Pretentious Snobby Bastard Fly Fishing!

Fly Fishing Reports => Saltwater => Topic started by: ptfranze on January 03, 2017, 11:58:14 AM

Title: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: ptfranze on January 03, 2017, 11:58:14 AM

http://youtu.be/m4oZCtfmh44

Headed down to Florida with the family for Christmas with our Grandmother.  I was really excited to get into some snook and jacks.  Dad, John and Chris got down there 2 days before my wife and I.  Texted them to see how they were doing.....Not good  b';

Dad told me to go check the venice pier fishing report- to sum it up basically "fishing sucks ass no fish at all, don't waste your time"  http://venicefishingpier.com/dyn_pages/papas.html (http://venicefishingpier.com/dyn_pages/papas.html)  They had been hit with red tide in mid to late October and were still recovering. 

We had to call an audible.  Dad and Chris headed out the day before we got there to a place called Snook Haven and rented some canoes to paddle and fish the brackish Myakka River.  If you are friends with Chris on facebook you saw they had a pretty good day, plenty of LMB and Snook to hand.  Cemented the deal this was our fishing for the rest of the trip. 


DAY 1

My wife and I got there and headed to the river with Chris and Jessica to hopefully repeat the day he and Dad had.  Expectations were high for the day, and they quickly came tumbling down.  The morning started off cold (yes in Florida) and cloudy but the sun quickly burned through the clouds and was extremely intense and hot the rest of the day with no wind. 

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Fish are friends not food!!! Apparently the fish forgot this was the case

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Chris and Jess managed to catch 2 LMB and 2 Gar on the day.  All my wife and I managed was a single bite- didn't even see the fish before he spat the hook.  Got off the water ate and had some beers and enjoyed the cool atmosphere at Snook Haven.   0:0 

DAY 2

Really hot and no wind.  We decided to give the beach a try.  Headed out with my wife, Chris and John.  Should have listened to the reports, lots of casting and walking.  Did manage one 5-6 inch lizard fish but thought it wasn't even worth the picture. 

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No luck so we headed off to the jetty to talk to the fisherman and see if it was even worth trying there.  They had been having no luck at all either so we just walked the jetty and enjoyed the birds fishing. 

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Saw one of these pelicans catch a massive fish.  Took him like 5-10 minutes of holding it in his mouth before he could swallow it.  Best picture I have of it (will see if someone else has better):

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On the way home spotted a bald eagle from the road at the ponds near my grandmothers house.  (will get better pics off my camera later- these are all the phone pics)  These things are massive  :o

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DAY 3

My wife and I headed back to the Myakka with Dad and John.  Another hot day with sun and not alot of clouds but we had some wind which was nice.  Paddled alot farther down river this time.  Ran into a kayak fisherman as we were pulling out that said he had been killing the LMB almost every cast up one of the side creeks.  1lb to 6lbs he said, but he also ran into about a 14 foot gator.  We had been warned alot about gators on the river and steering clear of them, but hadn't seen any yet.  Still we decided to skip that detour. 

Morning started off much better than the previous day.  A lot of tugs on the streamer but nothing really sticking.  John managed one of his best LMB

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Soon I was hooked up on something big

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He pulled us down river a while before I could finally boat him

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First gar!  Sucked we weren't catching salty fish but this was a new species for me!

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Had a few other bites as we were going and had a gar chase the fly all the way until his snout came out of the water right beside the boat. 

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Ran into a 8-10 foot gator out sunbathing, we gave him as much room as we could

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Ended up losing a LMB close to the boat and a small snook that went airborne a few times before tossing the hook.  Besides that just enjoyed the scenery and wildlife (sorry shitty phone pics)

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Baby Gator (no scale but about 1- 2 feet long) 
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We never were able to replicate Dad and Chris's day.  Assuming the sun had alot to do with it as they had full cloud cover all day.  Still had a great time!




Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: Dougfish on January 03, 2017, 12:10:10 PM
Shitty fishing is better than not fishing! Good family fun.  'c;
Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: Dee-Vo on January 03, 2017, 12:38:44 PM
Nice bass, gar, and gators. Good stuff.
Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: driver on January 03, 2017, 13:08:37 PM
Hell the wildlife viewing would have been plenty enough for me
Title: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: Woolly Bugger on January 03, 2017, 17:54:19 PM
Needs more cowbell and food / beer pics, otherwise a damn fine family vacation


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Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: tomato can on January 03, 2017, 17:55:35 PM
ya that is a pretty LMB
Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: BrookieHunter on January 03, 2017, 18:34:05 PM
That Gar looks like he would be a blast to catch. Nice trip for sure. 'c;
Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: ptfranze on January 03, 2017, 19:09:19 PM
Got the eagle pics off the camera

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Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: Onslow on January 03, 2017, 19:51:28 PM
Like
Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: benben reincarnated on January 04, 2017, 07:15:56 AM
'Merica
Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: Jfey on January 04, 2017, 08:43:59 AM
QuoteFist gar!

What did you do to that poor gar?  Hopefully it was consensual...


Good trip all around 0:0
Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: ptfranze on January 04, 2017, 08:56:43 AM
Quote from: Jfey on January 04, 2017, 08:43:59 AM
QuoteFist gar!

What did you do to that poor gar?  Hopefully it was consensual...


Good trip all around 0:0

Haha what can I say....gars apparently like it dirty  -+;
Title: Re: Oh black water keep on rolling
Post by: hcrum87hc on January 04, 2017, 11:47:31 AM
Looks like a great time to me, even with the slow fishing.