Sunday, December 30, 2012

12/28/12 CANAL FISHING

by Robin

I don't really have much of a whopping fish story tonight.  This little intracoastal area is not far from home and so Jack and I decided to have a little 'date' out fishing the other day.  We were in no hurry to get there and in no hurry to get back home.  Very relaxing.  We put a little gas in the boat and motored a couple miles.  We took with us egg salad sammies, chips & homemade granola bars.  Nothing too complicated.

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We fished on the east side of the canal for a couple hours and caught a lot of small fishing.  No keepers.  We moved back down the river to what we call the railroad bridge and fished that.  The sun disappeared and we couldn't buy a bite. So, we moved back to the canal and the sun came back out.  No lie. 

We anchored up at this bridge.  At first, the nose (bow) of the boat was closest and I had to make a nice cast to the signs and reel back in to the boat.  Picked up a lot of small fish again. No keepers.  But, it was relaxing.

This guy caught a few nice fish for his dinner.  What a stunning subject to photograph. 

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Had to try a couple different photoshopping pics to see which I liked more.

Then, in perfect sequence, the tide changed and the butt of the boat swung around sitting about 6 ft from the signs.  The sun disappeared, the bridge lights turned on and we were in the perfect position for fishing under the light.  This was suppose to be the secret place where many reds & drum were to hide out.  One young boy on the bank told us a tale the he caught a 41" red fish at this very spot this morning.

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At first, many fish swam to the surface, likely looking for shrimp. Seemed like a properous place to land & keep fish and have many photo opportunities. Many shrimpers were anchored up with their green lights all around the canal.  And hour later, we saw a full moon coming over the tree tops.  It was a bit of a magical moment.  I had a lot of fear about being in the dark again, on the water.  (Granted, it's only 5:45 pm)  But, it disappeared with all the soft & colorful glows and the moon showing brilliant in the sky.  Occasionally, we'd hear the birds squawk like a chicken laying an egg and it would make us laugh. 

We fished another hour as the moon was hid behind the bridge and then, later the clouds. We heard another fisherman answer a call from his wife.  We could make out that there was a front coming our way but that it was breaking up.  No fish.  Potential rain.  It was a no brainer to pack up at 7:15 and head to the barn. 

About the time we made it through the canal and onto the open waterways, we were in a light rain.  Navigational  plotters help but I had to keep my post with the flood light beaming ahead to keep watch for unmarked posts.  While we were never in danger, it was still somewhat stressful and we moved slowly through the water & rain.  There were no surprises other than the time to move such a small distance.  But, we loaded up in calm waters at the dock.  I had to get wet up to my knees to latch the boat to the trailer which was somewhat uncomfortably cold but doable.

We got home only to be hit with more cold rain as we unloaded First Choice.  A hot bath never felt so good.  I'm sure Jack enjoyed his bowl of New England Clam Chowder.  I sat down to watch a little tv with our boys and the lights went out for the night. 

Like I said, not much of a fish story, but something to show & tell for the blog.

Happy Fishing. 
Robin

Thursday, December 27, 2012

3-STRAND ROPE SPLICE

by Robin


I have to say that I am rather proud of myself today.  I self-taught myself how to do a 3-strand rope splice, thanks to this man's wonderful You Tube video.  I actually had most of it right all by myself but I messed up on the left side of it and so I corrected it and then, we were done!  The 'old' me would have simply gone to the store to buy more rope but Jack encouraged me that I could do it. 



I don't know if anybody would remember this, but back when we were doing our best to make it through the disasterous night out in the Gulf of Mexico, it was always a real possibility that our frayed rope might give way and we could be adrift.  I still get adrenalin rushes from that fact. 

Well, it was time to do something about it, so we pulled the anchor (in the driveway) and worked on the rope.  I didn't photograph the fray but it was definitely not much left hanging together and I am happy to say that the problem is SOLVED!!

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And like I said, I'm pretty happy with myself for starting very young as a horse mane braider, turning self-hair braider and now into a rope braider.  ha ha.  Am I an official sailor now?? shipmate?? 

(Side note: We did not want any electrical tape to interfere with the splice so I simply took highlighter marker to each strand to help me keep them straight. It will eventually wear off in the saltwater and the splice will stay strong.)

Tomorrow, we will be heading to Haulover Canal to see if we can't pick up some black drum.  We will test some minor adjustments we made to the ladder/ platform, the new voltage gauge and the anchor line.  We are missing the offshore blue water, but this will have to do for now.

God bless & Happy Fishing,
Robin
PS: I got a new camera for Christmas and so I am stoked about using it this cobia & mahi season.

Sunday, December 02, 2012

RECOVERY MODE

I'm definitely in recovery.  Recovery from too much schooling, too many doctors, too much physical therapy (Jack's behalf) and too long from blogging. 

Jack took the Fall to have rotator cuff repair surgery and then stay in physical therapy for the next 8 wks.  Now that he is healed, we have been addressing some issues with the boat.  One of them was checking to see if the new boat ladder was interferring with the propellar.  And it was.  The other is to address & reconstruct a new platform.  It's done.  Now, we wait for good weather offshore and try fishing again.  We did a river run and all the equipment worked well.  It was good to get the cob webs out from even our lack of loading/ unloading the boat. 

So, we wait.  This weekend, we had a party, church work day, baby shower, which got missed, an SEC Championship game and I signed (interpreted) at church this morning.  Next weekend, we may have Saturday open if the weather is good.  We'll watch & see.

For now, here is a cool YouTube video I found for you.  Seems to be very popular.  I picked it because it involves a Right Whale which are near & dear to our hearts here in Florida.  This was taken in the Auckland Islands. 



This is very short, but it is amazing at how breathtaking these giant creatures are.

God bless.  Hope to be back in blogging business again.