AFW

By Jason
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Saturday, August 7, 2010
" Nice day on the water with a few catches; Jason awarded the Cone Of Shame. "

Karla has had a serious case of "fishing fever" lately while on the other hand I have not.  All week she has been shore fishing with no success, and she wanted to go to a reef to try to get some relief from that pent-up need for catching!  So we made plans Friday evening to head out first thing Saturday morning.

We left land likely the earliest we've ever left - 6am sharp, and it was still dark out.  Onboard was Amber, Maria, Spike and of course Karla and myself.

We headed to Sanibel Causeway Span A and caught some bait on the flats.   I really wasn't quite awake yet as I prepared the castnet:

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Here's a fantastic sunrise over Sanibel Harbor Resort:

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Then we were off.  We headed to the area of the many Causeway reefs, offshore about 5 miles south of the lighthouse.   We began chumming, a very rare activity for us.  The chum was a pre-made frozen block, in a mesh bag.  It seemed to work.

Karla began with a very strange fish we have not seen before, which we later found out is an Atlantic Spadefish:

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Then she went on to catch a jack which she refused to hold, so I held it for her for the sake of the pose:

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She continued to catch numerous white grunts such as this one:

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After a while I caught some white grunts too, but only a couple.  Then I gave up on the small stuff and decided to rig the big-boy pole with a metal leader and white grunt for bait.  After a long wait my big-boy pole bent over and went "thump".  Something very big had hit it, and unfortunately the mono at the top of the pole had become tangled which did not allow any line to come off the reel, and so the leader/mono joint failed.  I was quite disappointed.

Meanwhile, Amber was getting some much needed shut-eye, while Spike kept watch:

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I rigged it up again and sent another white grunt out on it.  But this time there were no hits.

Maria began getting seasick at this time so we headed straight for stable land - the shore of Sanibel.  Then we began swimming and playing around:

			Spike surfing.
		Pulling the boat to deeper waters.
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After a while we got back on the boat and headed to the deep cut near the Sanibel pier.  We drift-fished while moving at a very swtft 2.8mph on the strong outgoing tide for about an hour or two.  During this time I had my big-boy pole out, and suddenly I was pleasantly alarmed by the classic zzzzzz sound.  So I jumped up and scrambled to the pole and tried to work it.  But unfortunately either I had gotten stuck on the bottom or who knows, but the line popped again.  Once again it popped at the metal leader/mono joint.   So I decided to respool the big-boy pole.  I took off the old old 50lb line, and put on brand new 80lb mono. 

At this point, Karla awarded me the "cone of shame" for my lousy fishing skills demonstrated thus far today!

Finally, I sent my big-boy pole out for what would be the last time today, and I waited and waited and waited as we drifted.  Now it was time to return home after a nice day out on the water, and when I reeled my big-boy pole in, I found not the bait that I had sent out, but a filthy catfish instead!  How in the world did that happen I thought?  Yes, I earned the Cone Of Shame again today.

Amber guided us home the last mile of the trip:

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We were back on land about 6:30pm.  It was nice to go out to sea once again for a change.

Our Track
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