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Posted by Toe on 09:36:06 05/15/12
It's a desert out there. Trey and I did an impromptu pelagic trip yesterday. The conditions looked promising after several days of strong east winds, coupled with the time of year when things should be moving through. Winds were forecast SE 10-15. Everything looked perfect! What's more, May is considered the best month of the year for fishing in S. FL.
We did't find any fish, hardly any birds, and the ocean looked like one empty desert. I listened to the top charter captains on the radio: "Miss Brit, you getting anything?" "Two bonitos, and you Bouncer?" "Two one-pound Almacos" Five minutes later: "I got a grouper." "That's good Bouncer" "Except, it's 15 inches." Most gave up on trolling and live baiting and started dropping on artificual reefs, you know, those man-made assemblages that were supposed to take care of all our problems by providing habitat. Turns out all these have done is pull fish from natural reefs into one small area where it's easire to catch them. Yesterday is one day you will not see in their fishing propaganda, I mean, reports.
Back to the birds. We ventured out 17 miles and back and only found small numbers of a couple of species, with only one shearwater. I've never seen it this bad. About our only excitement was a Connecticut Warbler that buzzed the boat, probably attempting to land, as we were about to head in at 6 miles out.
The list, if you can call it that:
Audubon's Shearwater (1)
Brown Booby (4)
Bridled Tern (10)
Sooty Tern (3)
Connecticut Warbler (1)
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