Pacemaker Fishing Forum

The last time that Bev and I fished in late October he mentioned that he wanted to fish in FL. I asked him how serious he was and he said, "serious! "

Well, that's all I needed to hear so I proceeded to start planning a trip.

We flew out of Dulles on Tuesday morning and once we landed at FLL we drove down to Miami to have lunch with my mom.

Then...we drove back up to Ft. Lauderdale to get to our hotel. If ya think Rt. 95 traffic in NoVa is bad, try it down thataway! Ugh!!

Anyway, we had 2 days of fishing ahead of us so no worries!

The 1st day was gonna be a fresh water day since there was some unwelcome wind near the salt.

We met Capt Craig Korczynski at 8am at Stub Canal Park.



For those unfamiliar with the canal system in SoFL, there are a million of them connected to many "lakes". It's amazing.

The fresh water reports that Craig had been getting were not good. Cool water had cause some fish kills and also caused the fish that survived to shiver. But Craig is a worker and we were bound and determined to catch something.

We used artificial baits mostly but Craig always had 1 rod ready with a live shiner in case the fish did not cooperate.

I got a Clown Knife Fish and was able to knock off a Bucket List fish in short order...



...and then got a bonus one.







Bev followed suit right after and a bit little later in the day.





These fish are so cool!  They can actually swim backwards.

Someone asked if they were edible, here is what the internet said: "Edibility. Clown knife fish are bony but commercially important to their native Southeast Asian countries. Commonly, the flesh is minced, made into balls, and cooked with curry.". Hmmmm...don't think so!

We continued to fish but it was slow and hard. Still, we caught some!

I was the catfish king...on a jig!



As I said, the fishing was tough and Craig would toss the shiner into some crevices. This green heron actually picked up the minnow for a split second.



Bev had the rod after the toss and was able to land our only Peacock!



These guys survived the cold!





We battled some more and caught a few more fish...







Although the water was chilly, the weather was PERFECT...80dF! We could not ask for more.

We then found a Cuban joint and had a nice meal.



A very good Cuban sammie, ham croquettes that were outstanding, yucca and platanos maduros. Then, I ordered a colada (strong Cuban coffee) and asked Bev to taste it. It didn't go so well!

But we were full and satisfied about the day. Now it was time to rest so we can do it all over again!

On day two, we were going to meet Craig at Jim Berry Light Harbor Park to hit the salt. Stronger winds than what we wanted  forced us to stay inside. We were gonna try to fish the beach but the swell would not be nice to us.

Getting up to West Palm from Ft. Lauderdale was a battle. FL traffic sucks! We were a little late but we made it.





We went to the 1st spot to get loose and bend some rods! It did not disappoint!









Small stuff (grunts, lane & mutton snappers) but the rods were bending!

Then, the live bait rod goes down and Bev begins the battle with a mean ole jack!



More of these critters...



Then we decided to go north which would take a few minutes. This was the sightseeing part.

This is Jerry Jones' 363' ship.



Some other nice sights...





We were discussing our battle plan!



We got to an area that Craig said had blue fish and Spanish mackerel. Well, I know what to do with them so on my 1st cast, i threw out long and ripped the bait back./ I got hit once and the hooked up!



I said that this was gonna be fun but we didn't catch another one for a long time. We just could not figure it out. I tried every retrieve known to mankind!

Finally, we got another one!





And we found a snook!



Later, we saw a  really nice snook swim by and tossed a live mullet at it. Didn't even sniff it!

This was a tough day of fishing...



...but it's tough to complain when it's 84dF out with a nice breeze!

We went to Coconuts for dinner and it was nice...





We both had yellow tail snapper with a crab sauce that was spectacular!



One of the things we discussed with Craig was timing. next year, we will go down in mid to late February when the water starts warming in earnest.

The trip was well worth it despite the slower than normal fishing. Good times!!