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A thread about fishing.....just for the halibut.....
- Thread starter hal9000
- Start date
in a wild coincidence combining the angst, humor, fear, and fishing found in multiple threads right now, I just accepted an invite for an 8pm to midnight fishing/booze cruise this Monday night- with guess who? a whole bunch of FDNY EMT's who have been wading around in Covid for the last 3 months 
No booze for me of course, but i may do a shot and/or snort a line of hand sanitizer every half hour or so
No booze for me of course, but i may do a shot and/or snort a line of hand sanitizer every half hour or soMy program is much like freeride's, especially mid-August to Christmas or so, and St. Patty's to Memorial Day - I keep a rod in the car, and I have to be kind of bored, or specifically have a stick up my ass about doing some research/scouting, to just get skunkulated and stick with it. I don't think I've ever gone to the beach and sat there for 4 hours staring at a rodtip waiting for something to hit.
A fishfinder can help, but I'd rather have some guy with shitty electronics who knows some secret ledges or wrecks that aren't on publicly-available charts, than have some guy with all the latest sh!t, but you have to go to WalMart reef or drive around until you see some relief on the bottom with blips hanging on it.
Knowing what they're doing is better, and knowing when they're feeding, concentrated, or preferably both is the magic. Being able to do this given any time of year, day, tide stage, and weather condition makes someone good. From what I can tell Southern California sounds very heavily pressured and isn't as rewarding for shore-bound anglers as Florida.
A fishfinder can help, but I'd rather have some guy with shitty electronics who knows some secret ledges or wrecks that aren't on publicly-available charts, than have some guy with all the latest sh!t, but you have to go to WalMart reef or drive around until you see some relief on the bottom with blips hanging on it.
Knowing what they're doing is better, and knowing when they're feeding, concentrated, or preferably both is the magic. Being able to do this given any time of year, day, tide stage, and weather condition makes someone good. From what I can tell Southern California sounds very heavily pressured and isn't as rewarding for shore-bound anglers as Florida.
I was talking about this yesterday while drifting in a nearby river jigging for fluke.
Why does it seem like FL shore fishing is better than most places around the US? Is it that the fish there are extra hungry because they're generally in lower nutrient waters and have to come inshore to feed, is it the water temp, is it because you can seem them from shore? All of the above?
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Grew up on the water started fishing as toddler and running boats by 10, loved it as a kid, kind of slacked off in teenage years, then super keen again after college. Fished for money for about 10 years kinda ruined it especially the boat stuff. After I gave up fishing as a job and sold my personal boat I have started to enjoy it again low key. mostly flyrod from land or paddleboard. It is better to do for fun and get the occasional meal out of it.
What is "it" in your second paragraph, first sentence? I don't totally understand.
Water temp, I look for anything Goldylocksy in the general sense.
Running offshore, I think a captain should have a keen eye on an accurate water temp gauge. Any kind of break can be a good indicator.
True Stripers in Florida in the Summer, they're going to hold in Manhattan density on the freshwater springs in the low-mid 70s. They are NOT happy fish elsewhere in FL this time of year. In fact I think most of the spring zones fishing is straight up banned.
Mid-winter Florida, second or third day after a cold snap, if you have an afternoon low tide, look for wind-protected, mud bottom shallow areas. These will heat up the first. Also on the incoming, any exposed mud flats, especially leeward side to keep wind off them, will be warmer.
Regarding seeing the fish, well, you know they're there, but lots of times they know you're there too.
If you know the fish are coming inshore to feed that is good stuff, and I'd expect the fishing to be hilariously better in the Northern Hemisphere in mid-June if the fish are coming in to feed, because they're probably doing it for the spawn.
Generally considered the peak season for inshore in Florida. Regionally, enthusiasts/specialists for something specific might like other stuff which is better at other times, but for the masses, yeah.
Atlantic Florida is what I know.
Starts to get started early-mid August especially here in North Florida, but the fishing and baitfish supply tends to stay good into November in North Florida. I'd expect the main push of baitfish, purple-colored water smelling of blood, total mayhem up here to be last week of August or first two of September, depending. WT will be 80s in August and almost all of September here, and by Halloween, it's generally 70 vicinity.
Central Florida, it can get good in late August, but mid-late September into early October is normally their purple water, fins slicing, sh!t flying time. More into late November for their water to hit 70.
South Florida, they are more of a mid-late October into November timeframe.
The very start, people are all about the Tarpon up here. Trout, Redfish, jacks etc. also in hot pursuit. Once our water drops below like 73/74, the bluefish factor skyrockets. Central Florida, Snook is the big draw along with Tarpon and Redfish. The Trout seem to stick to the lagoon farther South in Florida. Past Fort Pierce, a redfish in the surf is a rumour, and it's almost all snook, jacks, and tarpon as main focus.
Sometimes, especially at a place like Sebastian Inlet or Ponce Inlet, they get so thick you are having a hard time getting your lure/bait noticed, and you see sh!t just somersaulting out of the wash coming out of the first trough, just wishing you could hook one. Sometimes, we get a strong hurricane swell and that seems to coincide with the main push, which is good for surfing but bad for easy surf fishing with lighter gear.
The massive purple blob acres in size is a spectacle, but sometimes it's almost too much bait. The smaller schools/pods with sh!t chasing them is primo. You can see the school, but you can easily access the edge of it as well.
Good times!
lot of other factors if you want to catch
tide, current, moon phase, barometric pressure, seasonal feeding patterns, spawning etc.
luck
Me and a few others have found that just 1 cold beer will stop motion sickness. But then after that first one it leads to about 20
There's something therapeutic about the whole experience. Getting up early, rigging up tackle, enjoying the sunrise.... then the long bumpy ride to a spot where you wonder where the fvck the fish are and the annoyance of the assholes on channel 72.. then wonder why you're wasting all the money on gas blah blah blah... then you get bit and it all goes away when line is screaming off the reel.
But seriously just being on the boat with the wind in your face is pretty fvcking awesome.
But seriously just being on the boat with the wind in your face is pretty fvcking awesome.
you also never sleep better than you do after a day out on a boat. You come home, go into a coma for 10 hours, and wake up in the next century.
A sportfish with diesels and decent A/C in the salon is sleep heaven. Wake up in the pre-dawn Bahamas sticky-ness, 80-something degrees, trades getting started. Getting sh!t ready, get out there, fish, reel in/bail weed/re-drop endlessly, and then by mid-day or so when the flybridge is keeping the sun off the rigging station/bait cooler/cutting board rear deck assembly, just post up on it and snooze until you hear a reel buzzing. Get everything washed off at the end of the day, wash off the boat, you've been sweating your ballsack off for ages now, shower, gameless wonder mode fail at trying to pull tourist girls from the cruise ship party square, get back to the boat, and get into one of those little cool, pitch dark cocoon rooms.
It's only the promise of dolphin, tuna, maybe marlin and wahoo that is getting you back out of that hibernation heaven.
Also toe operating the autopilot/nav computer with the dial and the arrows. Sitting in the captain's chair, completely Snoop Dogg laid back, coldy in hand, watching the chart plotter and depth sounder as you make a slow, gentle zig zag trolling up onto and off of the ledge just by hitting the left and right arrows with the big toe from peak LazyBoy posture. Talking sh!t to whoever is reeling in skipjacks and barracuda and telling them to try reeling in a blackfin.
This is so oddly specific and great.