.....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 theholes I can find in the dark and onthe second cast of a Red Shad coored 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 winds started feeling a whole lot like they were coming from the South Directly...not good, then the sawgrass startedto tell me by the bend thatthey 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 was DEFINATELY getting wet. Winds piked 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 behing 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.....
