Finally got away from freshwater fishing to get in some much needed saltwater fishing. Last saturday I went along with a friend who I wanted to get into fishing (he's still not patient enough) over to Cocoa Beach. After putting out half a ray on a rod I realized the current/waves where to strong and I didn't have enough weight with me to stop my bait from ending up 200 yds down the beach. It wasn't until high tide at sunset when the fish started biting and ended up with about 15 bluefish 4-5 jacks and 2 whiting in one hour. Something cool that day was a pod of whales that were 1/2 a mile off the beach. I was gonna paddle out there to them since they were so close and easy to spot with the tail slapping but both blades on my paddle had snapped when my buddy flipped the kayak... I have no idea how the blades could snap. The next high tide wasn't till sunrise and I ended up catching 6 whiting. The bite that morning never started and with a cold front coming around 12pm we packed up.
On wednesday I took my yak over to tampa to do some fishing at my aunt & uncles house. On wednesday I got a late start and ended up with a 26" red that weighed 5lbs and 1 ladyfish both on a mirrolure mirodine. The pic's arent the best since it's an 8ft yak and its the first time I've ever taken my camera out with me on it. With time I'll get better. Thursday, I fished all day trying new areas and paddled over 10 miles and couldn't catch anything. Only lost 2 bluefish that chopped a D.O.A. shrimp in half.
On Friday my father, sister, brother, and I went to do some diving 21 miles out of clearwater. Plan was to dive the Sheridan/Blackthorn which is in 77ft of water. There were quite a few fisherman already there so we couldn't dive either ship but somewhere between them. My father and sister decided not to take my speargun and saw a bunch of shootable AJ's so I was pissed cus' I wanted the shark bait. My brother and I dove and found what looked like a sunken NOAA buoy with about 20 short groupers on it but nothing to shoot. We then followed a 2-3ft ledge for 10 minutes. The vis was only 20' with water temp at 65 degrees so it was kinda hard to see. What I did make out while along the ledge were a lot of big red grouper that wouldn't come within 20' so no shots taken. later we tried fishing using everything from vertical jigs to squid, finger mullet, live shrimp but only caught a few short reds a pufferfish, and a fat 16" porgy. Since vis was so bad and our anchor bent when we drove it out we didn't do a second dive but nonetheless it was a fun day on the water.
the best I could do with my camera to see the whale splashes. Unfortunately I couldn't get a whale or bigger splash in a shot.
morning on the beach
This is what I like to call a scrotumfish
It sounds magical! I'm glad you had such a great time!