Where has the time gone? Since the last time we were in Big Pine, I went on my annual hunting trip to Virginia, and Robin and I went to visit our daughter Laura in Texas for thanksgiving. It is a difficult time of the year for trying to get back to the keys, but we made it! Definitely needed a stress relief, and spending a couple days here was just the ticket! The weather forecast was basically miserable, but we were content to decorate things for Christmas, and pretty much just hang out.
We started strong and went to the square grouper restaurant in cudjoe key Friday night, and followed it up at Sara Beth’s in key west for breakfast on Saturday. Both places were outstanding as always, and a perfect way to spoil ourselves for the start of the weekend! After running errands we put up the Christmas tree, and I Robin threw me out of the house because I was itching to get out on the water.
Not to argue with the boss, my dog rebel and I took to the skiff and off to the back country we went. Nothing like experiencing 15-20 knot winds on open water in a small skiff! We definitely ate a lot of spray and took a pounding!
We worked our way through the back country to the east of Johnson key and spent the afternoon drifting the channel. Water temps a were 77.5 degrees, the water was fairly clear, but weeded up, lots of whitecaps and the tide rising. After our second drift I saw a big bait shower right behind us, and started throwing my tarpon rod rigged with a pink hoogie soft bait. Second toss and bam – rod bent in half and drag screaming on a nice wide shouldered cobra. I worked myself to the front of the boat and after three shots at it, and rebel barking like crazy, it spit the hook leaving me basically soaking wet and disappointed. Note to self, I need get a small gaff for the skiff, I basically had a 50 pound monster thrashing beside the boat with me trying to freehand it onboard! Definitely not the receipt for success.
We got our act back together and back into hunting for our quarry. The winds died down some and the tide picked up. I moved our drift around and started picking up fish. We drifted over a nice sand hole in 14 feet and boom hooked up on and landed my personal best speckled trout, 32 inches ( well at least that is the length of the cooler!
I kept running the same drift line and picked up one more big trout (over the slot limit) and a half dozen others 15 to 18 inches and threw them all back to fight again another day. Ended up calling it quits when the lady fish moved in a made complete pests of themselves!
Robin did that big boy justice, and we had a nice grilled trout with a white wine butter and lemon sauce. Life is good around here!!! We will be back in a couple weeks hopefully through the end of the year. Our mission – we have to find our Christmas wahoo of course!
See you!
Gorham Fishing Team 