Fishing Log

 

July 29, 1997 - Eleven days since I've had a keeper.  Wind SE to SW today.  Caught a 17-in. 2-lb. flounder during lunch, 45-min. after low tide.  Had hooked and lost another about the same size before work.  Also lost one yesterday morning which I didn't get up high enough to see.  Modified the landing net to just two lifting guides to allow more room to bring a fish into the net.  Dave Burgin of SUPSHIP (surveyor/supervisor of ships' repairs) caught one (17-in. flounder) just after I left yesterday.  All fish above, from Fox cove.

 

triple tail

Took Kathy with me tonight and nailed two ribbon fish just after dark in the ships' security lights along B-Pier.  I could see them attacking bait fish just below the surface, in the halo of the lights.  Also saw two big (8-ft.) manatees this week in Fox cove, and saw a small triple tail (same location) yesterday.

Manatees

July 31, 1997 - 14-in. flounder @ Charlie Pier.  Gave it to Stoddard.

August 2, 1997 - Lost 2 flounder today and 2 yesterday, all @ Charlie Pier.  Other people are catching them too now.  Dave Burgin was reported to have caught 3 at Fox cove today.  Things are picking up.  Light wind out of the NE, tide seems not to be a factor.

Fishing Log

 

 



West notch at C-2 (top), cove at Foxtrot (bottom)



July 9, 1997 - Flounder,15-inch, 1.5 pounds.  Taken at Foxtrot cove during lunch.

 

July 10, 1997 - Lost 2 flounder at Foxtrot cove: one at lunch, probably 22 to 24-inches long (a nice fish), and one after work, about 14 inches long.  The first fish broke off 12-lb. test line off at the swivel.

 

July 11, 1997 - Fox cove - 2 flounder, lost one and tossed one.  The one I lost of course, would have been a nice keeper.  That's 3 nice flounder lost in 2 days.  I think I'll go back to using a treble trailer hook on the jig.  Also caught a nice blue that I gave away at the bait store.



Jig with a treble hook trailer or 'stinger'

July 12, 1997 - First quarter moon, SKUNKED.

 

July 13, 1997 -  Hooked 8 flounder at Charlie-2:  Lost the 4 biggest fish (snapped line), Kept 2, tossed 2, and gave 2 to Stoddard Andreu (a neighbor).*  I've gone to heavier terminal tackle to eliminate so many break-offs.

* My math doesn't add up in this entry.  I'm guessing that I had only 2 break-offs.

July 14, 1997 - Nothing.  Slight NE to SE winds. Nice conditions but no fish, not even a tap.

July 17, 1997 - 3 flounder at Fox cove: 2.5-lb, 3-lb. and 4-lb. all taken at high tide.  Also lost 2 two others @ same location during lunch.  The 4-lb. fish went 2-ft. in length.

Ladyfish

July 18, 1997 - 22-in. 4.25-lb. flounder before work, and 3 flounder, from 14-in. (1.25-lb.) to 18.5-in. (3-lb.) during lunch, all at Fox cove.  That is 7 flounder landed in 2 days, averaging 3-lb. each, and several more lost at the surface.  Action hottest at high tide.  ESE winds, light.  The Kingfish Tourney in progress, conditions for it are great!  Also picked up a ladyfish and an 18 inch blue that I threw back.

Bluefish

 



Fishing Log

My first trip to Samos, twenty years ago

 



Fishing boats and the rock seawall in
 Agios Konstantinos (St. Constantine), Samos Island, Greece





July 8, 1997 - Just returned from Greece yesterday.  The water there is cold clear and salty.  Even more beautiful than the Caribbean.  Sadly, the waters of Samos have been overfished and much of the seafood eaten there would qualify as bait in Florida: squid, octopus, cigar minnows, Boston Mackerel, and glass minnows (smelt?) which are fried whole in olive oil, and eaten as snack food.

 

The nets the Greeks use for commercial fishing, like their heavy-keeled wooden boats, are hand made.  'Sport' fishing from shore is done with hand lines spooled on a plastic ring, or float fishing is done from the rock seawall, with a gang of little gold hooks (like sabiki rig) wound around a wad of stale bread, then cast into the water with an 8-ft rod.  (The float is round, almost the size of a tennis ball.)  The schooling fish (cigar minnows) are foul hooked by the snatch line as they feed in the floating specks of bread.  'Frank the Fisherman' of Agios Konstantinos, told me he guts them and fries them whole in olive oil for the table.  Seems like a cast net would be a more efficient way to catch them, but I never saw anyone there using them.

 

 


Greek hand line

The grilled octopus, fried squid, and the shrimp there were all surprisingly good, but he best finned fish I ate on Samos was what looked like a pink snapper.  They are weighed whole in the restaurant, then either grilled on a brazier, or scored vertically, fried on the bone, and served with the head on.