ticketP1
12-02-2002, 04:10 PM
Just afew notes on what turned out to be an awesome time in Jebland - which would be that great state of Florida.
Fished, or rather trolled, for a day on a charter boat out of Sarasota. Caught several Little Tunies (i.e., Bonitas), a Kingfish, some Spanish Mackeral, and.... a Bull Red. Seems as though down there Redfish (the kind you blacken) can reach unimagineable sizes. We were headed back into the bay, half a mile from the mouth and our neighboring boat yelled out "Bull Reds!" on the radio. We trolled through a school of humongous fish (captain had never witnessed something of this size)...Three quick hook-ups, all lost... Turns out they have very soft mouths so you can't wrestle 'em like mackeral and tuna (wish I knew!). Then my little 12 yr old nephew hooked one on that we landed. Turns out he provided the "human drag"...just barely enough power to reel it in w/o horsing it. The Redfish was atleast 40 lbs! The school of Reds were BIG males running together (like dolphins) during the spawn. All of illegal size limit.
Next day I flyfished a small lake 50 ft from my moms condo and landed my personal record Florida Largemouth. He was between 6 and 7 lbs! I am not BS-ing here... Got him on a para hopper. Took a good 20 minutes to land on my 5 wt. Beautiful fish! Thats the flyfishing part (still basking).
Finally we went to a place called Mote Aquarium. My ma knows a lady who works there that got us in before the crowds came later that morning. We got to pet and feed Hugh and Buffet, the manatees! This is off limits to the public. Apparently camera crews w/ the Discovery Channel were to arrive later that day to film the two celebs in an up-coming special on Manatees. These things are awesome gentle giants that are unfortuneatly getting wiped out by a-holes who don't watch where they're going on the Intercoastal Waterway (makes me sick).
Anyway, fun times down south.
Fished, or rather trolled, for a day on a charter boat out of Sarasota. Caught several Little Tunies (i.e., Bonitas), a Kingfish, some Spanish Mackeral, and.... a Bull Red. Seems as though down there Redfish (the kind you blacken) can reach unimagineable sizes. We were headed back into the bay, half a mile from the mouth and our neighboring boat yelled out "Bull Reds!" on the radio. We trolled through a school of humongous fish (captain had never witnessed something of this size)...Three quick hook-ups, all lost... Turns out they have very soft mouths so you can't wrestle 'em like mackeral and tuna (wish I knew!). Then my little 12 yr old nephew hooked one on that we landed. Turns out he provided the "human drag"...just barely enough power to reel it in w/o horsing it. The Redfish was atleast 40 lbs! The school of Reds were BIG males running together (like dolphins) during the spawn. All of illegal size limit.
Next day I flyfished a small lake 50 ft from my moms condo and landed my personal record Florida Largemouth. He was between 6 and 7 lbs! I am not BS-ing here... Got him on a para hopper. Took a good 20 minutes to land on my 5 wt. Beautiful fish! Thats the flyfishing part (still basking).
Finally we went to a place called Mote Aquarium. My ma knows a lady who works there that got us in before the crowds came later that morning. We got to pet and feed Hugh and Buffet, the manatees! This is off limits to the public. Apparently camera crews w/ the Discovery Channel were to arrive later that day to film the two celebs in an up-coming special on Manatees. These things are awesome gentle giants that are unfortuneatly getting wiped out by a-holes who don't watch where they're going on the Intercoastal Waterway (makes me sick).
Anyway, fun times down south.