Saturday, June 14, 2014

Dude, Where's Your Boat?


Tyler- "Dude, where's your boat?"

Kyle- "Where's your boat?"

Those aren't exactly words you want to hear after driving four+ hours. We planned on fishing for two days for stripers, reds, and maybe some cobia but the situation was looking rather bleak. After the realization set in that we didn't have a boat, Kyle set to work planning a backup plan that featured another hours drive. Despite the misfortune and misunderstanding, we made the most of the next two days and still left the south with big smiles across our faces. 




Kyle took us to his flat where we McGyvered three kayaks to the back of his truck and headed to a tidal river. We put in on a shady, old, decaying dock intent on fishing an outgoing tide for some puppy drum. We plied every dock and piece of structure with flies and spinning rods landing several fish in the 25-30 inch range on jigs. When the tide stopped moving out to sea, we took the kayaks back and headed to a newly found carp spot. 

The carp were found in the middle of an apartment complex, apparently the groundskeeper's pets. The carp were extremely surface oriented and attacked flies. The pond wrapped around the complex's pool, and interested swimmers watched us stalking and catching quite a few fish. The best moment came when Tyler hooked a small fish on a san juan worm, and Kyle (practicing his guiding skills for AK), leaned over an embankment in order to land a fish as Tyler held his ankles. 

The following day proved to be quite the outing. Kyle's boss took us out fishing a few miles off the coast where we put 80 miles on his new outboard searching for cobia. With four sets of eyes on his tower, we spotted 10-15 cobia and managed to hook 6 and land 5, the largest approaching sixty pounds. The cobia traveled in singles, pairs, or small street gangs of 4-6. Once spotted, the engine was killed and you had to have your lure in the water immediately and moving incredibly fast. The action was intense and the fish fought extremely hard. When it was all over, we had quite a lot of fish to split between four people. 


One of quite a few feisty puppy drum on an outgoing tide...




Olive gotcha FTW












Ghost.


A fast moving pod...


Cobia double...








Tyler's hogy getting nailed...









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