.....Besided Winds were predicted from the SE so I thought that could stave off the Thunderstorms the approaching frontpromised for at least a couple 2-3 hours AM Casting...
Loaded up last night and was ready to go !
At the launch well before Dawn, Rigged and ready for Some HAWGS !
I use a different Milk Crate for Sawgrass stalking. This one has Rocket Launchers straight up and down as trolling through the eelgrass
is not as important as having a slim profile while skirting down the Airboat trails to get to the really skinny water flats deep in the Sawgrass...
Got to one of the holes I can find in the dark and on the second cast of a Red Shad colored Zoom Fluke -this little feller came in to say" HI"
...lol not really a picture worthy fish, but I like to try to get the good, the bad and the ugly on these trips....
Well, that is where the day started to go south....
SE predicted winds started feeling a whole lot like they were coming from the South directly...not good. Then the sawgrass started to tell me by the bend that the winds were mosdef were coming from the SW....
Well at this point I am a good mile and a half paddle in to the WMA when the sun gets high enough to show the approaching front. I would DEFINATELY be getting wet. But hey Kayaking is a water sport after all.....
Winds picked up and I had a choice to make - Run like mad, and get soaked in the open water fighting 10-15 knot winds....Or take a wind break behind a stand of solid looking sawgrass - as there is no cover to be had out there.
Interestingly enough the birds had never stopped singing like thay do before a bad storm and seeing no lightening andhearing very limited thunder, I pulled deep into the flats and found the smoothest water I could and deployed my stake out pole, poured a hot cup of joe, lit a smoke and hoped for the best...
Actually had been in worse before, so I was optomistic I would be uncomfortable a little at worst...Besides, I was close enough to the Mud Flats to find a solid tree patch should abandoning ship become necessary.
Ironically when the rain started, so did the bite - I caught 2 quick fish throwing a spinner bait to the various points in the cove I sought refuge in.
After getting those 2, I switched to my worm rod and worked the area a bit slower. Hooking up with a total of 6 bass ( Nothing greater than 2#)
Sorry no pics, it was raining and they were small.
Hung out till 9:00 or so, wind slacked off a bit and I paddled my waterlogged Asch back to the launch, and loaded up.
Home showered with Hot coffee and pancakes by 10:30....
In retrospect I shoulda taken a pic of breakfact with my wife and baby, as they were the best thing I saw all AM.
Could not even get any hippy shots of the sunrise as it was clouded over.....
Worst was a gaggle of Vultures feasting on a dead gator - Must have gone 9' or so.....sorry smelled too bad for a pic an again, it was raining.
Gotta tell all the stories, I suppose, even the mediocre to bad ones.....
