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.

Fishing Log

 

 



C-2 notch (top right) B-C corner (top right)
cove at Foxtrot (bottom)

June 8, 1997 - The past few days have been cloudy, windy (out of the NE), and rainy.  The wind shifted to the NW today.  At Charlie-2, I released a small flounder, lost a flounder I estimate would have gone 2 to 3 pounds, and caught  bluefish that measured 17.5 inches to the fork, which I gave to a sailor who already had two flounder that looked to weigh about 1.5 to 2.0 pounds each (also @ C-2).

 

Later same day, I landed a 17.5 inch, 2.25 pound flounder at B-C corner, and lost another flounder about the same size, at C-2.

 

June 9, 1997 -  Wind out of the NE, overcast. Caught 5 flounder today, 13 to 18 inches long (averaged in the  2-lb. rage) all keepers. Three were taken during lunch at C-2 and two were taken after work: one at the C-2 notch, and the other from the cove at the east end of Foxtrot Pier.

June, Friday 13th, 1997 -  Fishing poor since Monday.  Sold 2 ribbon fish to the bait store for $2.00 each.  

Fishing Log



USS JOHN F. KENNEDY CV-67 berthed at Charlie-2
and the wooden fish dock on the riprap, east of C-2

 

May 23, 1997 - Wind still out of the ENE.  I hit the wooden fishing dock on the Riprap (East of C-2), the wind sheltered notch at the west end of C-2, looking for flat water to fish in.  Also fished the SE corner at the bottom of Echo Pier, NOTHING.

May 27, 1997 - Last quarter moon.  Caught seven trout and a small flounder, all taken between C-2 and Bravo, working the seawall in the lee of the wind.  Also picked up 2 medium sized croakers @ the Trout Hole (SE corner of E-Pier), working dead shrimp along the bottom.  Kept the 4 largest trout, from 15.5-in. long.

May 29, 1997 - Wind ENE, on an incoming tide.  Took a 14.5-in. flounder from the west end of the fishing dock on the Riprap.

June 4, 1997 - Caught ribbon fish yesterday and today in the Trout Hole (bottom of Echo) and sold them to B&M Bait and Tackle for kingfish bait.  Got $6.00 for 3 of them yesterday, and $7.00 for 6 of them today.



Ribbon fish sold for kingfish bait

                              

\

Fishing Log

 

Spanish mackerel

 

May 22, 1997 - A Spanish mackerel, 14-in. nose to the fork of the tail, taken @ 'C' Pier fishing dock, while an East wind and an outgoing tide were in conflict.





Fishing dock (top right), C-2, West (top left),
 E-pier (bottom)

Afternoon - Wind still out of the ENE w/ an incoming tide.  Found a protected piece of flat water on the West end of C-2.  First cast yielded 16-in. yellow mouth trout, the second cast brought a 15-in. trout, and the third brought a 14-in. flounder.  Moved over to the bottom of Echo Pier, just at sunset and had several blues and Spanish break off terminal tackle up to the swivel.  They were slammin' bait fish hard, despite wind chop on the surface.

 

Bluefish

My last fish of the day was a big blue (16-in. to the fork).  I cast a into a school if rolling bait fish, and a bluefish slammed me.  He tail walked through the baitfish on the surface, and made two nice airborne leaps.  When the fish was on the pier I noticed that it had kinked the stainless steel leader, mangled the terminal end if a snap swivel, destroyed the soft plastic jig body, and left deep teeth marks in the painted metal head.  I kept almost everything I landed today: 2 trout, a flounder, a Spanish mackerel, and one bad bluefish.  Never stick your fingers into the mouth of a bluefish to dislodge a hook.

 

Fishing Log



Wooden dock, East of Charlie-2

May 21, 1997 - Caught a 20 inch, 3 pound flounder fishing the west end of the wooden pier, outside fence near Charlie-2, using a chartreuse, twisty tail,  gold metal flake jig, with red a 1/4-oz. head, two hours after dead low tide.  Wind and tide flow were out of the East (at my back).  Enjoyed using the new landing net again.  It worked like a champ!  Of the 3 flounder I caught this week: I gave one to Doug Oswald (Kathy's pottery tenant), I grilled one outside with fresh herbs and butter, and took the biggest one over to Mac (my father) and Helga's house, where I filleted it for them.  Dorothy (my mother) got the croaker and the blues last weekend for baby sitting Rudy (the dog) Sunday night, while Kathy and I stayed with Candice and Parker Boice, at an oceanfront condo, on St. Augustine Beach.  I would have taken them some fish too, but they are vegetarians.

I also tried fishing a finger mullet, hooked through the lips, with no success.  He never lost a scale, and was happy to be released to be with his school mates, just after I caught the flounder.  Tomorrow is a full moon, with winds projected out of the N.E. which should seriously limit my options.  I'll probably hit the same spot at first light, just before high tide, and hope to pick up another flounder to grill, for Memorial Day Weekend.  Will also keep an eye peeled for jacks and blues working finger mullet on the surface, but will probably rely on an opaque white jig with a pink tail, worked close to the bottom, for a flounder.  Hope that the spare spool I ordered from Penn, for the SS4400 reel, comes soon.

I put the new Penn reel on a new $44.00 Fenwick rod with a super good action, but my favorite weapon is still the corroded old Zebco XB65 spinning reel on those red, 5.5-ft. Big Lots rods ($20.00).  Big bucks spent on fishing tackle do not always translate into more fish.  I have broken the (faster action, brittle) tips off of 3 rods, attached to the old corroded Zebco reel, but that combo, spooled with 12# Spider Fusion braided line, has produced hundreds of fish.  The new Penn reels on fancier rods, have been disappointing.  The Penn reels, with graphite bodies, are supposed to be the best hedge against salt water corrosion. but their action is clunky, and the anti-reverse gear has too much play and 'clangs' when popping a jig or setting a hook.  I guess I need to write them (Penn Reels) a letter.



Fishing Log
 

May 3, 1997 - No desirable table fish in over two weeks.  Baitfish (mullet) plentiful, and conditions fair, but I only caught several ribbon fish along Echo Pier.  I saw a small y.m. trout taken off the fishing dock east of C-2, and heard reports of flounder and small spotted trout, taken at the cove off of the east end of Foxtrot Pier.  I seem to be in a slump.

May 12, 1997 - Fishing still bad, a few ribbon fish and one small jack crevalle last week, period.

May 15, 1997 -  The slump is over, I hope.  Nailed a 14.5-in. croaker, a medium blue, and a 2.25 pound, 17-in. flounder @ the corner of Alpha and Charlie Piers,*  with a light wind at my back, on both sides of the high tide.

*There is no place where C and A Piers meet, so the spot (figuring the wind direction) was probably B-C corner, but might (possibly) have been where A and B Piers meet.

B-C corner (top left)  C-2 fish dock (top right)
Foxtrot Pier cove (middle) Echo Pier (bottom)

May 16, 1997 -  Picked up a nice blue (first cast) and an 18 inch flounder, 7:30 am, from the fishing pier, east of the fence @ C-2, on the outgoing tide, with the wind and sun at my back.  The new floating landing net I built, worked perfect !!!