Crappie Fishing Report 12-15-12

Sat. Dec. 15,2012
Weather: 69 to 80 deg.
Mostly cloudy
wind: light easterly
water temp.: approx upper 60's

Total catch: (30+) Bream, Bass, Specks,   (18) fish kept

I fished a lake near Deland, Florida this morning for Speckled Perch. I have always called them Specks myself.

The weather was mostly overcast with very light easterly winds. The temperature was about 69 at 7:00 AM and ended up near 80 degrees. It was actually a pretty nice day weather wise.

I fished from my Tarpon 120 Kayak and my wife Tammie and daughter Morgan fished with my Dad from his Griffcraft. They fished about 10 poles and I was able to handle 4, though I was really scrambling once when I had (3) fish on all at the same time!

The fishing was pretty slow for the most part. Morgan started off really strong and landed (4) fishing with one rod/reel before any body else even had a bite. (14) poles in the water and she was getting every bite to be had, pretty incredible how that can happen.

We fished live bait again today, live Missouri Minnows hooked thru the eyes and fished deep, in the 6-10' range.

I fished a pre assembled Crappie rig with (3) hooks on a 30 series spinning reel. That accounted for most of my fish.

We ended up bringing home (18) fish total, (6) of those were mine. My sense is that we did as well or better than most of the other people on the lake this morning. I spoke to one couple that only had 3 or 4 total. We probably had (30) fish total counting the bream, (3) bass and smaller specks that we turned back.

The wind conditions we really good, light and for the most part, perfect for drift fishing. All of our fishing as done by Drift fishing and slow trolling. I believe that most all of my fish were caught while moving but very slowly.

Tammie had not fished freshwater in a while and her license was expired. Luckily, I thought about it and had to stop by the office and order one online and print it out. Good thing I did! We were met at the ramp by a Game and Fish officer that wanted to see our catch and license.

I tink my next trip will be a sheepshead trip.

Best of Luck,
Larry Stephens

Fishing Report - Crappie 12-8-12

Dec. 8, 2012
Weather: Overcast with Fog
Wind : 0-4 mph
Target Species: Crappie (Specks)
Method: Drifting with Live Minnows
Location: Area Lake, Deland, Fl.

Catch: (8) Specks (Dad/Mom boated 37 Specks along with one 3 lb channel cat and a few bream)

My Dad has really been working on the Crappie over the last couple of weeks. They are known by many names but we call them Specks. He has been doing some drifting and trolling for them on a local lake and has been catching 25-30 every trip.

I made a plan to meet Dad at the lake at daylight to see what we could do, except I would fish from my Tarpon 120 kayak. I figured I could handle at least (2) fiberglass cane poles and one spinning rod and still be able to paddle. I prefer to fish for Specks in tree tops that are blown over in the river but you've got to fish where the fish are biting!

We fished with live Missouri minnows and ended up having a pretty good haul but we had to fish most of the day for them. The bad part was that I landed a disproportional amount of them. I struggled to land (8) while my Dar hauled in (37) with another 10 or so that they through back. He also caught one channel cat that was about 3 lbs and a few bream.

I believe that my short stringer was a result of  fishing to deep. Once I shallowed up my cork a little it seemed to make a big difference. I ended up catching more in an hour than I had the whole morning.

It was a really foggy morning and stayed overcast even after the fog burned off. The wind was perfect all morning being 0-4 mph and blowing right down the lake so drifting was easy.

Though we ended up with a pretty impressive string of fish, it was actually a little slow going. we would catch 2 or three and then nothing for 10-15 minutes.

I think I ended up with about 8 nice bags of fillets ready for some hot oil.

Tight Lines,
Larry S.

Quantum Boca Reel Service

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Well, If you saw my post on my Okuma Epixor EF-65a Spinning Reel with the broken reel handle you saw my mention of my back up reel, the Quantum Boca reel went down at the same time.

Here is the up date on both and what the Manuf. did to remedy the situation.

Okuma Epixor: First, I went to the Okuma site to look up the part I neede
d which was the reel handle. To my surprise, there was no means to look up a part or place an order? Still can't believe that.

So, I was reduced to placing a call to them. The Rep. I spoke to listened to my spiel about how the reel handle snapped right in the middle of a fight with a big false Albacor. When I was done he apologized for the break down and asked for my name and mailing address? He related that he would have one in the mail today.....all I needed to do was pay $3.00 for shipping!

You can't beat that and the handle arrived in short order as promised. 5 stars for Okuma on the service and I recommend this reel for anyone looking for a cost effective quality spinning reel. I use this reel for Tarpon fishing from my kayak and don't want to chance loosing a $150-200 reel though the Boca 70 does retail for $139. I is a well built reel but I like to reserve it a a back up due to it's cost.

Quantum Boca 70:

Here's what happened with the Boca. Though this reel has hardly been used, the clutch mechanism fell apart when I tore the reel down for cleaning.

