Fishing Improves With Warmer Weather and Less Wind
March certainly lived up to its reputation of being windy and unfortunately it is carrying over into April. Just when the weather warmed and winds seem to be subsiding another cold front entered Florida. After a decent week of fishing last week I am writing this report as the wind howls outside at 15 to 20 and the temperature dropped overnight to 46.
The good thing about the temp is that it won't stay there long. It actually warmed into the 80's on most days last week and if you could hide a little from the wind there were some fish to be caught. I will focus my report on a family from Georgia who fished both Tuesday and Thursday. Their goal was simple enough. "Let's just catch some fish." Cyndi and David, the mom and dad, were anxious for the "kids" to have some fun in the Florida Sunshine. Ji Won, an exchange student from Seoul S. Korea was along on the trip with the kids, Ben and Jillian.
With four fishing rods going at all times, we fished exclusively with live and frozen shrimp. And, as you would expect, we caught several varieties of salt-water fish. Ben hooked up first with a nice Jack Crevalle which got everyone else excited about catching one. David soon hooked up with a jumping ladyfish that threw the hook. Then Ji Won hooked a ladyfish and successfully bought it to the boat. By the time the day was over everyone had caught fish and seemed to have a pretty good time.
Spotted Sea Trout, Lady Fish, Jack Crevalle, Puffers and Catfish had all been lured by the families' offerings of shrimp in the Banana River. The most unusual catch of the day was made by David who reeled in a 15 inch Sea Robin. It is pretty unusual to catch one of these Sea Robin's in the river, but interestingly enough, this is the second one this spring. David's specimen was about as big as they get. In fact, very few grow to be greater than 12 inches.
On Thursday we decided to try the Indian River. We were greeted with higher winds and a little cooler temperature as a cold front approached from the North. The plan was basically the same, use live shrimp to entice as many fish to the boat as possible. As we moved from fishing hole to fishing hole we continued to put the same variety of fish in the boat. We did not catch another Sea Robin, but Cyndi did add a black drum to the variety and she also caught several Whiting. In fact, Cyndi seemed to be the lucky one on bigger fish. She hooked but lost two really nice fish before we got them to the boat. Numerous Ladyfish cooperated to keep Ji Won and Ben busy hookin' and fightin'. Jillian had taken the position of first mate and kept everyone supplied with shrimp, drinks, or what ever else they needed. Not to be outdone, David added mangrove snapper to the list of fish caught – he just seemed to have the knack for hooking them.
In the last fishing hole of the day Ji Won quickly added a nice 15 inch Sea Trout to the days catch. Then Ben caught a couple of nice Sea Trout as well. As our fishing time ran out and our bait ran low Ben finished the day in style by using the very last shrimp (by the way, it was a frozen one because we had long since use all the live ones) to hook and land a beautiful 20 inch Spotted Sea Trout. We conducted a quick CPR (Catch-Photo-Release) and ended on a high note. In two days of fishing we had caught nine varieties of fish from the Banana and Indian River, and used up several megabits of memory on the family's digital camera.
Other Notes of Interest
If you happen to be looking for a new boat, check this one out. It belongs to a friend of mine who recently got a new one and is placing this one up for sale. He always gets everything on his boats. It is a 2006 Custom 21 Hewes Redfisher with a Yamaha VZ250 on an Aluminum Trailer. And look at these extras. Power pole with remote, 3x Minnkota Trolling Motor, Lowrance GPS with color mapping and fishfinder, 3 bank charging system. The boat is a one of a kind black custom hull with release wells, pop up cleats, forward and aft seat mounts, jack plate, and a S/S prop. This is a fully equipped, very fast and awesome boat. All other options available are on this boat. Asking $43,500 Or best offer this boat has less than 40 hours and is in perfect condition. Call Tom at 321-453-0205 or 321-453-0590 or email him at towboatz@aol.com with questions.
As always, you can visit my website at www.inshorefishingadventures.com to view pictures of the fish we catch. That's what it's all about. Good fishin'.
Capt. Ron Presley
Phone 321-454-7285
presleyr@bellsouth.net