at him **** you hit me for? I thought he was getting me back for yelling at him. His face went white!!! I asked what was wrong and he told me the lure was in my shirt in my back. I told him to get it out so we can keep on casting. He tried but two of the barbs from the rear treble were burried in my skin. Cut the line, hopped on our bikes and went to a friend's house who cut the lure's split ring and told me to go home. Mom stops cooking dinner and takes me to ER. No one from admissions believed I had a hook in my back and was so calm and painless, so they all had to have a look. Finally make it to the ER, get several shots and the doc pages the janitor to bring him some pliers so they can pull it out. Next day after school, we were at the canal using weedless worms this time.
What I wouldn't give to have another fishing day with my brother.:angel
Sorry for your loss. I'm betting the location was Snake Creek. I used to fish the heck out of it back in the early 80's, mostly between Miami Gardens Drive and 15th Ave bridges.
Try Scott Fawcett out of Stuart. Off the Chain Charters, I think. If he cant put you on one... Take up golf.