O.k, I thought, no big deal, I'll just call up Quantum and order a new one. However, There was a major problem with that! Quantum did not have any! "What? you have to be kidding me, I said! this is a $140 reel!!

All the Rep. could tell me was to box it up and send it back and they would have a reel tech look at it.

I suspected they were planning to swap me out for a comparable reel. After a long wait of about three weeks.....I received a package in the mail from Quantum. Inside was a brand new Boca 80! no charge!
The reel is a little larger than what I want  but better a new 80 than a broken 70! Though they were slow I would still give Quantum 5 stars as this reel was actually out of warranty. I was in mint condition though.

I think Quantum must have discontinued the Boca line of reels and I have not looked into what is replacing the line. So far I would recommend them as a company to this point. They stood behind their product!

Best of Luck,
Larry S.

Fishing Report - Jack Crevalle, Trout, Sheepshead, Mangrove Snapper 8-25-12

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Tide: fished last of incoming then beginning of Out-going
Time Fished: 7:00 am - 10:00m
M.F.-6:20 AM
Partly Cloudy
Wind: NE at 8-12 mph

Other Observations: The water was pretty clear coming in but one it started out it turned red brown from the freshwater runoff. It does not seem to be bothering the fish.

Catch:
-(1) Jacks Crevalle
-(0) Trout  (3 Trout short strikes)
-(4) Mangrove Snapper
-(2) Sheepshead, small

Though I got into some pretty good action with dad Friday morning in Ormond, I couldn't stop thinking about the great top water bit that I found up near Marineland the morning before. My plan was to be on the water about daylight and work them over before the bite turned off.

Unfortunately, the fish were not striking bait on top like I had hoped . In fact I saw only a little top water striking action but I managed to get a good bit of attention on my 5M51 MirrOlure. I had three trout strikes where the trout came completely out of the water. I caught a Jack first thing and had one real good fish on that ran for deep water and really pulled, only to tear off 10 feet from the boat.

I had another 4-5 fish on that came off pretty quick and a number of other strikes and follows.

Though I love to fish top water I have to admit that you will not catch nearly as many fish that you will sub-surface. That's just the way it is. Many end up foul hooked outside the mouth and end up tearing off the hook.

I did catch 3-4 Mangrove Snapper and 2 sheepshead on fiddler crabs but all were small and below the legal minimum so they received a stay of execution.

 

 

One more interesting thing was the Ribbon fish were still around and I got to see them chasing bait and leaping completely out of the water. I clipped a photo out of the video of a ribbon fish in mid air. Pretty wild!

There is a ton of bait in the river right now and it looks like there is no shortage of fish feeding on them.

The wind was a pain in the neck but all in all it was a decent trip.

 Trout strike that also missed the plug!

 

 Trout strike, jumped completely over the plug! Never even touched it!

Larry S.

Fishing Report - Trout & Jack Crevalle 8-24-12

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Tide: Out-going
Time Fished: 7:00 am - 10:00m
M.F.-5:25 AM
Partly Sunny
Wind: NW at 5 mph

Other Observations: Lots of bait moving down the channel and the Jacks have been killing them

Catch:
-(5) Jacks Crevalle
-(3) Trout

The trout bite has been pretty good in the Halifax River lately and my dad has been catching a limit plus most times out. I decided to fish with him Friday morning. The action started out good but tailed off pretty quick on the trout.

We were fishing with pretty large croakers about 4-5"l. on a Carolina rig. It is easy to miss a trout when using such a large bait. They have a tendency to swim off with the bait before trying to swallow it and we missed 3-4 my setting the hook to quickly. You would get the croaker back with half his scales missing. I suspect these were smaller trout doing this and having trouble trying to eat such a large bait.

Schooling Jacks striking bait out in the channel!

 

We chased the striking jacks up and down the river casting at them with a 5m MirrOlure.

We fished them for 30-40 minutes but Dad is not interest in fish you can't put in the cooler so we

left them striking and headed for the launch. 

Fishing Report - Jacks, Mangrove Snapper, Trout 8-23-12

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Tide: Tail end of Out-going
Time Fished: 8:00 am - 10:00m
M.F.-4:30 AM
Partly Cloudy
Wind: SW at 2-4 mph

Other Observations:

Catch:
-(6) Jack Crevalle
-(1) Trout
-(1) small mangrove snapper, (finally crossed up a legal one).
-(1) Ribbon Fish!!!!

I put in at the launch north of Marineland again this morning. I was running a little late but probably got on the water by 8:00 AM. That was late and had I been there at daylight I could have easily had a 20 fish day!

I brought a plug rod with me this morning due to the top water action I saw the last time I was there. Boy did that turn out to be a winning idea.

