Fishing inshore and offshore

[tank]

Anyone have any recent fishing pics to show?

Here's a nice little snook I caught in the middle of the night while camping on Three Rookers Island, just north of Clearwater (Florida).

Tarpon my buddy caught while we were fishing at the mouth of Tampa Bay near Egmonte Key.

.

[Ken Johnson]

Best post I looked at today! I love night fishing for snook while in the water. No boat needed. Campfire is next stop!

I only made it out a few times this summer. Lobster.

Oct. 15 starts stone crabs. I saw some jumbos when hunting bugs. Hope I get some extra large jumbos this season.

[bubba]

Dam!

[DoomsDave]

That is a big tarpon -- or is it?

How do they taste?

dave

[_Keith]

That is a big tarpon -- or is it?

How do they taste?

dave

Tarpon is no-eatie fishie. Full of bones anyway.

[redant]

One of my better catches this summer, no fishing pole involved.

Edited August 22, 2008 by redant

[Mike4284m]

Wow huge hog! Did you spear him?

[MattyB]

Yeah, what is it and how did you catch him?

[BS Man about Palms]

Clearwater! Thats my hometown! I'm a Morton Plant baby!!

[redant]

Wow huge hog! Did you spear him?

Yes, speared him,or her?

Matty this is what a hogfish is, one of the best eating fish I know of, although snook is pretty darn good as well.

Edited August 23, 2008 by redant

[Jeff Searle]

Doug,

Very nice! How did you cook him? On the grill?

Jeff

[redant]

Doug,

Very nice! How did you cook him? On the grill?

Jeff

We caught so many hard to remember his fate, either..

Beer battered and deep fried

Grilled

Sweet potato encrusted

or one of my favorites coconut and panko encrusted .

Hard to go wrong with this perfectly white fish.

[Jeff Searle]

Just saw on the news this evening that a boat while in a fishing tournament caught a record Blue Marlin. It was over 1200 pounds. A very big fish!

Jeff

[steve 9atx]

I went to one of our local CCA chapter's banquets last night. I won the bidding on

two auctioned trips, one guided trip to Galveston Bay, one to Baffin Bay (just south

of Corpus). Lost others to Baffin, Port O'Connor, and a six-man trip to Cabo. You

can get carried away at these deals and spend a lot of money at the auction. That's

the point of all the free food, booze, and scantily-clad raffle ticket sales girls.

In addition to the free beer, every eight man table had three liter bottles of Gentleman

Jack on it!

A buddy of mine bought a 2-day light tackle/fly trip to the 10,000 islands with lodging.

The ad for the trip says "between Marco Island and Chokloskee Florida". The guide

is Capt. Wright Taylor. Can any of you Floridians comment on the area or guide? If

I go, he's gonna try and make me pay for half of the $1900 he paid for it, so I'd like

to know the trip is "the trip of a lifetime" like the ad says.

My buddy bought this trip, a John Deerman print (for those of you who know of John

Deerman, someone told me he died last year), and a crawfish boil with beer for 50

people! He was buzzin' pretty good, 'cause after he had spent around $4350 on

these three items, he turned to me and said, "now remind me, what all did I buy so

far....."

Steve

[_Keith]

I went to one of our local CCA chapter's banquets last night. I won the bidding on

two auctioned trips, one guided trip to Galveston Bay, one to Baffin Bay (just south

of Corpus). Lost others to Baffin, Port O'Connor, and a six-man trip to Cabo. You

can get carried away at these deals and spend a lot of money at the auction. That's

the point of all the free food, booze, and scantily-clad raffle ticket sales girls.

In addition to the free beer, every eight man table had three liter bottles of Gentleman

Jack on it!

A buddy of mine bought a 2-day light tackle/fly trip to the 10,000 islands with lodging.

The ad for the trip says "between Marco Island and Chokloskee Florida". The guide

is Capt. Wright Taylor. Can any of you Floridians comment on the area or guide? If

I go, he's gonna try and make me pay for half of the $1900 he paid for it, so I'd like

to know the trip is "the trip of a lifetime" like the ad says.

My buddy bought this trip, a John Deerman print (for those of you who know of John

Deerman, someone told me he died last year), and a crawfish boil with beer for 50

people! He was buzzin' pretty good, 'cause after he had spent around $4350 on

these three items, he turned to me and said, "now remind me, what all did I buy so

far....."

Steve

Baffin Bay is incredible. Home to the biggest Speckled Trout in the world. I have a fishing video that was filmed there with guys bringing in one 30" Spec after another. Definitely post pictures from that trip.

[steve 9atx]

Dat's "Choupique", cher; they're good for losin' a finger to also.

