Fishing Log

 

 

Sept. 24, 1997 - 4-lb. 20-in. flounder and large blue, both taken on live mullet @ A/B corner, near the old aircraft control tower.  Gave the big bluefish to Stoddard Andreu.

 

Sep. 25, 1997 - Had my homemade live bait bucket 'lifted' from the pier @ A/B corner.
 

Oct. 1, 1997 - New Moon.  Lost my landing net @ B/C corner. 

Oct.2, 1997 - 21-in. 4-lb. flounder and a small sea bass, both taken on live mullet @ C-1.  Also found my bait bucket returned to B/C corner.  Wind NE.



USS Enterprise CVN-65 berthing at C-1

Oct. 3, 1997 - A small flounder and a large topsail catfish, both taken (on live mullet) and released @ C-1, in the shadow of the USS Enterprise (CVN-65).

Oct. 5, 1997 - 4-lb. 21-in. flounder taken @ C-1 on live Mullet, during the 3rd Quarter of the Jaguars' game.  Gave the fish to Tyler Greenwell.  Live bait plentiful.

Oct. 6, 1997 - 16-in. 1.5-lb. flounder @ C-1.

Oct. 7, 1997 - 20-in. flounder, almost 4-lb. taken @ C-1 on live mullet.  Steady NE winds since Oct. 1.

  



Fishing Log

 

August 27, 1997 - Caught a 2.5-lb., 18-in. flounder and a small jack at Charlie 2, and was given a barely legal slot red.  Fried the Red and the flounder in peanut/olive oil on the side burner of the gas grill, Delicious!  I threw the jack back.

August 30, 1997 - Picked up and released a nice croaker on the first cast @ Fox Pier cove.  There are rumors that a dry-dock will eventually be located there.

Sept. 2, 1997 - Watched 3 young redneck boys work the entire length of C-Pier, Killing flounder with live finger mullet.  They had at least 13 of them, many in the 4 to 6-lb. range.  They had also taken many large flounder yesterday too.  I WAS SKUNKED, BOTH DAYS !!??!!

Sept. 6, 1997 - Fished with Doug and Rod from a boat, working the creeks behind Oak Harbor, with jigs and finger mullet.  Picked up a small jack, then went to 'C'-Pier on the base, working the seawall with jigs and finger mullet - NOTHING !!!  Also saw a cooler half-full of big flounder, the largest being about 9.5-lb.  Wind still out of the NE, falling tide.  Artificial jigs no longer productive.*

Sept. 9, 1997 - A 14-in. flounder taken at 'C'-Pier and a jack taken at Foxtrot.

Sept. 13, 1997 - 3 flounder, 18 to 20 inches (3 to 4.5-lb. range) from A/B corner and Foxtrot cove, all taken on live mullet. Had enough to feed Kathy's workshop guests and take some nice flounder fillets to Dorothy (my mother).



Rigging live finger mullet for flounder

*From early September to about mid November, I've noticed that the flounder, especially the big (breeding?) females are getting bigger, thicker, fatter, and a whole lot pickier about the baits they'll take.  They like the big live finger mullet and do not want to be hurried after they pick one up.



Fishing Log

 

August 5, 1997 - 2-lb. flounder taken at A/B corner, high tide.  Light wind out of the NE, beautiful conditions.  New net still workin' like a champ.

 

August 7, 1997 - NE wind, rising tide.  Netted and landed a 2.33-lb. flounder at Easternmost notch of C-2, then helped a sailor net and land a slightly smaller (18-in.) flounder at the same spot.

 

August 11, 1997 - First Quarter Moon, NE wind.  Caught 1 small, keeper (flounder), 1-hr. after low tide, on leeward side of C-2.  Caught 2 more small flounder in the same place this weekend.  Gave the fish to Stoddard Andreu.

 

August 13, 1997 - 3 flounder, 2-hr. after low tide (no spot recorded):  3-lb (20-in.), 2.5-lb. (19-in.), and 1.5-lb. (14-in.), the largest from C-2, the other 2 from Fox cove.  Light shifting winds, from NE to SE.

 

August 20, 1997 - Yellow mouth trout taken at B-3.

 





Fishing Log

 

 

Aug. 3, 1997 - Lost a 2.5 to 3.0-lb. flounder at Foxtrot cove trying to lift him into the floating landing net, just before high tide.  Also landed a ribbon fish.  I need to create a better landing net, as all hooked flounder seem to berserk the second their heads are lifted out of the water.  I need a long telescoping pole with a wide mouth net to get under them.  Perhaps an aluminum  telescoping paint pole with a large landing net screwed to the end would solve the problem. 

 

A large birthday party scheduled at Connie's (sister) for Michael (nephew), Maggie (daughter) and the family.

 

'Aunt Lil' (Miss Lilly Thomas) of Mayport, turned 105-yr. old yesterday - Nice party for her at La Cruise, gambling boat / restaurant.

 

My counterfeit pier pass and the ice machine at North Florida Shipyards, have been valuable assets to access the piers and to keep my fish fresh.  Before the lay-off, I had come to rely on schmoozing ice from the ice machines aboard the ships I was working on, but with the lay-off, all people no longer authorized to be working aboard the ships, have their names removed from the ships' access lists.

 

Gag grouper

Aug. 4, 1997 - Landed 2 small 14-in. flounder, and a small 14.5-in. gag grouper, all at the Fox cove, on a rising tide.  The new landing net, a big 6-ft. wide-mouth net for landing salmon, screwed onto a telescoping paint pole, worked well.  I am pleased with the new rig.  It should keep me from losing so many fish in the future.  Light wind out of the South today, creating perfect conditions for working the Foxtrot cove.

Telescoping paint pole and wide-mouth landing net



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.