Ass Not In The Grass

Saturday, my buddy Keith and I launched our kayaks in a section of old Tampa Bay near the Christian College. We were on the hunt for the elusive redfish. The weather was beautiful, but a bit on the humid side. There was no wind and the water temperature was in the mid 80's.

My gut feeling about this particular area and the time of year was the absence of grass. I was reassured by another buddy that there is indeed grass there. He said the map I was looking at must have been shot in the wintertime and that he had waded there many times and it's very grassy.

We arrived at the launch site and put in. Water clarity was murky at best. There is a spot where two channels form a cross between 2 mangrove islands that I thought would be a perfect spot to find redfish with the incoming tide.

I plied the water with a dark crab pattern for a while, then a black and purple weighted bendback, then a chartreuse and white clouser. No dice.

We paddled over to some large oyster bars dotting the shore and spooked either a school of 30 inch mullet, or redfish, couldn't tell which...they kept coming back....until the dolphin showed up.

This time, I decided to stand my ground with the dolphin...it was very brazen and came within about 10 feet of me in the kayak, but decided to move on to other feeding grounds.

The oysters were really taking a toll on my leaders. Had to change them twice as they would get frayed pulling them through the oysters. I was concentrating on the outsides of the beds where the water was a bit deeper and the current would wash prey items near these ambush points, but no luck there either.

I spent the rest of the day sneaking around the mangroves, looking for tails or maybe snook...at one point, I paddled full speed about 200 feet to where I kept seeing tails sticking out of the water. These "tails" turned out to be a stingray.

Still, it was nice to get out on the water on a nice, calm day even though we got skunked.

My Favorite Florida Keys Posts

For those of you who haven't been there, I'd like to share the fly fishers paradise known as the Florida Keys.

Here are some of my favorite posts about my experiences there.

If you've never been there and want to go - Check this out

Long Key Part One

Long Key Part Two

Long Key Part Three

Chad and the Barracuda

My Buddy Chad - Punching Bag For The Great Baracudda

Several years ago, my buddy Chad (he's deceased now) and I went to the Keys for a week of fishing. 5 whole days of being in the boat, on the water from first light and returning to the dock just before dark. Of course there were a few nights of fishing in the marina at the motel that we stayed at, but most nights were spent sleeping and tending to sun drenched skin. The middle of June in the Florida Keys can be quite sweltering, especially when spent in a 14 ft Carolina Skiff. Staying in Marathon has it's advantages when on a trip like this....being pretty much right in the middle of the island chain, we could go just about anywhere.

We had spent the previous 2 days chasing tarpon in Vaca Cut, catching yellow tails on the deeper flats and combing some backwater areas, sight fishing redfish on the Gulf side....but Chad had an idea for day 3.

We had left early (5am) to make it to the ramp past 7 Mile Bridge to launch the boat. The seas were utterly flat calm, like glass, as they say, when we passed under the bridge, the rosy colored horizon giving us just enough light to navigate. I asked Chad "Where are we going?" to which he grunted something I couldn't hear but mentioned something about "going offshore"....Offshore? In a 14 foot Skiff?

We stopped to catch some bait on the way....8 inch Blue Runners, and some sort of choice white bait that I've forgotten. Now, I have to state that before I realized the joys of tossing feathers and bucktail, I used to chuck 2 oz sinkers, live bait, and Bomber A's attached to 25 lb test mono and broomstick sized Ugly Stiks with a big Penn spinning reel. We had all of the big guns out on this trip.

We went far enough out where we could still see the shore in the distance....maybe out a mile and a half or so. We anchored and Chad strapped on a mask and fins and dove over the side to check if anyone was home on the reef 30 feet below. He surfaced an said "This is the place"....Grouper and Snapper we in the rocks below.

Before long, we had a few smaller snapper and a few Red Grouper....as well as some HUGE barracuda. They showed up like we had rang the dinner bell and hung around the skiff like a half dozen wild dogs. They were smart buggers. They wouldn't take the smaller fish as it was cranked up from the bottom. They would wait until you'd take it of the hook, and just hammer it as it swan back down.

I decided to try to catch one of these toothy predators, connecting a pre-made 80 lb wire leader with a snap swivel on the business end, 3/0 hook and one of the choice white baits....toss and WHAM! off to the races with a 4 ft torpedo. It was doing the "porpoise" thing where it was rocketing out of the water every 20 ft or so and then the line went slack. Upon review, the steel leader was bitten through! 80 lb steel leader bitten through!

While this was going on, Chad was trying to build a 100 lb steel leader and put a hook through his finger. almost all the way through, past the barb. He was trying to get it out , without success. After a while, He said "pull 'em in...I've gotta get this thing removed at the hospital". I was reeling in his gigantic Penn, You know, like the one Quint used in the movie Jaws? It had a blue runner on it and when it arrived at the boat, I could see there was a half a blue runner left on the hook. I mentioned something about that, and just as he looked over at it, a 6 foot reef shark did the eye roll and took off with it....reel screaming as the shark blasted off, with the half bait, bird nesting the reel.....and broke off.

At that point, Chad had reached his limit with the hook, Manned up, bared down, and ripped it out, wrapped it and stated, "we're not goin' anywhere". He made sure that he used pliers to finish the leader he had been building. Lining up a 'cuda, he looks over and says, "this is how you do it".

