Today, I went fishing with Capt. James Pic, in Panama City, Florida. Just down the road from Rosemary Beach.
JP worked hard to get us on fish, and he succeeded. We (wife and I) caught about 20 fish each, in just 4 hours. (then it was just too hot, time to sit in the pool with a Tuscan lemonade).
More blue fish than anything else, but we caught 7 different species (blue fish, lady fish, spanish mackral, sand shark, cat fish, razor back, and another with a forgotten name).
Double haul casts, with clouser minnows. Learned some new casting tricks from JP, helping to us my body more to cast long distance, and a back cast. Also some of the fish wanted a very fast retrieve, which was easier with the rod tucked under my arm and using both hands for the retrieve. This salt water stuff can get addicting.
Clear water and jelly fish on Rosemary beach. Today was mostly a family beach day, with very little fishing. My handy dandy olympus waterproof camera was in pocket when this guy floated by.
No sign of oil at this beach. We did see several EPA employees walking the beach, conveniently just behind a couple of hotties in bikinis.
A family day at the beach, but I brought a rod rigged with a super-hair clouser. Out playing and splashing in the surf, and a school of fish popped out of the water. A quick sprint back to the beach to get the rod and I was soon double-hauling my butt off. I had lost sight of the school, so just blind casting to where they were.
A few dozen casts and I hooked up with a ladyfish. Then, short time later a second. These are pretty good fighters, giving a good tug and jumping 3-4 feet out of the water. Doesn’t seem fair to target a 12 inch fish with a 2 inch clouser and 8-wt rod, but what the heck.
Ladyfish by eustatic
One cool thing about fishing in Florida, getting a fishing license is pretty easy. You call 1-888-FISH-FLO with a credit card handy. In 5 minutes, you get a code that you write down, which serves as your license. They follow up with an email (and probably snail-mail).
I’m on a family vacation in sunny Florida. Specifically, Rosemary Beach on the Florida Panhandle.
Rosemary Beach Sign by Lance Weatherby
First stop, for information. The fine folks at Florida Sportsman were kind enough to give me some pointers on which flies and equipment to bring. Strangely, I don’t remember visiting that site before, but I did have an account already. Their advice, bring a 9 ft 9-wt, with floating or intermediate line. The closest that I had, which must be close enough was an 8-wt with a multi-tip system.
For flies, they recommended bringing Clouser Minnows in Chartreuse. The unified fly theory of fly fishing, a chartreuse Clouser. I tied a dozen for the trip.
Once on the ground, a quick visit to the fly shop for licenses and local info. The local shop is Old Florida Outfitters in Watercolor, Florida.
Jason was running the fly department that day. He was very helpful, with information on flies, rigging, and presentation. We bought another dozen flies, epoxy minnows, super-hair clousers, and mole crab imitations (called sand fleas here).
Time to hit the beach. First, there is no sign of oil anywhere. The oil leak missed this area of Florida. I have a day booked with a guide later in the week, so I’ll likely learn more, but what else is there to learn. No oil here.
The beach is beautiful. The sand is soft and white, and the water blue green (or deep green with seaweed). The water is actually pleasant to enter (not the shrinkage inducing temperatures of good trout water).
I went out last night, after dinner, right at dusk. That was a mistake. With the wind, an approaching storm, and lack of knowing what I was doing, my line was an instant mess. Lots of seaweed and a rat’s nest of line. One cast, and the clippers were already out. Ten minutes later, the second cast came up with clumps of seaweed on every knot. Yuck. Cocktail time.
The next morning (this morning), went out in the sunshine and calm conditions. This was much better. Easy to see the troughs in the water, and the seaweed is clumped together and visible. Walked down the beach three quarters of a mile or so, no sign of fish. There was a promising looking trough, so I went out there. I saw 2 fish cruising by; a good sign. But, a few dozen casts but no luck.
Outstanding and beautiful flight, from West Yellowstone to Salt Lake City. Flying above the Tetons. Taken with my new Droid Incredible.
Here is something incredible, here is that same shot, taken though the propellers with the Droid Incredible. Somehow the video sampling rate beats against the prop frequency.
If you need to park a car, here is the West Yellowstone long term parking:
This is interesting. Nestle is planning a bottled water plant, for spring water, in Oregon. These always result in battles between those that want to protect the resources, and those that want to use the resources or want a job. This battle was recently fought in McCloud, CA which resulted in Nestle backing out.
Now, they are trying a new tactic. First, pull the spring water out of the spring to bottle it, then replace it with tap water for the fish.
OK, go click that link and read the article. Go ahead, I’ll still be here.
This doesn’t pass the “what the what?” test. Yes, they will be spending millions of dollars, and hire dozens of people, to pump water out of a river, and pump the same amount of tap water back in.
Can’t they just put “mineral spring” tasting minerals into the tap water and call it good?
This is interesting. Nestle is planning a bottled water plant, for spring water, in Oregon. These always result in battles between those that want to protect the resources, and those that want to use the resources or want a job. This battle was recently fought in McCloud, CA which resulted in Nestle backing out.
