Outdoors

Nadine and I headed to downtown Tampa to check out the Ecolution 2010 fest. We passed the University of Tampa and saw they also had the Greenfest going on as well with all kind of plants and stuff. We stopped there and I picked up a few things for the back – a lemon tree, and a few plants – jalapeño, serrano, rosemary, cilantro, bay leaf and lavender. Then we headed to the Ecolution area which wasn’t really going yet. We did come across the Dogma Animal Rescue with a few cute pups. I took some pictures for them with the dogs. If we didn’t have 3 dogs and 2 cats already we probably would have came home with one. I did get a chance to take some nice pictures around the downtown. I really like the one above of the Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park and below of Nadine with this cute puppy named Javi. We ended up eating at a little Italian restaurant called Pizzaiolo since the food venders weren’t really setup yet. It was really good and look forward to going back for dinner. We had a caprese salad which tasted really fresh. I can’t wait until I have my own tomatoes growing. Then I had a prosciutto pizza and Nadine had home-made ravioli and emiliani, both were awesome.

Check out all the pictures in my Ecolution 2010 Flickr Gallery.

I had not been out on the kayak in a while so I decided to take it out this morning. I got to the boat launch at Weedon Island just after 6AM. I didn’t have as much luck as I was hoping. I wound up fishing from the launch all the way to Mile 2 Marker of the trail, but going backwards. There was one are that I thought I saw a bunch of tailing redfish so I got a pinfish on and chased them down. I could see the school’s wake in the water moving around. At first I didn’t get a bite but they came back around and they one took it. I found it for what seemed to be 5 minutes…probably more like 2 or 3. It was pulling me all around which was pretty fun. It wound up being a pretty big Jack Kravel. The next and only fish I caught was a 20 inch snook. I was following the trail backwards just exploring and I came out of some mangroves into an open area that had 3 boats (not kayaks) out fishing. I cruised in really slow close to one of the mangrove lines just checking out the water. As usual there was mullet jumping all over the place. I found a nice point right where the mile 2 sign is and anchors away from it. On about my third cast I was under and I realized it was a nice snook. He put up a really good fight and I must say, it felt pretty good just to cruise up there and pull in this snook. I saw all the other boats looking over checking me out. THAT’S HOW IT’S DONE! After that I worked my way back. I had another couple of nice bites but missed them. All in all, it was great to get out on the water. I didn’t get back until a little after 1PM and used up all 24 pinfish I came out with. Here are a couple of pictures from today. Click here to view all of the pictures.

22 Inch Snook

My kayak and the sandbar I always stop at. Someone put an American Flag in it which you can see way behind my kayak.

MY friend, his brother and I went out yesterday to try and put his brother on some fish. We went out in the afternoon to fish the outgoing tide. I picked up some pinfish on the way just to make sure we had some bait. We went to a spot we normally pull something out of and didn’t get much of a bite at first. I pulled in a nice trout but the bite was really slow. We headed out to check some other areas and wound up getting some nice greenbacks of the old faithful pylon we normally check for bait at. We wound up heading back to the original spot with the new bait and the action was a lot better. I pulled in 3 redfish and 2 trout. My friend got an Tampa Bay inshore slam with a trout, snook, and a red. He caught a few more and almost had a double. His brother wound up catching 3 snook and a catfish. Before this trip he had only caught one snook so that was pretty cool. I wish I would have gotten a snook to get my own Tampa Bay inshore slam but the fishing gods didn’t allow it that day. Maybe next time.

Click here for all the pictures.

Yesterday I went fishing early on the kayak but all I caught was big catfish. I had live pinfish but they didn’t seem to be swimming around much. They would just swim to the bottom and sit there like they were about to die. But I kept live bait on one rod and artificial on another. I got anchored up in one spot where I had fish all around me. It looked like tailing redfish all over. There were some other people fishing close by that looked like they wanted to be where I was cause they could here all the activity. But I couldn’t get a bite. I threw live pinfish and almost every artificial I had on me and nothing. But I finished out the morning and headed in around lunch.

Then I went out in the afternoon with my friend on his boat. We managed to get some bait and then scouted around trying a few new spots. We found decent place where his fiancee caught her first snook which was pretty cool. He pulled out a few mangrove snapper but once again I couldn’t get a bite. I got one nibble on a gulp bait as we were running low on decent live bait. So we decided to hit one more spot we had in mind to look for some monster snook. As we pulled up it seemed the hole was filled with fish. This time we weren’t sure it was snook but I started casting. After a few passes we finally hooked up…and we hooked up BIG! Right as I saw the cork go under I started cranking and pulled back to keep him from running back into the hole and popping me off as they have done in here before. Then he jumped and I think we all sighed as the same time. This thing was a monster. We are thinking at least a 50 inch snook. That’s when I started yelling at my friend to get off the tower and get the net. Well, IT DIDN’T FIT IN THE NET! I got him to the boat, he ran again and as my friend tried to net him he turned and slapped the line with his tail and popped off. Again, we all sighed in unison. I think I was shaking for the next hour. We tried a couple more times but didn’t have any luck and decided to leave them alone.

We’re going back today but we’re going to be prepared. We’re hitting the tackle shop to get new rods, a bigger net, and heavier leader. We’ll see if we can pull another big monster and actually land him this time! No pictures, my friend has the camera but I’ll post some later.

My friend and I were thinking of trying out some dock fishing from the kayak at night but wound up just going out on his boat in the afternoon. And I’m glad we did. We headed out with some pinfish that I put in his bait hotel the day before and were just scouting around. On our way in we decided to hit a spot that I got a monster hit on a few weeks back. It was right at low tide and we could see way back into the hole. As we got up close I heard my friend who was on the tower saying, “Do you see that???” I thought it was a cobia cause it was big and looked redish. I cast into the hole..nothing. Reeled it in and made a better cast and BAM! He took it…fast! That’s when I knew it was a big snook, just like I had mentioned on the way there. I was able to pull him out of the hole before he look off behind the pylons like last time. My friend was rushing down off the tower as I as yelling to get net ready. He made about 3 really nice jumps. Then we got him to the boat. Man, that’s my biggest snook yet coming in at 28 inches! What a fight. I definitely have a new favorite fish.