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Showing posts from June, 2006

June 26th-30th - Surfside Beach House.

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missing me a bit? (smile) me too For about the last 35 years, most every summer we rent a beach house for a week down in Surfside. It is a family time we really enjoy with friends and family. This year, we stayed in the Aloha Beach rented from Brannan Beach House Rentals. It was the most beautiful beach house we have ever stayed in. The water was beautiful and the fishing was pretty good. We caught several specks between 18-22", Spanish Macs, Whiting, Croakers, Sand Trout, Gaftop, Rat Reds, and countless shark. All our fishing was done just wading out in the beach in front of the house or setting up a long rod with cut bait. We fished with dead shrimp, cut bait, and artificial. Most of the fish were caught on mirrorlures, or spoons tipped with shrimp. Kinda cheating - but my boys were doing most of the fishing. It was a great week of fishing.
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Here was the view from the front porch of the beach house.
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If you have looked much at the blog - you know that I really enjoy catching bull reds - well .... this is the smallest red that I have ever caught! I just thought it would be fun to show what these reds looked like before we caught them at the Jetty.
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We caught dozens of bathtub shark. We would take a whiting, put him on the long rod - toss him out and wait. The largest shark we caught was about 3 foot long - but this is the average size that Dillon is holding. At one point, I put on a second hook - on for the front of the fish - and the second on the tail. Twice we caught 2 sharks at once. It was like throwing a speck rig catching two at a time. At that time, the shark were about 12" long each. After that - we put up the long rod - we couldn't find any larger shark.
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Here is Nathan with one of the many whiting he caught. This was the fishing trip where the boys graduated from their Zebcos to fish with Spinning Reels like Daddy! I did spend a bit of time untangling birdnests - but after some practice they did fantastic!
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Here is a Rat Red caught by my oldest Rat Redd - Joseph. He caught several specks, reds, whiting, croakers and shark. This trip was the first time he was more interested in fishing that he was just goofing around in the water! He is ready to go back!
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Brian, one of Joseph's and Nathan's friends who went with us to Surfside, caught several fish. This is his very first redfish ever! He also caught several whiting and croaker.

Monday, June 26th - Dewey, Hamiltons and Robert

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While I was in Surfside, Dewey took out Wayne and Josh Hamilton, and his great nephew Robert. It was a beautiful day to fish ... and Dewey found out that they catch more fish when I am not there! (grin) Here is Robert and Dewey with one of the two kings they netted on the day. It is unusual, but there are a few kings caught this time of year at the Jetty.
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Josh caught this good sized shark. Looks like a nice sized sand shark.
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Here is Robert and Josh at the cleaning table displaying a King and a Shark getting ready for the dinner table.
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This is Dewey and Robert with a Jack that Robert caught. All in all is was a fantastic day fishing!

Thursday, June 15th, 2006 - Wayne Hamilton

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We arrived at the Jetty with a slight South East wind. After a little while there was a Thunderstorm Cell that popped up over the open water. If you look carefully, you can see a waterspout in the center of the cell. Pretty cool. Wayne Hamilton fished with Dewey and I today. Ton of Shark, Spanish Macs, 1 Red and 1 really ugly Dog Fish. We fished with cut mullet, shad, live croaker and live shrimp.
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For those of you who fish on the weekend - this may be a normal sight. But Dewey and I usually fish during the week and this is pretty crowded for a Thursday. The water was beautiful - incoming tide - water at 78.3 degrees with a clarity to about 5 or 6 foot. We fished the outside of the Jettey towards the end - close to the Rocks so that Wayne and Dewey could fish the rocks for Specks. We saw a large sea turtle swim by during the day - that was pretty cool. I also saw a couple of Jacks dart by - but was unable to get anything in front of them in time.
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Here is a picture of the Dog Fish and Dewey. We noticed that I catch most of the Reds. Well - Mark Redd catches Reds .... and Dewey catches Dog Fish! (laughing) It really is an ugly fish!
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We must have caught 20-25 Atlantic Sharpnose Shark this size. These are between 3 and 4 foot long and are alot of fun to catch. However - after a while you kinda wish they would leave your bait alone so that something else could be tempted with the bait.
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This was the only Red Fish we caught on the day - however, we did see two or three more landed during the day in boats around us. He was caught on Shad fished on the bottom.
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Open up and say Ah!!!! This is about a 5 foot shark we caught - didn't make it into the boat - but we did manage to get a few picks of him.
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Dewey and Wayne caught several Spanish Macs - they were freelining shrimp up in the rocks hoping for some Speckled Trout - didn't get any - but did pick up several Smacs.
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Most of the shark we caught today were Atlantic Sharpnose - but we caught this one - and another about this size like it. I am not for sure what type of shark this is - but it was much stronger than the other shark. If you know what kind of shark it is - put it in the comments!
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This is another picture of the "Gray Shark" we caught - I have it turned so you can have a better look at the shark. It was a good day on the water - tons of shark - but still beautiful weather.

Monday - June 12th, 2006

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Today wasn't the best of fishing days. Last night was a full moon - a bit of high pressure over us last night and this morning - but still - the Jetty Poll called - and we answered. The water was beautiful and 77.6 - wind at 3-5 and variable - tide was strong incoming. We fished towards the end of the Jetty on the outside and then moved to the inside. For some unknown reason - I went brain dead when buying bait this morning. We picked up the Shad, live and dead shrimp and I asked for some mullet too - but somehow didn't remember about the mullet until we launched. Not for sure it would have made a difference - but still - I like to have two different types of bait out at all times. On the last few trips we have been able to catch bait with not too much effort - but this time all we could catch on the shrimp (both live and dead) was hardheads. So all we had on the big rods was shad and that didn't seem to do the trick today at all. We caught 5 or 6 Atlantic Sharpnose

June 5th - Monday Afternoon

Dewey and I headed out this afternoon to see what we could get into. Tide was slack early the strong outgoing later - water was beautiful - very little chop on the water - and I forgot to check the temperature of the water. We fished the inside of the channel at the end of the North Jetty for about 3 hours. We caught several Spanish Mackerels, several shark and one very large Stingray. I don't know what kind of stingray it was - but it was not a cownose. The shark ranged in size from 3-4.5 foot - the largest was a nice Sand Shark. We brought home a 4 foot blacktip and the Sand Shark and gave it to one of my church members.. Normally there are pictures - but the battery went dead on the camera - so no pics today. Saw some real fancy-pant boats all logoed up - guess for an upcoming tournament. Sure were pretty. (grin)