Storm over Wewa

I had heard the rumble of an afternoon thunderstorm as I was working on an update for my new blog, which is another story that I'll explain in a minute. Anyway I decided it was time for an afternoon libation, just to get the creative juices flowing, and walked out on the front porch  and saw this thunderstorm to my west over Wewahitchka/ Dead Lakes. Unfortunately I had carried my camera inside to down load pictures that I had taken earlier today and a cool camera and warm humid air create instant fogging. The pictures aren't as sharp as I would like, but I think the refracted colors caused by winds across the top of the storm are evident.

 

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Thanks for the e-mails and calls checking on my health...ok, I was way behind on an update. Other than the fact that that this is my busy time of the year tarpon fishing, I've just completed a course through the University of Florida(IFSA) to become a Florida Master Naturalist. It covered plants, vertebrate and invertebrate animals, and the ecology of the coastal systems.  Plants have long been a weakness of mine and I was fortunate to have neighbor who  is also a Master Gardner; she took the course with me and has been of tremendous help in identifying native plants. Our class project was a blog that is dedicated to the rivers of East Bay and primarily the East River. My intent is to keep that blog focused on the flora and fauna of the East River, and the photographic opportunities that avail themselves through the year.

I invite all of you to visit us at East River Florida. It's a work in progress and we'd appreciate your pictures of East River and any comments or observations.

Tarpon time in the rivers

We've had a strong invasion of tarpon in the last 3 weeks and fishing will only improve since the cool fronts are most likely history. There are a lot of fish on the beaches and in some of the rivers. If you haven't booked your days yet, give me a call or email me so we can get your days on the books.

 I spend a lot of time looking for tarpon, when I'm not fishing for them. One of the nice things about cruising rivers and creeks are all the great flowers we see!

Spider lilies

String lilies

Dog roses

 

Water lilies

Button bush

Obedient plant

 And of course the magnolias!!

This is a great time of the year to be in the Panhandle. If you want to catch a tarpon or take pictures of our plentiful wild life, we can accommodate you.

Spring has sprung and things are getting busy!

All the citrus trees are loaded with fruit, as this orange shows with last year's fruit and the start of this year's crop.

Click on the picture and watch the little owl's eyes on the snake! (These pictures were shot at 8 frames per second, so this happened in about a half of a second)

I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to get one the mature great horned owls bringing a tasty snake offering to the the two nestling owls. Actually at this stage they are now "branchlings". The term used to denote that the young owls are venturing out on the surrounding tree branches, but are not flying yet(fledglings).

Here's a shot of each of them on their branches today.

Still have ospreys and herons on nests, but it's fishing time so I can't check them as regularly as I'd like. Between the trout, which have really turned on in the past 10 days, spanish mackerel which are all over the bay and the bream which are destroying fly rod poppers...it time to go to work. If you haven't booked your tarpon days get with me. It looks like they may start early!

Autumn in Apalachicola

This is a busy time of the year, here on Apalachicola Bay. As summer heat begins to give way a lot of things start happening at once. The first being the annual white shrimp migration. The shrimp that have been growing in the bay's and river's brackish waters start moving to the open gulf to spawn. During this journey trout, reds and tarpon have a hey day and so do we! There is no limit on white trout, so it's a great time for fish fries. Limiting on speckled trout is also very doable.

Fish and shrimp aren't the only creatures on the move. Now also the beginning of the butterfly migration with thousands of  Gulf Fritillary

and everyone's favorite the Monarch

and one of my favorites the Common Buckeye

 

Many of our migrating birds are passing through now. I've seen a number of colorful warblers that don't year around here along the ever entertaining humming birds, not to speak of all the eagles that are starting their nests. There were 5 overhead at one time last week.

Cool nights, warm days and all kinds of critters...Autumn in Apalach is a fun time!

Tarpon Days of Summer

These sweltering days of late July, August and September are thought of as the "Dog Days", but I prefer to think of them as the "Tarpon Days". We have a great tarpon fishery in and around Apalachicola, that doesn't receive much pressure...at least the areas that I fish. We fished 4 days last week and we saw one other boat tarpon fishing!

Here's a nice account of 3 days from last week.     Jim & Tim's Tarpon Trip

Mason the tarpon slayer

This past weekend, three generations of the Edwards clan from Montgomery, AL. came to Apalachicola to take on the silver king. They consisted of grandpa Chuck, son Charlie and grandsons Mason and Sam.

After an early start the fish didn't get turned on until about 0930, when Charlie hooked a bull shark. While he was fighting it, Mason's rod went off...but it sure wasn't a shark!

Two hours later an exhausted Mason led an equally exhausted tarpon to the side of the boat.

Just as the leader was grabbed, the tarpon tried to make one final run. The 60 pound bite tippet parted and the tarpon headed for deeper water. After nearly 2 1/2 hours, 11 year old Mason had bested a tarpon twice his own weight. A day he will remember for years to come.

Oil and Apalachicola

I'm getting a lot of calls and emails inquiring to the location of BP's oil. Here is the latest information, that I've found.

As this chart indicates, we are not in any immanent danger from the spill. Come on down...we've got more fish than fishermen right now.

Apalachicola Bay

Working the Miles from Joe York on Vimeo.


Hopefully the oysters and oyster men will survive the mass of oil that BP and our government is allowing to slowly coat the gulf coast.St. George Island and Apalachicola Bay are still oil free and and life is going on as usual, but not without apprehension. As I sit on the flats waiting for the arrival of the early morning push of tarpon, I can't help but wonder if today may be the last day the bay will remain pristine.

Sunrise On A Tarpon Flat

 This is the view from the my office and it's 0630 and it's time to go to work. We had a few fish rolling and the third cast produced this little 60 pound fish.

We jumped off 2 more fish before the tide went slack and the fishing slowed. While we were waiting for the tide to turn and begin running out, the boat started rocking. I looked over the poling platform and found the culprit! A manatee was was scratching his back on my lower unit.

 

He hung around for another 10 minutes and then with a swipe of big tail he was off to continue feeding.

We finished up the day with one more jumped fish and 2 more manatees.

Tarpon fishing has been excellent for the past 6 weeks, with most days yielding multiple fish in the air, numerous manatee sightings and beautiful weather.

The BP's oil is still 50-60 miles away, but is slowly moving this way. keep your fingers crossed that we will be able to keep the oil out of the bay and are able to protect this magnificent estuary. In the meantime come on down!