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!

Green Trout

A friend of mine called me and said he wanted come down to Apalachicola and catch a mess of "green trout". Now for those of you not fortunate enough to be from the southeast, a green trout is also called a black bass or large mouth bass, in other parts of the world. Now people bass fish all over the country, but "green trout" fishing entails a different technique. First you have to have the proper equipment. No fancy, high dollar rod & reel...nope you have to have a 11 or 12' bream buster pole...no reel, just your modern day cane pole. This coupled with a bucket of frisky shrimp and you'll be prepared for a day of "trout" fishing.

I picked up 8 dozen shrimp and met Mike at about 1100, just as the tide started to come back in to the bays and creeks. We rode the tide up the creek dabbling shrimp in likely looking holes as we went. Somehow it very therapeutic to watch your cork shimming around, just before it disappears.

Four hours later we were out of shrimp and had boated 50-60 "green trout"and kept a half dozen for supper. We had laughed, solved some of the world's problem, watched eagles coming and going from their nest and now it was time to enjoy on last treat that Apalachicola offers...oysters! We put the boat on the trailer and headed to Papa Joe's at Scipio Creek for an ice cold beer and equally cold oysters shucked while we watched. A fitting end to a most enjoyable day.

Wonder why they are called red fish?

A keeper red that took a SK Redfish Magic this afternoon.

Great Blue Heron

Beautiful birds, but they always look strange in a tree. This guy was was watching us, as we came back from an aborted off shore trip.

Whiskey George Sentinel

I knew it was a good sign , when we headed into Whiskey George and there was an eagle watching the confluence with Cash's Creek. The morning was overcast and a pleasant temperature. Typical fall weather in Apalachicola. There were birds working schools of shrimp, being pushed to the top by trout. We stopped and caught a dozen short fish before we headed up the creek.

We picked up 8-10 more small trout on top water plugs, but not the quality of fish I was after. I was basically scouting for trips this week and I wanted some bigger fish.

Our clouds went away and so did our top water bite. The tide had turned and better trout started blasting LYs all around us. We switched over to sub surface MirrorLures and started catching better trout.

I'd accomplished my goal to locate some fish in an area that i hadn't fished in a couple of weeks and we had caught 20+ trout in the 2 hours that we'd been out...now it was lunch time and time to watch a ball game.

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.

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!

Apalachicola Bay in the spring

Old Man Winter is slow to let go of us this year, but we are beginning to get some warm days with light winds. Now if we can get the flow of fresh water to stay below flood stage for a few weeks maybe we can get serious about fishing.

 

As you can see, we still have some white pelican hanging around the Dry Bar. They should be heading north any day now, but with the weather our northern neighbors have been having...well I might hang around a little longer too.

Trout fishing is beginning to pick up, but water temps and muddy conditions are making it a little tougher than normal. I'm finding some cleaner water toward the west end of the bay and the trout are cooperating.

They are feeding on mullet now, so we've been fishing larger profile baits like the MirrorLure Catch 5. DOA shrimp are also producing around the oyster bars, but the Catch 5 are producing larger fish.

If our weather holds for a couple more weeks things should be back to normal.

State of the bay

I've had a number of calls wanting to go fishing or wanting to know what about current condition of  the bay and rivers. Unfortunately they are still not good. We had more heavy rain last Saturday and the river continues above flood stage. The above picture shows the muddy water coming from the rivers and what appears blue is actually the color of very strong tea and is the tanic water flowing in  from Tate's Hell.

Looking the other way, this is what you see.

With heavy rains being forecast for tomorrow, things will not improve for a few more days. If you have to go fishing no matter what, I'd say go to Lanark or Port St. Joe for clear water or if you can catch a day with the wind cooperating make the run to Bird Island.

While I was on the causeway taking pictures of the bay, one of my buddies made an appearance.

Eagles brighten the day

With the river at flood stage and strong northwest winds we're not doing much fishing. The day is overcast and the bay is heavily stained with tanic water running out of Tate's Hell on the east side of East Bay and muddy water flowing in from East River westward to the Apalachicola River. It certainly isn't a chamber of commerce view today but coming across the bridge from Apalach, I was still stuck by the beauty of four mature bald eagles. They are always a treat to see, but they sure make me smile on a gray day.