The hooked barracuda flew off just like mine had, but this one had something else in mind, turning toward the skiff, leaping every 15-20 feet. When it was close enough, traveling at top speed, it blasted out of the water and clobbered Chad right in the jaw, momentum carrying it over his head and back in the water.....

When he woke up a few minutes later in the bottom of the skiff, Chad asked me, "Dude, why did you hit me?"

Yes, nothing quite like being a punching bag for a Great Barracuda.

Any Takers for Florida Keys Trip?

Ok...I have this crazy idea.

As was mentioned a few posts back, Julie and I booked a trip to Long Key State Park in the Florida Keys for April 11th-16th 2010. This is prime time for bonefish in the Keys and quite possibly one of the best bonefish flats in the US. Plus the campsites are right on the water and literally steps away from your tent door....plus, it's probably the most inexpensive place to stay in the Keys, as it were, if that interests you. You can camp there for the entire 6 days for under $200.00.

Anyway, back to my crazy idea.

I think it would be cool to get folks together and do this on an annual basis. Bonefishing in the Keys with my favorite bloggers and readers....

If anyone is interested is going, book your campsite now....they go fast and the best time to book a trip there is as far in advance as you can. If you need us to, we can pick you up at Key West Airport.

We'll be in campsite 2. Let me know if you're going to be there.

Long Key Part 2

Since i crapped out on loading up my photos last night, i'll have to post with no pics right now and add them later.....The Rays were on and Garza pitched a perfect game up to the 7th inning....take that Baston fan....eh? (what's with this "Red Sox Nation" crap? Where was...."The Nation" when ya'all were stinking the joint up for 80 plus years between World Series victories?)

i'm an early riser and since we usually go to bed early when we're camping, we usually get up early too. This time was no different. i didn't really sleep too well due to the wind shaking the tent all night and the traffic on US 1 rushing by so, i got up with the first sign of the graying sky that proceeds the rising sun....told Mama that the sun was getting ready to come up and she groggily replied "uh...ok...." Fired up the backpacking stove and got some coffee going. For some reason French Press coffee tastes so good when we're camping....not sure why....but Mama got up in time to get her cup and her camera and start shooting the beautiful sunrise. There were some darker clouds in the distance and we could see rain. Mama said "look at those rain clouds Papa" and i replied "weather report said no chance of rain". Sure enough, withing 10 minutes, it started sprinkling and of course we didn't have the rainfly on the tent so we started scrambling around trying to get things stowed and the rainfly on (which was hard due to the gale force winds). And of course as soon as we get everything stowed, it stopped raining....

Mama fixed a nice camping breakfast which was an egg and cheese sandwich on health nut bread....mmmmmmm..... and orange juice.

We grabbed our flyrods and headed out to the flat at our campsite. The tide was coming in but wasn't expected to be high until around 1:00 so it was the perfect time for bonefish. Water clarity was excellent but spotting fish was going to be next to impossible with the whipped up water surface. We were rigged up for bonefish with 10 lb tippets and natural color Crazy Charlies. i decided to switch to a Sweet Ernie (http://www.flyfishinsalt.com/techniques/fly-tying-bench/the-sweet-ernie-1000070702.html) in hot pink/crystal sparkle chenille on a #4 Mustad that i had tied up right before we left on Sunday....only had time to tie one but i had my vice and materials with me. Decided to blind cast with the wind to my back so at least my forward cast would get to where it was supposed to....i figured i'd take 3 or 4 casts in a fan sort of pattern and then move up the flat about a full casts worth and start over. Current wasn't really a factor. There were some nice grassy patches as well as some sand holes and muddy sections with marl.

So we were working parallel to the beach with Mama out about 20 yards further than me and sure enough, i got a take on my 3rd cast.....was a lot of slack on that cast due to the wind and waves so it took off at light speed about 20 feet before i knew he was on it. and spit it before i could get the hook in it....had to be a bonefish though because of how fast it moved. Surprised that it didn't run into Mama on the way out. Tore the fly up by destroying the tail....

Hit myself in the back with with flies all day long and Mama actually impaled herself in the side with one.

After a few hours of no real action (a polite way of saying we caught bugger all) we went across the street and started fishing the flat next to "the hole". i was still using the flyrod but Mama had switched to the spinning gear and shrimp. She wasn't getting anything but bait robbers and i wasn't having any action either so we moved to "the hole" and weren't having any luck there too.
We went back to the campsite around lunchtime and found that the wind was taking a toll on the tent in a very bad way. It's a dome style tent and the way it works is to fasten the long floppy poles to a series of short metal posts at the base of the tent. These are held together by a metal ring. Well, the metal ring looked more like a fish hook, the posts were missing as was the stake to hold it down....more rain sprinkles, Mama rigged it up with some rope and i tied it to the wood fencing surrounding the campsite to secure it. Mama piled some rocks at the base of the poles for good measure. It was a major screw up on my part because i wanted the big window on the tent facing the water and in doing so, had pointed the part without windows at the wind, so it was really taking a beating.....if we had pointed the window at the wind, it might have made it easier on the tent. (here we go with the physics again.....) So between the rope, Mama's rig job, and the rocks, we were hoping the tent would hold up.....sort of like an episode of Star Trek..."Scotty!.....i need....you to keep......the ship togetheraslong as.....you CAN Bones, Spock come with me....."

We ate more rotisserie chicken and tortillas and split a Hurricane Reef. Mama took a nap and i tied a few flies.....

Will the tent and weather hold up? Will our hero's catch something that swims?

Tune in next time........