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Fish! Boat(s)! and Fun! |
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Gregory Morris, 7/2/07 11:26:55 am |
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First, I bought a small canoe a few weeks ago for $80 on Craigslist. I figured it would be nice to paddle around and maybe do some fishing in the creeks around the bay. There are some places you just can't take a big boat. Besides, for that price, I couldn't turn it down. If I ever get bored with it I figure I can sell it for more than $80.
Second, my father-in-law brought my boat down from West Virginia. We took it out, and it ran fine after sitting in his garage all winter. The carbs are still flooding a little bit, so I'm going to have to take them apart, clean them, and probably replace the float assemblies. It isn't that big of a deal, but I'm always nervous about taking apart an otherwise working motor... broken motors I'll tear into, no problem.
The trailer, unfortunately, doesn't fit in the garage. I'm going to have to either shorten the trailer (or make the tongue "break away" somehow) or find another place to put it. I think one side of my house is big enough that if I tore out the fence and put in a gate, it would fit there. If not, I may have to find a fenced storage lot. The boat isn't particularly valuable (1981 sylvan, aluminum V-hull, split console with a 1986 Suzuki motor.) However, it would piss me off to no end if someone stole my prop or damaged the boat. I found lockable prop nuts, but they cost almost as much as a new prop. Everything of value I take out of the boat anyway, so I figure it won't be a big deal leaving it in front of my house for now.
Anyway, the boat handled great when we took it out. We put it in on the Dunedin causeway beach, and took it up to the north tip of Honeymoon Island. It was a little too shallow at the causeway, so we probably put in there again (at least not without some other guys to help crank the boat onto the trailer.) It started up a little slowly, as usual, but didn't have a problem after that. It barely drafts any water, so we were able to run fine in shallow (2-3ft) areas, which should be great for redfish on the flats. The water was pretty smooth that day, so it was pretty comfortable except when bigger boats passed us.
As for the fishing, baitfish were plentiful (threadfin, pinfish, sand perch), big pods of tarpon were rolling, and the weather was perfect. I caught one little bonnet-head shark, which was fun, but we didn't catch much else. Aside from the sabikis for bait, we were just free-lining (with and w/o a float) greenbacks, and attempting to cast at pods of tarpon (which only got close enough to us once or twice... still didn't hook one.) I figure if we had decided to chum a little, and do some bottom fishing, we may have gotten on some mangrove snapper or at least some trout. We actually did bring in a baby mangrove on the sabiki, so I know there were more around. We also pretty much stayed on the grass flats and the channel near the pass, but next time we might swing around to the beach side if the water is calm enough. |
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