Fishing...No Place For Excessive Thinking!

There's no place for excessive thinking when you're fishing in the surf on one of the most beautiful beaches in America. I was walking the beach on a beautiful sunny morning at the end of spring, sighing with contentment as I looked out over the Gulf of Mexico. After the serenity of an early morning tide had lessened somewhat and the few early morning beach walkers had drifted by, it was time to throw my bait into the water. I was about to have a ball catching Pompano on the beach at St. George, Island, Florida.

I had gotten up at 6:00 AM to get a head start on the fish. I try to think like a fish sometimes, nothing elaborate, just your basic survival thinking. When the sun comes up in the morning, I'm hungry. I suspect fish feel the same way, so thinking like a fish, I try to give them what they like to eat for breakfast. I know that a shrimp to a fish is like bacon and eggs to people. With this knowledge I loaded up on live shrimp at one of the three bait shops close to where I was staying.

This was the first day of my vacation on this island and I was determined not to think at all. My brain was on vacation too on this small barrier island on Apalachicola Bay. It boasts that this is the way Florida used to be. If that means there are no huge condominiums, hotels or water parks, then I guess this is the way Florida once was. There are three restaurants that are open during the season and one market. If you don't get to the market before 6pm, you're out of luck because that's when they close up shop for the day.

There are hundreds of privately owned homes that you can rent by the week which is what I did last year in mid June. Comparatively, houses on the island seem to cost a little less to rent than those in the rest of Florida's Gulf Coast. Just down the road a mile from where I was staying is the St. George Island State Park. Still digging out from one of the 2005 hurricanes, the park was only half open when I visited. I only needed an entrance into the park to be able to walk on about 9 miles of uncluttered beach. Along that beach is where I hooked a fish I will never forget!

Parking the car in the designated space, careful not to get in the soft sand on the shoulder of the road through the park, I pulled my fishing stuff out of the trunk. This particular morning I carried my rods and reels and tackle box, along with 2 foot lengths of PVC pipe I had cut for rod holders. I also brought along a lounge chair and cooler to keep the fish I would catch. I felt like a pack mule as I struggled toward a particularly inviting piece of beach.

Although I was almost exhausted by the time I reach my chosen spot, I had the positive attitude all fishermen have just before they make that first cast! After struggling from the parking lot to the water's edge, I dumped all the equipment I had carried from the car. I made a vow that the next time I came to the beach to fish; I would have invested in a cart of some kind to carry all the junk I had brought with me through the soft sand of the beach.

Getting down to the business at hand, I rigged up my fishing line with a two ounce ball weight, tied on a couple of hooks with one and a half foot leaders. Searching through my bait bucket for the perfect shrimp, I grabbed one that I would have like to see simmering in a garlic-butter sauce and hooked him just behind the head and cast him into the gulf. I barely had time to take the slack out of the line before something practically jerked the rod out of my hand.

Right away I set the drag to allow the fish to run without breaking the line. I immediately reset the drag to compensate for the terrific strength the fish seemed to have. I began to get concerned when I looked and saw that over half of my fishing line had already been stripped off the reel. My fish was headed toward Galveston and there was little I could do about it!

I was using 12 pound test line and ordinarily I wouldn't have been concerned about a fish breaking the line, but this one wasn't acting like a two or three pound Pompano. More line was ripping off my reel so I decided to show this fish who was boss. I leaned back on my reel and started a pumping action the way they do on sports shows on television. The fish didn't like this maneuver at all! Suddenly my fishing line became limp. I was reeling in an empty fishing line. The line was broken!

I caught a few Pompano, and they were delicious, that morning but I never got another chance at the fish that got away. It was a great way to start a vacation. Looking back, I probably lost that fish due to excessive thinking. I should have left well enough alone and let the fish tire itself out. I learned my lesson; no more excessive thinking!

