spilunkr
03-26-2009, 02:59 PM
I spent last week in Sarasota visiting the in-laws. It was nice getting back down there after a one year hiatus. Ordinarily I would expect the weather in Sarasota in March to be significantly better than here in Fort Collins but this time around it was a toss-up as it was unseasonably warm here along the front range last week - mostly in the mid- 70's. It was even warmer in Denver on Sunday (79) than it was in Sarasota (78).
It was still nice getting away. I got to see the Red Sox play Cincinnati in Sarasota; 9 - 1 Sox. Lester looked pretty sharp pitching. Even got out a couple times for some fishing. But, since it would have been difficult to take my kayak on the plane I decided to try my float tube. It actually worked reasonably well as long as the water was at least 2' deep which was not always the case; especially the second time out.
I downloaded the local tide information and headed out for some snook last Wednesday. The actual tide was off by about an hour from the info I downloaded. But it still worked out as there was a pretty decent current between the small mangrove islands I fish. In about four hours of fishing I managed about 8 or 9 snook from 13" to 25" along with a couple of mangrove snappers. The first shot is the nicest snook.
I went back again to the same area on Friday, but this time my tide information was way off. Instead of getting there mid way into a rising tide as I expected; it appeared to be dead low tide. So I tried some deeper water after making my way out over a couple of exposed oyster bars. In a couple of hours I managed four speckled trout in the 13" to 16" range.
At the time that both my downloaded tide info and the local paper showed as high tide; I headed back to my snook spot only to find the water level lower than I had ever seen it. In fact water was still draining from the area I had intended to fish. The only thing I could figure was that two days of strong easterly winds had blown a significant amount of water out of the bay. I took off my flippers to make walking through the mangrove tunnel to my spot easier and fished for an hour and a half in the area I had fished two days earlier but only got two small snook. Leaving the area two hours past "high tide" the area was still draining out! After getting back out into deeper water, I tried the area where I'd gotten the specks earlier but only got a couple of taps before deciding to head home for supper and the obligatory stop the Tiki Bar for some margaritas on the way.
Back here in Fort Collins it has been snowing since about 2 a.m. and the forecast is for our biggest snowfall of the winter by the time it ends tomorrow. It looks like we will get roughly 10" or so. Actually we need the precipitation as March is supposed to be our snowiest month. But we have not had any significant precipitation since early December.
Guy
It was still nice getting away. I got to see the Red Sox play Cincinnati in Sarasota; 9 - 1 Sox. Lester looked pretty sharp pitching. Even got out a couple times for some fishing. But, since it would have been difficult to take my kayak on the plane I decided to try my float tube. It actually worked reasonably well as long as the water was at least 2' deep which was not always the case; especially the second time out.
I downloaded the local tide information and headed out for some snook last Wednesday. The actual tide was off by about an hour from the info I downloaded. But it still worked out as there was a pretty decent current between the small mangrove islands I fish. In about four hours of fishing I managed about 8 or 9 snook from 13" to 25" along with a couple of mangrove snappers. The first shot is the nicest snook.
I went back again to the same area on Friday, but this time my tide information was way off. Instead of getting there mid way into a rising tide as I expected; it appeared to be dead low tide. So I tried some deeper water after making my way out over a couple of exposed oyster bars. In a couple of hours I managed four speckled trout in the 13" to 16" range.
At the time that both my downloaded tide info and the local paper showed as high tide; I headed back to my snook spot only to find the water level lower than I had ever seen it. In fact water was still draining from the area I had intended to fish. The only thing I could figure was that two days of strong easterly winds had blown a significant amount of water out of the bay. I took off my flippers to make walking through the mangrove tunnel to my spot easier and fished for an hour and a half in the area I had fished two days earlier but only got two small snook. Leaving the area two hours past "high tide" the area was still draining out! After getting back out into deeper water, I tried the area where I'd gotten the specks earlier but only got a couple of taps before deciding to head home for supper and the obligatory stop the Tiki Bar for some margaritas on the way.
Back here in Fort Collins it has been snowing since about 2 a.m. and the forecast is for our biggest snowfall of the winter by the time it ends tomorrow. It looks like we will get roughly 10" or so. Actually we need the precipitation as March is supposed to be our snowiest month. But we have not had any significant precipitation since early December.
Guy