Like most fishermen I have a lot of stories to tell about my experiences on the water or on the road traveling to or from a fishing destination; some good, some funny and some are not so good or funny. I have two stories to relate to about this weekends fishing tournament I was involved with in St Augustine. I have been involved with this tournament for the past nine years and it is all done to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
The first story is a little “batty”. On Saturday morning I was driving up A1A at 4:30 AM to launch at the boat ramp at the St. Augustine lighthouse. I was somewhere just north of Matansas Inlet when something flew from out of nowhere into the path of my vehicle. I forgot about it by the time I got to the boat ramp. The next morning when I went out to clean the boat I noticed something in the front grill of my truck. When I went to inspect what it was I found a dead Bat that was in perfect condition, except for the dead part. I told my wife to come check out what I had caught yesterday. We removed it from the grill and snapped a few pics and sent them out on the Internet to some of my fishing buddies. I got some interesting responses back. As for the wife, she thought it was one of my most interesting catches ever.
The next story involves 2 anglers, one from Oklahoma the other from Massachusetts. Not being avid fishermen I spent the better part of the first morning trying to teach them to cast a spinning rod. One took to it pretty good the other not so good. As luck would have it (call it beginners luck) the not too good caster caught most of the fish over the two days. Fishing was difficult because of the extremely high water we were having. They caught a couple of small trout in the ICW but they were undersized. We then moved to the back of the flats to work the grass line for some reds. Not so good caster wound up landing a 22” red on a Berkley Gulp jerk shad rigged on a 1/8 oz 5/0 worm hook. Later that day we were in the 206 flats and the not so good caster hooked into a big redfish using the same rig he landed the other red on. He couldn’t budge the fish but once it started to move it took off like a “bat” out of @#$%. The fish stopped and ran straight back to the boat dragging his line across the trolling motor and breaking him off. He now has a fish story of his own to tell about “the big one that got away”.
The first story is a little “batty”. On Saturday morning I was driving up A1A at 4:30 AM to launch at the boat ramp at the St. Augustine lighthouse. I was somewhere just north of Matansas Inlet when something flew from out of nowhere into the path of my vehicle. I forgot about it by the time I got to the boat ramp. The next morning when I went out to clean the boat I noticed something in the front grill of my truck. When I went to inspect what it was I found a dead Bat that was in perfect condition, except for the dead part. I told my wife to come check out what I had caught yesterday. We removed it from the grill and snapped a few pics and sent them out on the Internet to some of my fishing buddies. I got some interesting responses back. As for the wife, she thought it was one of my most interesting catches ever.
The next story involves 2 anglers, one from Oklahoma the other from Massachusetts. Not being avid fishermen I spent the better part of the first morning trying to teach them to cast a spinning rod. One took to it pretty good the other not so good. As luck would have it (call it beginners luck) the not too good caster caught most of the fish over the two days. Fishing was difficult because of the extremely high water we were having. They caught a couple of small trout in the ICW but they were undersized. We then moved to the back of the flats to work the grass line for some reds. Not so good caster wound up landing a 22” red on a Berkley Gulp jerk shad rigged on a 1/8 oz 5/0 worm hook. Later that day we were in the 206 flats and the not so good caster hooked into a big redfish using the same rig he landed the other red on. He couldn’t budge the fish but once it started to move it took off like a “bat” out of @#$%. The fish stopped and ran straight back to the boat dragging his line across the trolling motor and breaking him off. He now has a fish story of his own to tell about “the big one that got away”.