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About Bob Alexander:
Bob Alexander is well experienced in outdoor cooking, holiday eating and leisure living. Bob is also the author and owner of this article. Visit his sites at: www.bluemarlinbob.com www.pompanobob.com

Vacation Redfish On St. George Island!

"If you can't catch a fish on St. George Island, you're stupid!", the man running the bait shop told me as I bought fishing license, bait shrimp and a fishing cap.

"You can catch trout. The pompano are running now so you might catch a couple of them. Good eating." he said as he tallied up my bill. "Over on the bay side in the state park, you can hang into some good redfish!"

Carefully carrying my free coffee from the bait shop my tackle I had just bought in the other, I walked outside to bask in the early morning sunshine on St. George Island, Florida. The island is less than a mile wide at its widest point. Located across the bay from Apalachicola and East Point, this was my vacation spot for one glorious sun filled week.

St. George Island State Park was only a mile down the beach from where I was staying. This end of the island was only about ½ mile wide with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and Apalachicola Bay on the other. The bay side was where I spent most of my time fishing for Redfish and Trout. During that week I discovered that I was not stupid at all! Not by a long shot!

Redfish, for those who don't know such things, are the salt water fish with the black spot on their tails. There are redfish tournaments all over the gulf coast. I saw my first one on TV one Sunday morning.

The professionals were using a $30,000 boat, rod and reels that were at least a couple of hundred dollars apiece, trolling motor and an expensive array of artificial bait. They caught several keeping sized redfish! I was hooked! I knew where I was going on my vacation! I used my Walmart $39.95 rod and reel special with a $2.95 silver lure and had a ball. Here's how I did it!

Florida State Parks open at 8:00am. I was there when the gate opened and made my way to the boat ramp on the bay side of the island. It wasn't much of a ramp, but then it didn't need to be for me since I didn't have a boat. A lot of the park was still being renovated after the hurricanes of 2005, thus this shallow ramp.

After watching a couple of small skiffs enter the water, I talked with a fisherman in a kayak waiting his turn to launch. He said that he was going after redfish with a golden spoon. After he paddled off, I looked in my tackle box for a gold spoon but couldn't find one. I had two silver spoons that I hung onto my fishing vest and waded into the water. I also had a fish carrying net hooked onto my vest in case I got lucky and actually caught a fish.

Looking out over the bay as I left the beach and walked along a path that had been cut into the weeds guarding the edge of the water, I saw numerous small spits of land emerging from the bottom of the bay. I recognized I was wading around the edges of oyster bars. The bottom was smooth, but as you walked closer to the little islands, small oysters were every where. Luckily I had my rubber water shoes on or I would have cut my feet on the shells. The depth of the bay at this end of the island was from 2' to 4' no matter where I waded.

I tied on a silver spoon and casted it in the deeper water closer to the weeds. Cranking rapidly on the reel handle, something hit the lure. It felt like I had hooked onto a concrete block. Setting the drag on the reel, I let the fish take the line, reeling slowly as he began to tire. In a few minutes I had him. I had caught my first redfish and he was a beauty.

I measured his length with a fabric tape measure I kept in my fishing vest; 17 inches long. Not good enough. The legal size of redfish is from 18" to 27". Anything smaller or larger than those measurements would get you in trouble with the game wardens. During my week on the island I had heard they were everywhere, looking for any fisherman who had a fish that was shy of those measurements by even a quarter inch. I took no chances, letting my redfish go.

I caught several redfish that morning and they were all fun. The next three were keepers, but alas, you could only keep one in your possession at any time, so I kept the biggest in my mesh sack until it was time to go. Cleaning the fish seemed to be more trouble than it was worth, so I let him go also. All in all, my first morning on the bay was great!

Sustainable Living Articles @ http://www.articlegarden.com

About Bob Alexander:
Bob Alexander is the author and owner of this article. He is well experienced in outdoor cooking, fishing and leisure living. Visit his sites at: www.bluemarlinbob.com www.homeandgardenbob.com