My Fishing Reports: May 2007

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Southeast Florida

Report from Pierfishing.com and Baytubers.com:

Conditions were still rough offshore so we hit the Indian River around 7:30am on the kayak (doing the tandem thing again). This time we fished the docks up and down the river for a couple snappers (one around 12") and a couple striped mojarra (largest was probably around 15" to 16"). These guys were a little bigger than what we caught the day before. They were even able to make a couple small runs. Left the docks and tried to find some grass away from shore. It was neat to be wading in knee-deep, warm water. A couple times we saw what looked like snook chasing baitfish... Threw a krocodile out for no love. Called it a morning around 12:30pm and headed back.

Access through the mangroves

Striped mojarra

Wading

I'm guessing a silk or red snapper

A couple more striped mojarra

Lane snapper

Maybe 15in. to 16in. striped mojarra

Fished the surf around 8pm but gave up pretty fast because of the rough seas. Salad everywhere... After my first cast I lost the leader and that was it for me. Rains were supposed to hold off until Friday afternoon so we tentatively booked a charter for the next morning.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Southeast Florida

Report from Pierfishing.com and Baytubers.com:

We were staying at Matt's dad's house and I noticed he had a kayak in storage. It was a Cobra Fish n'Dive that he bought a couple years ago but hadn't had a chance to take it out. We got to talking about it and he suggested we fish the intercoastal waterways to get out of the wind. We were down with that especially since our options seemed limited with the rough seas. I sat on the bow with my legs hanging over while my buddy paddled. LOL--I'm sure it was quite a sight. He fished cut shrimp bait while I threw out 4" & 5" swimbaits trying to target snook. My buddy already had several fish in the boat before I caught my first one. Mostly from me being stubborn with the swimbaits... I eventually switched to shrimp. We caught a nice variety of porgies (pinfish), juvenile snappers (lane, cubera), striped mojarra, puffer fish (spiny boxfish, spotted trunkfish), an Atlantic stingray, and a hardhead catfish. Also saw what looked like maybe a 25-30lb. eagle ray (black with spots) surface next to the kayak. I was trying to target snook for most of the day and got a real good bite that almost tore my swimbait in two (but maybe it was a barracuda?) Fished from about 10am to 3pm.

Makeshift tandem kayak

Lane sanpper

Pinfish

Striped mojarra

Cubera snapper (I think... they've got canine teeth)

Hardhead catfish (notice the less-than-enthused look on Matt's face)

Atlantic stingray

Another lane snapper

My first catch in Florida--a pinfish!

Spotted trunkfish

Another cubera snapper

Spiny boxfish

Hard but short bite...

The locals

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Southeast Florida

Report from Pierfishing.com and Baytubers.com:

Flew into West Palm Beach with my friend Matt and we immediately hit the beach around 6:00pm. The weather forecast called for lots of wind and rain the whole week. Threw out 3oz and 4oz sinkers but they didn't hold the bottom very well as our lines got tangled with salad. Needless to say these were not ideal conditions for anglers, but there were several pelicans diving into the surf so that meant fish. We threw out market shrimp early, then carolina rigged some sand fleas for nada. Headed back in around 9pm and hoped for better luck tomorrow.

Heavy surf

Friday, May 25, 2007

King Harbor, Redondo Beach

Report from Pierfishing.com:

Fished for a couple hours Friday morning with Hashem. We were visiting the Sportfishing pier to show them the recycling bin. The owners weren't there at the moment so we ate some food at Polly's and hit the rocks in front of the bubble hole. Hashem was targeting opaleye with his 20ft. telescopic outfit (no reel, just some mono attached to the end) while I threw out a 1oz. kroc towards the bouy (tried braid for the first time with my spinning reel). There was a small boil, but nothing came of it. The good news is the pier owners are interested in getting the bins installed so our day wasn't a complete wash.

(Hashem, thanks for the parking cash and breakfast--I'll pay you back next time!)

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Marina Del Rey

Report from Baytubers.com:

Fished MDR from about 9am to 3pm. My buddy and I caught plenty of barracudas on swimbaits and krocs, a couple oversized smelt, and something that made my rod go bendo before the line snapped. Made our way to the breakwater, stopping by both bait barges on the way. There was a group of people who purchased all the baitfish in one of the holders and dumped them out into the marina. :? We asked the bait guy and he said they mentioned something about "tradition" or "ceremony"? I guess as long as they're paying for it... Got a close look at a couple sea lion pups at the breakwater--one just about dead and the other already gone. A couple boaters mentioned there was red tide outside the marina so I'm guessing it's the domoic acid that got 'em.

Sea lions closeups

Sea lions on the breakwall

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Redondo Beach

Report from Fishingnetwork.net:

Took the day off and hopped on the Redondo Special with my dad and uncle. I just bought myself a Penn Jigmaster 500L paired with a 7' Shimano Tallus Blue Water rod so I was eager to try it out.

Sick, sick, sick... just about everybody got sick on this trip--I was one of the lucky few which is strange since I usually get hit pretty bad. Anglers were dropping like flies, including my dad and uncle who were one of the first to go. By my count, there were only 9 of us who made it through unscathed. Boy, I felt for the others... But after the trip my dad and uncle had a good laugh about it.

Fishing was real slow for the first couple hours. It looked like we headed straight due west from Redondo and the captain said we were fishing in about 200ft of water. I was pulling up dink starries for the first couple stops. About halfway through things start picking up... olive rockfish, nice-sized vermilion, double hookup on olives, then another couple vermilions. Used dropper loops with anchovies and squid strips.

We moved around a lot--captain said he was metering fish but apparently they just weren't biting. He and deckhand took some time to fish during the lulls, throwing their few catches into some of the empty sacks. Their report says 17 anglers and 59 rockfish, but I'm pretty sure it was closer to 45 (2 spots before we headed back the deckhand counted just 35).

Came home in time to cook up some fresh fish tacos for the family!

Note: The winning bocaccio was disqualified because some anglers said the guy's friend helped reel it in. Can't say I remember seeing him help out, but also didn't realize that was a rule. The guy who caught it was pretty cool afterwards, but his friend wasn't too happy about it.

Starry dinks and olive rockfish