I saw a video on Baffin speckled trout too. The purpose of the

video I saw was to convince guys like me to use obscenely large

bait as that's all the big sows eat. They cut open a 32"+ spec

and her belly was full of 12-15" specs! I mean, 15" is an eatin'

size fish. The other problem with the trophy's is that they simply

don't eat very often, so it's hard to find them hungry. My best

luck has been fishing with a live croaker on a flounder hook.

The croakers are loud enough under water to attract the specs.

The biggest fish I caught this way was 27". I was almost armpit-

deep with water coming in my waders, so I had a heck of a time

getting her in the landing net. The guide who will take us out on

the trip I bid on is "artificials only". So I expect him to set up with

the over sized MirrOLures or some big broken back top waters.

You're right, the biggest Texas specs come from Baffin, but

they're still almost 4 lbs shy of the Florida record of 17lb-9oz.

Steve

[tank]

Best post I looked at today! I love night fishing for snook while in the water. No boat needed. Campfire is next stop!

I only made it out a few times this summer. Lobster.

Oct. 15 starts stone crabs. I saw some jumbos when hunting bugs. Hope I get some extra large jumbos this season.

Ken,

I also love night fishing.

Night fishing is generally more productive, especially for bigger fish. Also, no crowds. I'm at the point where I prefer fishing for tarpon at night. You catch more fish, you don't have to worry about crowds or traffic, and its actually very cool to put the fish under the big lights.

Dave,

Tarpon flesh is very soft, sometimes described as "pudding", and it is not considered edible. Although in the past folks used it as a stock base. A tarpon is basically a big sardine. I have an old field guide for gamefish in Florida and it is interesting to see what folks though was tasty and what they didn't like. Snook was considered a lesser fish for eating and red drum was considered a trash fish. Both of these species are considered decent to good eating fish today.

[gsn]

Snook used to have the nickname SOAPFISH!

If you leave the skin on snook,it has a definate soapy taste.

However if you cut the skin off ,one of the best tasting fish there is IMO.

Redfish had a bad rap as they used to try and eat those bull reds weighing up to 50#

That is how the blackened redfish craze came about ,trying to make those big course,grainy, fish palatable.

A legal redfish here in Florida under 27 inches is some fine eating,but still not anywhwere near as good as SNOOK!

[tank]

One of my better catches this summer, no fishing pole involved.

Sorry I didn't comment on this ealier. That is a really nice hogfish.

Very, very good to eat.

[weldertom]

Snook used to have the nickname SOAPFISH!

If you leave the skin on snook,it has a definate soapy taste.

However if you cut the skin off ,one of the best tasting fish there is IMO.

Redfish had a bad rap as they used to try and eat those bull reds weighing up to 50#

That is how the blackened redfish craze came about ,trying to make those big course,grainy, fish palatable.

A legal redfish here in Florida under 27 inches is some fine eating,but still not anywhwere near as good as SNOOK!

Ahem,

In Brazoria County ,Tx. "Back in the day" , when the size limit for Redfish was 14" and you could keep an unlimited number of them, the best eating fish for me was a 12-16 inch redfish, two fillets about hand size, coated in cornmeal and fried by Mama. Moist and succulent in the middle and crispy on the edges........Thats how we rolled in 1966....

BUT - I will say a properly prepared Snook(reminds me of Largemouth Bass....) is fine eating as well as Hogfish or Wrasse ... !!

BTW Steve- I have a Bafffin trip lined up for this late fall with my Brother in Law who lives at Lamar point near Rockport......He boasted to me at a party this ast weekend that he now knows "Every worm rock in there,and Aztlan bay as well"

Given I am working here in Houston, if you need a chunker for the your trip to the Valley let me know...lol

[steve 9atx]

Tom

Yea, let's get together and wet a line while you're in town. Our Baffin guide called to say

that he only has room for himself and two others in his skiff, so spot number 3 is reserved

for one my clients (one of the rare ones who pays his bills). I don't get down to Galveston

too much even though it's so close. This year, I'm hoping for some strong cool fronts in

November to provoke a good flounder run; we usually fish the north side of Pelican Island.

You can wade out 100 yards on the sand and still not quite be chest deep at low tide.

Unfortunately, we haven't had a strong enough front to make the flounder run it 4-5 years.

These days, they just trickle out over a long period of time making it harder to clean up in

a few hours of wading as in years past.

And speaking of eating fish, I love every kind of fish I have caught from blackfin tuna to

dolphin and grouper, to salmon and halibut, speckled trout and snook, and even redfish

smoked on the halfshell or fried with hot sauce. But I must confess, flounder may be my

favorite for both taste and texture. Just put that puppy in the oven with butter and garlic,

take him out and eat side A, flip him over and have at side B. Yum.

Do you ever go to Captain Benny's on South Main? They make a mean stuffed flounder.

PM me and let me know what part of town you're in.

Steve