Fathers Day Fishing
My report from the Florida Surf Fishing board…
fished canaveral #1. late afternoon, incoming tide. water was clearer than i’ve ever seen it, very calm. sand fleas EVERYWHERE. crazy bait pods, lots of large mullets cruising up and down the shore. saw some big monsters out there, but only caught one decent whiting and a 14 inch pompano. any day with a pomp is good fishing in my book, but given the perfect condition, i expected more! at one point, everyone on the beach starts shouting, pointing at my rod, which was bent in half (never seen that before!). something snapped my 40# fluorocarbon leader. coulda been a shark, but it was baited with a flea, so probably some honkin’ pompano. lost a second big one, too.
great father’s day fishing, but a bit on the hot side.
Very good news...
I’m happy to see Obama taking an interest in the issue so early in his presidency.The appointment of Lubchenco, a marine biologist and an advocate for sustainable sea harvest, also bodes well.
He recently ordered a new task force to develop a national oceans policy. He said he wants a more unified federal approach to ocean issues, now spread across 20 different agencies operating under 140 separate laws. He also wants a plan for allocating resources among competing interests like fishing and oil exploration.
A more immediate measure of the administration’s commitment is the steps it is taking to meet a 2006 Congressional mandate to end overfishing in America’s coastal waters by 2011. The most important of these is an effort led by Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist who runs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Her mission is to persuade America’s fishermen to broadly adopt a market-based approach known as “catch shares” to manage their fisheries sustainably.
Long time, no tumbl.
Been fishing a lot. Surf casting has finally turned on again after a windy windy miserable spring…
In the land of the giants… Click for a slideshow.
Flagler Beach Pier a danger
Foundation problems caused by washed-away pilings
By KENYA WOODARD
Staff Writer
FLAGLER BEACH — The city’s most iconic symbol — the Flagler Beach Pier — was closed Tuesday afternoon after an engineer determined the structure poses a danger to the public.
Some of the pier’s pilings — which make up its foundation — washed away in rough surf over the past months, said Libby Kania, assistant to the interim city manager. Another two or three washed away over the weekend, prompting officials to call in a structural engineer to look it over.”
a good day fishing
had a good day in mosquito lagoon in my friend, don’s, new boat. took us a while to break it in, and we spent much of the day just tooling around and tinkering. caught some trout in the cuts between islands in the clinkers around noon. but mostly just tooling around.
but around 3, when we got stuck in the sand, i jumped out and started to push us out. noticed scores of fish all around us, so i tossed out my spoon and started reeling them in. don got two nice sized reds and two trout; i did a bit better, with three nice redfish (two right under the slot, the third around 12”) and nineteen trout ranging from 5” to 12”. all in rapid succession on the same lightweight spoon—maybe forty minutes of casting.
now, the strange thing is that this was not a spot i would normally have fished—oyster beds off of canaveral, almost no grass, but right along the channel that runs the east side (about a hundred yards from shore). i would have never fished it if i hadn’t noticed all the fish darting out.
hip-high water. overcast. water a bit turbid. wind out of the east at 6 or 7.
i gave up after my teeth started chattering too loud. the wind was starting to kick at evening and the water wasn’t much over 60.
i wish i’d caught something a bit larger. this has happened to me in the past—trout and redfish all together, hungry as heck, but all of them kinda dinky. usually i get bored and fish someplace else, but i’ve always wondered—are they ALL dinks? this time, since it was the end of the day, i went ahead and fished it for awhile, and i guess the answer is… yes, they can ALL be dinks.
still, it’s been a while since i’ve had one of those “every cast” spots. fun day.
the day ended on a down note. don’s outboard wouldn’t turn over and i ended up dragging the darn boat all the way back, over those oyster bars, about 1/3 a mile. my thighs were burning by the time we got the boat on the trailer.
Lake Woodruff, Beginning of February
Friends, refugees from the cold, were down this weekend, and we went for a quick walk through Lake Woodruff. The bass were feeding pretty heavily—I saw a number of them in the canals, and some young kids were reeling nice-sized ones in at the tower. We saw a family of river otters cavorting in the first impoundment, and even found their nest in the waist-high saw grass near the bank. You could hear them rustling and eating through the thick vegetative mass.
That’s an otter swimming, above.
Anhinga.
Fish Shares and Sharing Fish
A thorough and interesting article on fish shares and marine reserves from the Times’ “Wild Side” blog:
A broader management strategy, which many marine ecologists favor, is to set aside parts of the ocean and protect them from fishing altogether. Fishermen sometimes resist this idea, since it threatens to exclude them from profitable waters. However, recent work suggests that marine reserves may pay the fishermen back for their sacrifices. By harboring the largest breeding fish, which produce spawn of greater number and quality, reserves can contribute significantly to fish populations outside their borders. Ultimately, fish shares and reserves may prove mutually supportive management strategies.
