Getting our sea legs

Having spent the past couple of months doing football related things, we had a bit of a break where the Seminoles were going to play on a Thursday in NC and then had a week off.

We've had plans in place for a few weeks to pack up the Nauti Nole and head to the Fish Camp.   Well, best laid plans...(you know the rest).  Early in the week, Frank took the trailer in to be serviced as it had been sitting for 4 months and he always has it checked before putting a 10,000 lb boat on it and towing it across the state.  Turns out it needed new brakes.  Of course the parts had to be ordered, and then they didn't come in when promised, therefore pushing our departure back yet a few more days.  Finally Frank was able to pick it up, pull the boat and get all the 'stuff' we use for fishing back on the boat.  And wouldn't you know, the seas had been flat, dead calm while we were stuck in Tampa. 

Today was the only day we could get out, thanks to the tropical storms that are brewing, causing the seas to build.  (The other factor going against us what last night was a huge full moon in a cloudless sky.  Which means the fish aren't hungry in the morning.)

A beautiful sunrise on the St. Lucie River greeted us as we headed toward the inlet. 

 We made our way down the river, under the bridges (which thankfully the railroad bridge was open) and out the inlet.  We were going to try for bait and headed to the bait spot to the north.  There was a pretty fast drift so we had to circle back quite a few times.  There wasn't anything showing up on the fish finder, but I dropped the line in the the water anyway. 

It didn't take very long and the rod was bent over.  In fact it bent over so far it SNAPPED!  It all happened so quickly I wasn't sure what went on, but there was something on the end of that line - broken rod and all.  Of course my mind was racing.....what could it be?

 A great white shark?

From elasmodiver dot com.

 A marlin?

From venezuelareport dot com. 

 A Goliath grouper?



From floridasportsman dot com.



 Nope.  It was a big fat blue runner!

 So that was it for our live bait.  We did have another rod we could have changed to, but we didn't see anyone else catching bait.  We were prepared and decided to troll for a while. 

There were lots of flotsam (floating crap) but this palette is a fisherman's dream!  We were sure we were going to hit the motherlode!   Unfortunately, it was too new to have anything growing on it and therefore didn't attract any fish.

 There were lots of scattered weeds that kept us busy, cleaning the lines, etc.  Then we saw these floats!  And since they looked like they had been around for a while, maybe there would be something (like a big fat dolphin) underneath. 

At this point, we decided to put our big fat bait out and drift around these floats and weeds.  (The white balloon is our bait.)

 All of a sudden, the bait comes to the surface and we could see something chasing it.  A sailfish maybe?  Frank picks up the rod and starts to fight.

 By the time he got the line back to the boat, this is all that was left.  Something was pretty sneaky!

 While we were drifting, we left the trolling baits dangling in the water.  All of a sudden a shark was going after one of them. 

 Not what we were hoping for but we got it close enough to take a few pictures and then cut it loose.

We are considering today's outing a practice round and a way to get our sea legs back after having been away for 4 months.

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