2023 Nov Florida Wildlife

 One of the things I enjoy the most about fishing and being around water is the abundance of wildlife you get to see. Here are some of the beautiful wildlife we saw on our trip to Florida.

Gopher turtle making its way across the beach

Mama and baby Manatee

Crane

Blue Heron waiting to eat one of our catch

Shark swimming in the bay

Crab that would not cooperate and open up.

2023 Nov Boca Grande

Boca Grande Florida is known as the Tarpon capital of the world, so I thought I would try to catch one myself! Looks like I just missed lip-landing this giant!

2023 Nov - Fishing on Manasota Key Florida

 We had a spectacular time in Florida and we caught lots of fish! The final count of our catch was:

Frank: 13 Ladyfish, 11 Lizard fish, a spotted sea trout, 2 Spanish mackerel, 5 grunts and a greenback (baitfish)

Esther: 6 Ladyfish, 6 Lizard fish, 1 Spanish Mackerel, 11 Grunts ( I believe some of these were Pompano),  1 pinfish, a baby Tilefish, and a sand crab

So you can see Frank outfished me on this trip!

Here are some of our catch.

I believe this is a Pompano. We caught several of these.

Esther with a Ladyfish

One of Frank’s large Ladyfish

One of Esther’s Lizard fish

Frank with a Spanish Mackerel

Esther with her only Spanish Mackerel

Frank’s Sea Trout

A Grunt

A pinfish

I pulled in some sea weed and this little fish fell out! It is a TileFish. So I think I get the prize for the smallest fish.

Frank’s little baitfish, a Greenback

I also caught this little creature which is called a Sand Flea or Sand Crab.

2023 Aug 28 - Last day at Bear Spring Camps

 

Early morning looking over Great Pond

The day started off nice and calm and beautiful.  

We went fishing in the morning, but it was too sunny, and the fish were hard to find.

Frank caught a small pickerel, a smallish Pike, and a good-sized white Perch. The only fish I caught was a 28" Pike when we were on our way in for lunch around 12:30.

Esther with a 28" Pike

The wind kicked up and there were white caps on the pond after lunch!  We decide to give it a go anyway and hoped Chutes Island would give us some protection from the wind and perhaps hold some fish. The fishing and wind were not good there so we crossed the pond to get protection in the North Bay.  Fishing was still not good. We only caught 2 yellow perch and 1 pickerel and it was impossible to do anymore, so we headed in early.  We had hoped it would calm down as the afternoon went on, but it did not.  A nice neighbor came out to help us land at our dock, it was so choppy! 

2023 Aug 27 - Day 2 Fishing at Bear Spring Camps

 We got on the water around 10:30 am after breakfast and fished until 1:30 pm and then broke for lunch.

Frank caught a perch, 2 smallmouth, and a largemouth bass.  I caught a 21" and a 24" Pike, a pickerel, and a nice smallmouth.

Frank with one of his smallmouths

Esther with one of her Pike

It was a little unnerving but interesting to watch a seaplane that was practicing takeoff and landing quite near to us!

We went out fishing in the evening again. This time I caught a 24" Pike, a 27" Pike, a pickerel, and a 23" pickerel. Unfortunately, Frank did not catch anything tonight.  I think my #4 Mepps with the silver blade and Orange tail was the key to my catching.

Esther with her 27" Pike - They keep getting bigger!

As the sun went down, we were treated to some pretty skies on this calm night.

2023 Aug 26 - Bear Spring Camps

 We returned to one of our favorite places Bear Spring Camps to fish Great Pond in Maine. We always stay at Bear Spring Camps. You get 2 homecooked meals a day, a cabin and a boat to rent.  All you need to do is fish all day! 

We got on the water at 1:00 pm and it was very hot all afternoon. We fished until 5:30 when it started to rain, took a break for dinner and then went back out and fished 7-8:15 pm. Frank did really good on this first day by catching 12 fish: 6 smallmouth (2 large ones), 2 perch, 2 northern pike, a pickerel, and 1 decent-sized largemouth.  Frank used Mepps, a large jointed orange Rapala and a large #5 Mepps with stinger hook.

I didn't catch as many fish and told Frank I was holding out for the big ones. I caught 2 very small smallmouth bass, a 20" smallmouth and a 20" Pike - the largest Pike of the day. I caught my fish on a Hula Popper and a #4 Mepps silver blade with Orange skirt.

Esther posing very stylishly in her new fishing shirt holding her 20" Pike

Esther with her 20" Smallmouth bass

As the rain ended we were treated to a nice rainbow 

2023 Aug 6 - Summer Bass

 

Frank with the biggest bass of the summer!

Fishing has been slow since the water has gotten so warm in the summer months.  We may not catch a lot of fish but occasionally we catch a good one. Today was Frank’s day with this largemouth that gave him a good fight. He actually thought he was stuck on a rock when the fish first hit his lure! It wasn’t a rock it was this lunker! We tried to get a weight on him, but unfortunately the scale was not working properly.