Greetings angling aficionados. I have been laid up for awhile (6 long weeks!) which has annoyingly cut into my fishing. I herniated a disk in my back and in addition to the mind numbing, life reevaluating pain it pretty much totally precludes a person from fishing. I've been lucky to get out of bed. Now that I'm better I have been fishing with my son a lot which is not prone to catching tons of fish but gives you a real chance to take some nice pictures while he drinks salt water, shrieks with glee and throws the rod into the bay. Report follows.
There's some crazy photos in this report
The waterproof Pentax Optio W20 takes a mean hippy shot. Really.
Awwwwwwwwwww!
Ohhhhhhhh!
When you're fishing buddy is a 3 year old, this is a 40 inch snook.
It's been raining some and I've been recovering all sorts of treasures washing out of the canals. These are like 6 bucks at Wal-Mart! Score.
Is this a legal PFD? I hope so cause that's what I've been taking out. Shoot, its only 4 feet deep here. Seriously, does anyone know?
This was caught on troll as I was screamed at to "paddle faster! paddle faster!". We were both pretty stoked.
Lightning hit our oak tree. It sent oak tree parts through the screen 100 ft away and melted the whole irrigation system and took out the cable. Stupid lightning.
How are the pods of bait everywhere? The fishing would probably be pretty good if mr. man would stop hammering the rod against the hull and screaming the spongebob squarepants song. Although you gotta love ol' spongebob. Hes a riot. "Yellow, absorbent and porous is he!" I love that part of the song.
This reel snapped in my hand during a tussle with a 16" trout. Really. This event is also the prelude into an Sarasota's Economy Tackle rant. I go in there (where I purchased this reel 6 mos. prior) and get the customer is ALWAYS wrong rap. Capt. Hungover tells me I must've dropped this and in his 20 years of making 9.50 an hour he's never seen anything like this. I'm like, "look, buddy, just please give me the address. I don't want to argue with you about the history of the reel." We stand there and finally he he gets a box for me and we literally are arguing over what happened to my reel. Jesus. What an oxygen thief. Economy Tackle is the lamest tackle shop in the history of time. What a tool shed. No fisherman should buy from those guys. I won't make that mistake again. I don't even really care about the reel. It's still sitting on my desk. It's the bad attitude those guys drop time and time again. When I was a kid it was the place to go but I'm done going there. They suck. Don't go there and definitely DO NOT BUY A KAYAK THERE. Seriously. Tell all your friends. I am.
With the exception of Economy Tackle, It's pretty nice living here.
I've been finding gear everywhere. This was in the tideline wrapped in some sticks and crap.
Yet another highly prized gamefish landed by the future 6x winner of the oberto redfish tour/nobel peace prize.
Want to keep a kid in a life jacket? Put it on like a straightjacket. Can't take off a backwards PFD.
Ohhhhhhh! Bill Dance topwater found in mangroves. This thing probably works insane. Bill would NEVER endorse a inferior product...
Dig this one, hippy
The tables have turned.
We caught some trout.
Interesting cloud formation #77231
I like how the cloud and the oyster bed are shaped the same. Clyde Butcher would totally dig that...
"Why would my father give me such a crappy reel? I think I'll throw it in the bay to express my displeasure..."
I told you there were a ton of hippy shots in this report.
The hits just keep on comin'
Hippies, rejoice.
Hornetbear.com - Sucking up bandwidth since 2005.
That's it! Sorry about the lack of actual fish photos but those all look the same anyhow.
nice Hippy pics. i stopped going to Economy Tackle for the same reason, they are also overpriced and the salesmen act like you are wasting their time. I miss Tuckers Sporting Goods
Posted by: Philthy | October 21, 2007 at 10:05 PM
Dude call penn and ship the reel back to them or take it to mastry's , or Bett's tackle in pinellas county. I still have a 4400, 5500, and an 850 ss, I know that the frames on these reels are graphite. Which means they tend to break if they are dropped on concrete. Most reels have graphite in them some where. I had another 4400 that I got mad and bounced off the side walk and it did not break. Penn reels are now made by Pluger. I love my shimano spheros 4000 and St. Croix SC IV rod that I built.
Okay So where do you launch your kayak in sarasota bay.
Thanks Mike
P.S I stopped shopping at economy tackle and bill jacksons due to cost. And I look for what I need online.
Posted by: Mike Diaczyk | November 02, 2007 at 03:53 PM
I stumbled across your site while looking for info on Sarasota and as a fellow photographer, I have to say that I absolutely was enthralled by your photos, plus I love fishing, so your photos put me right there! Great going! Where have you been, looks like it has been awhile since any recent work/blogs? Kathryn
Posted by: Kathryn | January 03, 2008 at 02:13 PM
Graet pictures and very impressing blog.
Posted by: O.D | January 08, 2008 at 06:29 PM
This blog has AMAZING pics. I'd like to be able to see the updates on a site I check out all the time... If you want to get some more fly angler eyeballs, including mine again, on this you should sign up at flyfishingcommunity.com and add this blog to your profile. I did and the site automatically pulls in my blog updates. It's pretty cool and I know there are a lot of fly anglers that check the blogs. Thought I'd share that.
Tight lines!
Posted by: Andy | January 11, 2008 at 04:23 PM