Late Fall Report

Well with the weather cooling off and the extreme low winter tides around the full and new moons, finding bait has become somewhat of a challenge. I can still get it but I have to pick my days it appears. While most live bait anglers have to run to the skyway I have been fortunate to discover a few bait spots a little closer to home. If I am lucky and they pan out for me as hoped I should be able to find bait all winter long on most days. The rest of the time I will fish artificials or target species that like shrimp like Sheepshead. I am also enjoying the opportunity to do more fly fishing, although my results are not quite what I have been hoping for with that.
I can get decent distance and present my fly well enough but after it gets in the water is where I need some help. I'm thinking about hiring a guide that specializes in fly fishing just so I can get some pointers. I would really like to catch some nice fish on fly this winter and of course I want to be able to target snook and reds on the flats next spring and summer as well and possibly tarpon too.

I had some problems with the motor on the Hotrod earlier this week. Apparently when I swamped the boat last week some water got into my portable gas tank and my motor, although it is very economical and fuel efficient, still wont run on a saltwater/gasoline/two stroke oil mix. I drained the gas tank and emptied the fuel filter on the motor and it ran fine for me today so I am back in action.

The Mullet Roe season is in full swing and the mullet fishermen are out in full force. Most of these guys don't pay any attention to any regulations regarding running their vessels in slow speed or idle zones and could care less about running over your fishing hole while your fishing. Great guys let me tell ya. This is a picture I took in a slow speed minimum wake zone while fishing last week.


As you can see the snapper bite is on fire...I have huge hands this is a really big fish.

Here are a couple pictures of a fishing trip I took with my friend TampaJim proprietor of Dudley Rods
We searched and searched for fish for almost 3 hours and then when we finally found them we flat out tore em up and boated 12 snook in about 30 minutes as well as a small redfish too. We lost a couple too including one snook that would have been very close to the top of the slot if not over. But that's fine with me as I would have let it go anyway.

Hopefully fishing will pick up a little in the coming few weeks. As the weather gets a little colder I'm looking forward to the annual sheepshead spawn at the end of this month till around march. They are pretty tricky to catch but when you do they put up a great fight and they aren't to shabby on a sandwich bun either.

Fishing With My 3 Year Old

I took my 3 year old daughter fishing this morning. We launched around 9:00 am a little late by my standards, but it was about 50 degrees this morning so I wanted to wait for it to warm up a bit. When we got there, the tide was almost bottomed out so I missed the outgoing tide I was hoping to fish. I managed to find live bait near my usual bait stop but had to look in slightly deeper water do to the cool temps and lack of water.
I couldn't fish my regular spots because there wasn't enough water so I decided to do a little scouting and headed off in a new direction.
My daughter wanted to stop and play on a little island and I could see some mullet splashing around so I beached the Hotrod Gheenoe and we got out to "play" for a little while. I casted to the mullet a few times hoping to find a redfish or something mixed in with them but didn't have any luck. After about 30 minutes we decided to get back in the boat and ride around for some sight seeing. I checked out a couple residential canals and saw some big mullet. They must have been happy to see us to because one jumped right in the boat with us for a picture and a quick release.
There still wasn't much water, but I did see a school of mullet getting busted by some big fish, so I idled over and made a couple casts but didn't get any hits. Then I decided to head over to some docks where I saw some more mullet playing and ran over a small school of redfish. I made some casts but they left. I anchored up near one of the docks and tossed out a live bait and a couple chummers, hoping to find some redfish. Instead I caught a small snook. Perfect. I tossed out another and asked Emily if she wanted to catch a fish. She said yes so I handed her my rod. Sure enough almost instantly the line went tight and I told her to start reeling. She struggled with the reel a little bit so I held the rod for her as she reeled in the fish. A nice 20 inch snook was her reward. I asked her if she wanted to take a picture but she was afraid to touch the fish so I put it on a boga grip and let her hold it by the handle. We released the fish and I tossed out another bait and gave her the rod. She got another snook about a minute later. After she caught her third snook, she said she wanted to watch me catch fish and play with the chumbat...so I happily obliged and caught 4 more snook in a matter of minutes two of which were inside the slot at a little over 27 inches with the tail pinched. Both were released.
I looked at my watch and it was time to head in as I had to pick up my son from school so we left them biting.
I saw a couple guys fishing in a jonboat near the ramp and asked them if they would like some live bait. They were glad to have it as they said they had no luck looking for bait this morning. I even told them where to go catch some snook... I'm too darn nice for my own good sometime...

This was also my opportunity to try out my new IMX custom rod I got yesterday. Man that thing is light as a feather and so sensitive I could tell when I was gonna get a bite before the fish even made up its mind of it was gonna eat the bait or not. For being such a light feeling rod, it had plenty of muscle for pulling the snook out of the docks too. I know I am gonna catch a lot of fish on that thing.

I'm looking forward to taking my captains license class and test next month. I have some neat ideas for my business and think I will make a lot of anglers some great memories. But I cant let the cat out of the bag yet, so you will just have to keep checking in to see whats in store.

Gotta New Toy...

I normally do all my inshore/flats fishing with a 7 1/2 foot light to med action rod. They in my opinion are the best for the flats because you can get good long casts and the rods have great sensitivity for feeling when a fish bumps you lure or bait. However most of my fishing lately has been in narrow mangrove lined creeks and other tight areas where accuracy is more important than distance.
So I called an acquaintance of mine, Jim Gamble at Dudley Rods and told him I was looking for a 6 1/2 foot rod with plenty of sensitivity and a fast enough action to allow me to still reach out when I needed to, yet enough backbone to turn a large snook or redfish and keep them out of the mangrove roots.
He told me he could build me just the right rod to suit my needs. He used a 6 1/2 foot G. Loomis IMX blank with 7 Fuji SiC guides and a skeleton reel seat with a cork insert. The rod turned out beautiful.
I put on an extra reel I had sitting around and tied on a small jighead I had laying around and practiced casting it around in the front yard. The rod has a very nice action, I can cast it far enough to suit most of my fishing applications and it is very accurate. I can tell it is going to be one of my favorite rods for fishing in the mangroves. I will post a full report on the rod after I put it to use later this week..like hopefully tomorrow morning..if the wind lays down...
Jim can build you a custom rod to fit any application you desire at an affordable price to fit your budget. You can even pick out different colors for you wraps to show support for your favorite teams or whatever suits your individual tastes.
Jim can be reached at www.dudleyrods.com. Tell him you heard about him on The Hotrod Gheenoe Fishing Blog!