The Good,The Bad and The Ugly

Fishing Saltwater Fly Fishing
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The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good

It was great to see the faces of usernames of FAOL members and learn from them, a great bunch to share companionship and experiences.

The Ho Jo???s clams at Captain Eddy???s

Great fishing locations with tons of mullet jumping and spooking all over the place.

Kayaking fishing for the 1st time and the great adventure at Placida thru the mangroves to Gil???s secret honey holes.

The gathering at Captain Tony???s for mild libations and great food for all and the casting lesson was appreciated.

The secret fly???s I was given by some that the fish still don???t know about

Wonderful weather, from beginning to the end.

The Bad

The five foot Bull shark that was caught at the north end of Pine Island and the 3 others that were lingering around

Michele informed me of a spending moratorium on all saltwater purchases including rods, reels and all fly tying materials, only exception is for earrings until she or I catch a saltwater fish in Fla.

The Ugly

Batting a thousand in Fla. Saltwater from Port Charlotte. Little Sarasota Bay. Blind Pass Beach, Casey Key, Pine Island and Honeymoon Island, Not one Darn fish, NOT even a snagged one.

The water temp was well below the 70 degree mark for fish to take flys, I did manage to warm it up in spots.

The lousy cold I caught so here I am back with my honey in wonderful Bliss with Howling winds and Blowing snow.

The Dude won my reel aarrrggghhhh

All in all it was a wonderful Fish-In, meeting some of you again and others for the first time was an enriching experience. We hope to do it again in the future

Our thanks and appreciation for the great event

Old Geezer

Excus my spelling and gramma, I hooked Mondays and Fridays so I could Hunt or fish.

[This message has been edited by old geezer (edited 15 March 2006).]

[This message has been edited by old geezer (edited 15 March 2006).]

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Michel

You have got to pay your dues in Florida before you can catch fish. It takes weeks of teasing before our fish give in. When you guys come back next year I will pen up a few fish and make sure you catch at least one fish. (does catching with your hand count.) It is a marketing ploy about you not catching fish. You see the politicans have figured out that if the fish have lock jaw the fishers get mad and keep spending money because they do not want to be skunked.

Flats Dude spends countless hours training fish not to bite. And I cannot guess how much time Saltydancindave spent preparing all the fish in his waters to keep their mouth shut.

Now if when you came to Florida you had a tan and did not act like you were from up north, the fish might bite for you. But the tan is important, the fish are taught if there is a glare on the water from the fisher people not to bite. It all has to do with shock treatment and feeding. Something about a bunch of dogs that were trained a long time ago.

So sneak down again and we will get you some fish, I might have to take you out at night. I might have to loan you a rod that was trained in Florida also. But not to worry we can get you fish. Just sneak down to a secret pirate meeting and see what we do to teach the fish to ignore the northern pirates.

old geezer it was great to see you again, sorry I could not spend more time, but alas the evil chemo caught up with me.

Never fear the fish will bite for you one of these trips.

Harold

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A few pics: Michele,Dave,Ken and Diane.




Excus my spelling and gramma, I hooked Mondays and Fridays so I could Hunt or fish.

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Harold, Please edit your post, I told her the new XI2 would help her and the new XP was my reward for finding her the magic wand. You are going to get me in trouble, NO TRAINED rods. We need to get good muscle memory in ours

Hope your doing better and we understand

Philip

Excus my spelling and gramma, I hooked Mondays and Fridays so I could Hunt or fish.

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Phil,

That photo of me is proof that a tarpon 140 kayak can be used to haul heavy cargo; Gil should re-name it the SS Barge!

Ken

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Now that’s some fun hooking into a bull shark & letting it tow you around for a while ! If a 6 foot tarpon can pull a ton of flats boat for 2 hours or more hooked off a flyline, the kayak waterskiing behind a shark is what alot of the yakkers in Florida dream of ! Glad y’all got to enjoy the weather, the waters, some new & old friends. Caught a good picture or two & the camera didn’t break, so now all that’s left are the fish ! Sharks count…if you catch the top of the food chain first, all the rest are easy !

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Great job Dave and the rest of the crew too.

The Bull Shark was caught right in front of us and the guy was as surprised as we where. They hung it up on the dock on the north end and he had 3 other buddies lurking for some Italian pork bellies. The guy went nuts because he couldn’t get the hook out, I grabbed the tail and the darn thing turned around and looked at me. They can bend around pretty good and stubby I don’t want to be.

