I recently realized that I have been neglecting my fly rods for a very long time now. The last couple of days I have been back at it for a couple hrs in the morning. Its amazing how much technique you loose when you haven’t thrown the fly in about a year. My recent trips have been productive with lots of decent Trout. I still need to get my cast back so most of my reports will be fly fishing related for a while.

Recently decided to get a quality cooler. Will have a full review after I put this cooler to use. Check back soon!

 

 

On April 20 I fished the 2013  Sarasota CCA event and was lucky enough to take home the 1st Place largest Redfish award. I fished Sarasota Bay with a good friend of mine Rusty Driver. We launched the kayaks early around 6am and were at our first location within a couple of min. We fished in some brutal conditions most of the day. The wind just wouldn’t cooperate for us. We spent the entire morning tucked up behind the mangrove islands to get a little relief. The fishing was a bit slow for us with only a few small trout caught until we finally located some good Redfish. The Redfish bite didn’t last long either. We stuck a few good ones and then they moved on. All in all it was a good day on the water and a great event. Congrats to fellow Reellifegear.com team mate Andrew Purcell for taking first place in the slam division, and to Jeff Berman of team Anglersystems.com on his second place finish.

Lately I have been taking the little man to the pond behind the house. We have been catching a  bunch of small Bass and Tilapia. I have been teaching how to spot fish on the bank and how to make a good cast. Jacob has caught a few fish on the long rod with a lot of help from dad. We have a lot of work t do yet.

Now that the little man is out of school for spring break we are going to be having some fun. We started off with a kayak trip to some near by islands to do a little exploring. After a short paddle we arrived at  our first destination. We explored the island and decided it needed a Geocache. For more info on Geocaching see http://www.geocaching.com/. We found a great location for a cache and are now awaiting approval for the hide. We are looking into an overnight camping trip to these islands soon.

Good times !

On March 1, I loaded up the Jackson Cuda and headed down to Everglades City to compete in the first AFWC. This event was going to challenge everyone that was competing. We were given a sealed envelope first thing in the morning before we launched. Inside the envelope  were the checkpoint locations. Each team had to hit at least 3 of the 5 checkpoints and could only turn in 1 fish per checkpoint to qualify.Out of 33 team only 16 teams qualified. Alex and I finished in 10 place which was not easy. 20 mph winds and fishing through a cold front is never fun.We paddled over 14 miles though twisting and turning mangrove islands before heading back to weigh in. This was by far the toughest event I have ever entered but also the most fun. Looking forward to next years AFWC!

Good times at the Merritt Island Florida Boondoggle. My son and I loaded up the Forester and headed for the east coast for a fun weekend of camping and kayaking. The weather turned out to be horrible so the fishing for us didnt happen. But we did enjoy the camping and festivities. I met alot of good people and had a great time. I will be attending more Boondoggles in the future.

Had a great trip with a good friend from Washington State. Rory and I caught and released some big Redfish on cut bait. Rory and I both caught our largest Reds to date. The No Motor Zone in Merritt Island Florida has one of the best fisheries on the east coast and a place all kayak anglers should visit.

Our first river trip of the new year was pretty slow for Rick and I. We started our day heading down river with the tide. The fishing was slow with only one Snook caught on the morning. The highlight of the day for me was catching and releasing unharmed a small gator .

Tom & Bill had a great 4 hr kayak charter today.  Both anglers caught and released some nice Redfish & Trout. Gulp baits under popping corks were working very well. Found a good school of over slot  Reds at first light. Hooked one that straitened the hooks on the Spook Jr. The school was was moving too fast to keep up with and soon after disappeared. All in all a great day on SRQ Bay.