Panhandle Fishing

[ironstone74]

We've been in Florida the last couple of weeks and it's been a blast fishing saltwater for the first time. The rods they use down here are like broomhandles and the reels are massive. I brought a couple of spinning rods and a 9'6" bouncing rod to see what I can do in the Gulf. I sure managed to donate a lot of hooks, lead, Gotchas, and floats to the Sea. No shame there, although I did blow up the tip of the 9'6" with a loud crunch. It's tough to launch 3 ounces of lead and then keep it out of the rocks!

 

The views were incredible. The jetty I fished had fighter jets and military choppers flying by all the time, not to mention the Navy ships cruising by. The seaway had everything from kayaks to 18 footers to cruisers to freighters; more variety than what I see on the Saugeen

 

 

At the jetty at St. Andrew's State Park the most common rig was heavy mainline with 1-2 oz of egg shot swiveled to a 40 lb floro lead. I had my best results with fresh local dead shrimp. I opted to use a float rig I bought here with an egg shaped styrofoam float, my 9'6, and my Imperial. The float rig kept me just off the bottom and with the current it was a similar to drifting a large river.

 

 

 

 

This one I caught yesterday in a deeper section of water. I had to launch my shrimp with 3 oz of lead attached to it as far as I could and the current still moved the presentation into rocks in front of me. I took me a lot of snags to realize I had to reel like hell once my rig got close to settling on bottom.

She puckered up but I couldn't get close enough for a wet one!

 

 

One more day in the sun and then we load up the bus for home!

 

Next week, chase some Steelhead, anyone???

 

Paul

[DoubleDigits]

Nice Red! On a centre pin, no less!

[EC1]

Nice. You need a higher ratio type of reel to have the experience a bit easier, but glad to see you caught fish anyways!