Great time with all of you

Geezer

Excus my spelling and gramma, I hooked Mondays and Fridays so I could Hunt or fish.

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Those sharks are like Gumby. As long as you have a good grip on the tail & pulling the leader attached to the hook the opposite direction all limbs are safe ! Happy you had an encounter with a fish on the par of Michelle’s first date with a snook ! Thanks for the kudos & the fishing fun !

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Dave thanks to you all all fish-in buddies, this is one hell of a web site.

The geezer

Excus my spelling and gramma, I hooked Mondays and Fridays so I could Hunt or fish.

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Well, it just had to happen! After our successful FL fishing not-catching trip and kayaking adventure…we have been on the hunt for a pair of kayaks suitable for the aged and barely firm

Lucked out this weekend with kayak #1. Ken is the proud owner of a 2005 Heritage Redfish…leftover at a very attractive price! Now, we just gotta find one for me

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Congratulations, the Heritage Redfish will serve you well.

Now, without going overboard on price, get a decent/lightweight paddle. You’ll thank yourself after a long day of paddling and fly casting.

By the way … welcome to the addiction!!

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Diane, Ken must be really pumped. I hope you find one to your liking and one that has cart wheels like the hobie quest. I agree with Gil on the paddle and make sure the blades or paddles are bright in color.

Good luck in your search

The Geezer

Excus my spelling and gramma, I hooked Mondays and Fridays so I could Hunt or fish.

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Ok,… Ok?.sheesh! Somehow Saturday a Heritage Redfish Kayak got into the back of my truck and follows me home! It looked at me with its big sad eyes and I couldn?t send it away after that!

Seriously we got a super deal on new redfish it?s a left over last years model; they even threw in a paddle! It?s a great boat and should suit me fine, can?t wait to get her out and fish with it!

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Ken, it’s amazing how those things happen. I wish you the best of luck with it, not only in fishing but the extra exercise we will both get

I can’t wait for a pic with it fully rigged:
gps graph combo
drift bag
anchor trolley system
Rod holders
Cooler
Running Lights
stake pole
T handle for paddling

Enjoy
Philip

Excus my spelling and gramma, I hooked Mondays and Fridays so I could Hunt or fish.

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For the newer kayaking “pirates” a bit of advice: get rid of the “shark” that is rubbed on all yaks to scare the fish away so you won’t have to make those 80 foot flyline casts anymore! Then get one of those old Florida custom fish calls installed, so even if the fish swim right under the craft they’ll stay around long enough for you to catch them all !

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Salty, for your info, I do plan on a set of JAWS detailed on the bow I have to figure a name for the yak. Ya know one for someone who has yet to land a darn fish on the fly in Fish-in waters

One sad Old Geezer

Excus my spelling and gramma, I hooked Mondays and Fridays so I could Hunt or fish.

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When you get the JAWS detailed onto the front of the yak you could always have the tail of a fish sticking out of the sharks mouth…thus becoming “yak jaws” ! The kayak can catch the fish, but alas the flyrod can’t until it’s properly Florida trained !

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Your killin me

1500 yak and goodies
1250 2 sage rods
650 2 reels,spools
4000 tying equipment,that she knows of

real cost of fish-in

Priceless

The geezer

Excus my spelling and gramma, I hooked Mondays and Fridays so I could Hunt or fish.

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Hope that you at least got the pictures emailed before you got back ! They will be priceless !

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Thanks, everyone, for your kind words. Kate and I always like to have people over for a cookout and we NEVER need an excuse. “It’s Tuesday!!! Let’s have a PARTY!!!” is our motto.

Sorry I haven’t participated in the discussion sooner, but I’ve (thankfully) been guiding every day–and a lot of nights–and went back to Michigan for a consumer fly show last weekend.

If I might offer a small suggestion, it would be to cast flies that are smaller and more sparsely dressed than what I saw in various fly boxes. Wintertime means that about the only baitfish we have are inch-long glass minnows, some “whitebait” about
one and three-quarters inches long, and some smallish shrimp. I’d also suggest night fishing around lighted docks with small glass minnow patterns. We were catching 20 to 50 snook, bluefish and even some ladyfish in three to four hours of fishing.

I would have loved to take some of you out, but I was totally booked during the early part of your stay. Perhaps next year–and I DO hope you won’t think ill of this part of Florida. Because we really do have a wonderful–and USUALLY co-operative fishery!

Tight Loops,
Capt. Tony