As soon as I got within sight of my destination I could see fish chasing small bait on top and striking.
The top water action was some of the best I have seen in a while. They were not large fish but it made for some pretty good fishing.

Most of the fish were small schooling jacks but even a small jack can stretch your line! I saw several fish feeding in the mix that would jump completely out of the water and something told me they were ribbon fish though I had never seen them feed like this before.

I had the GoPro camera running and had just made a cast. I started to say I have never caught a ribbon fish before but before I could get the whole sentence out.....wham! Fish on! You guesses it, a Ribbon fish about 30" long had been fooled by my 27MR MirrorLure.



I found out a Ribbon fish can really jump!

There was almost a constant top water strike going on for the 2 hours that I was there and on a super low tide no less.

I did catch one keeper Mangrove Snapper on a fiddler crab but no sheepshead could I find.

about 10:00 I decided I needed to get going and said o.k., last cast. about 20' from the boat a nice little trout blew up on the MR though he was a little short of a keeper.

I had one nice fish break off and rob me of a $8 MirrOdine

My Dad had fish the intracoastal down in Ormond this morning and landed (3) nice trout on live croakers. One was a super nice Trout that weighed right at 5 lbs.

 That's one trophy Trout!

I have been promising him I would fish with him one morning so I guess that is my destination for in the morning.

Larry S.

Asian Tiger Shrimp caught in Halifax River, Ormond Beach, Florida

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This was a pretty interesting catch and worthy of a post! My Dad was trying to catch some bait in the Halifax River, North of the Ormond Beach bridge when he caught this monster shrimp in his cast net. If you know my Dad, you know he likes to shrimp like I like to hunt and he has shrimped the Halifax River all his life and never laid eyes on one of these things before.

It is called an Asian Tiger shrimp and is considered an invasive species. Though not officially considered established, their numbers are on the rise.

This one was nearly 10" long and weighed 1/4 of a pound!

 

 

 

"USGS has been tracking reports of Asian tiger shrimp since they first surfaced back in 1988, when nearly 300 of them were collected off the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida within three months. Scientists tracked the cause back to an isolated incident that accidentally caused an estimated 2,000 animals to be released from an aquaculture facility operating in South Carolina.

 

It was not until 18 years later that reports of additional Tiger shrimp surfaced. In 2006, a commercial shrimp fisherman caught a single adult male in Mississippi Sound near Dauphin Island, Ala. Within months, additional specimens were noted in North Carolina’s Pamlico Sound, Louisiana’s Vermilion Bay and other parts of Florida and the Carolinas. The species was later reported off the coasts of Georgia, Mississippi and Texas in 2008, 2009 and 2011."  (NOAA, April 26, 2012)

If you would like to know more about the Asian Tiger Shrimp, the USGS site has additional information and photo's. Here is a link to the story:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2012/20120426_tigershrimp.html

 

Larry S.





Fishing Report - Jack Crevalle, Trout & Ladyfish 8-31-12

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Tide: fished incoming 
Time Fished: 6:45 am - 9:00am
M.F.11:20 AM
Mostly Sunny
Wind: Light N

Other Observations: Small finger mullet were everywhere and the Jacks and Lady fish were hammering them pretty good

Catch:
-(5) Jacks Crevalle
-(1) Trout (several Trout short strikes)
-(2) Ladyfish
I had a number of other hook-ups and strikes

I have just completed the design and fabrication of the new mount of my GoPro camera on my Kayak. I couldn't wait to get on the water with it to video a fishing adventure. Friday ended up being the day, though I could only fish until 9:00AM due to a scheduled meeting with a client.

The action was really good and I had a stretch where I was hooking up a fish on every cast! Though the fish were running a little small the action made up for it.

I did catch one of the biggest Ladyfish I can remember. I was fishing a 5M51 floating MirrOlure and this thing inhaled the whole bait and only had about 3/4"of the plug visible. Of course, being a ladyfish, she made some impressive leaps right at the boat. I also fished a 27MR MirrOdine which is a suspending twitch bait that is an outstanding lure.

The bulk of the action was small Jacks but even the little ones can pull pretty good.

I did a basic edit with Windows Live Movie Maker so I could post it for everybody. It is incredible how sharp the footage is from the tiny GoPro Camera when watched in HD.

I cut the action down to about 15 minutes to fit on Youtube so there is a lot missing but all the main action is there.

Hope you enjoy it! Larry S. If you want some more info on the incredible GoPro Video Camera or are interested in one to video you own adventures, Amazon has a great price on them, here is a link:

GoPro has recently released the Hero 3 and comes with some significant upgrades in an even smaller package if you can believe that. Here's a link to Amazon for more info:

Flagler Beach Sunrises & Sunsets

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With all of the storms we have been having lately, the broken cloud cover fist thing in the morning and then again just before dark have made for some spectacular sights.

Here are a few pic.'s of the better ones over the last week.



Pretty incredible!
Larry S.