Boogers:

Another summer day on Pine Island:

We tossed the net this morning, got some Pinfish, went to Jensen's Marina and got some small summer Shrimp,
rigged up the soft plastics, and the top water baits, got out all the spoons, and ECT.

ONE STRNKING TROUT.......

Well that’s fishin.....

We watched the birds, followed the baits, casted till our arm's were sore, and got nadda !!!!

My mate was a little in the dumps, she caught a lot of fish, but no keepers. I had to remind her why we are out here,
a day on the water is worth it. Just to get out there and enjoy.

The baits are everywhere, wads of small Pinfish, and white bait sound like rain when we drift through them.
The Trout are hitting them at will, but bringing them to the hook is another matter.

We will be out there again tomorrow, that is what we do, fishing is about fishing, the hook up is what it is all about.
That BIG ONE is out there, waiting for the right lure or bait, you have to be there.

It's simple, if you want to catch a lot of fish, go fishing a LOT !!!!!



Catch em and Eat em
LULU
Pine Island Fla.

 

 

 

 

BOOGERS:

Monday, June 21, High Tide 6:32 AM, Sunrise 6:37 AM, Moonset 10:53 AM

The first day of summer, the waning moon, the rains we are getting, two tides a day and something has happened that we have been waiting for since last year. High tides and flat water early in the morning, Southeast winds 5-10, slick calm between the quick thunderstorms that cool you off, the smell of the Everglades, the clear water, and the birds, all mean fish.

The birds are the ticket to the show... This time of year down here, the baits wad up everywhere, and the birds are working them.

It was flat calm, when we got out here about sunrise, I can see across Pine Island Sound, about 6 miles to Redfish Pass. Not a ripple between the pass and the flat we are fishing.

We are drifting through schools of bait, one after another, Marley is fishing with live shrimp and I am throwing soft plastics, alternating with top water baits. Fish are everywhere, they are mostly Trout, but every once and a while, one of us will yell!!
"What the Hell was that"?

Watching three or four fish following a lure is a thrill, snatching the bait away from the small ones is our job today. We must have been doing something right, a Blacktip Shark followed our drift for an hour, I had a shark rig and some live Pinfish, but we were having so much fun with the Jacks, Trout, Huge Sailcats, and all the other bi-catch, working a Shark would take too much time, and I swore off Shark fishin when I learned to Windsurf!!!

"CATCH AND RELEASE, IN HOT GREASE!!!

Its part of our fishing day to cook em up when we get back, make a big salad and fry the catch.

We eat and talk about the big one that got away. The topic of conversation this evening was
'LETS DONT FORGET THE NET.... TOMORROW!!!

Get out there and fish, Time on the water, is time added to your life!!!

Catch em and Eat em

LULU

 

 

Pine Island Florida...Thursday 12 June....

We had guests on the dock, Glen and Jimmy Sue were returning from the Bahamas and spent four days
tied up to the Desiree. Lots of good, up to date information, on the Bahamas.

Glen turned me on to his Explorer Charts, saved me a lot of money at 75 bucks apiece, I have never used
Explorer and they are great.

The Reverend Ain'tRight, took us on one of his famous eco. tours.

From Pine Island we ran the back country up to North Captiva, along the way we spotted several pods of
Manatee, one group had a large female with a tracking device attached to her tail. Ain'tRight saw them first
and said "I have never seen a crab buoy swimming". We got up close and discovered the buoy had an antenna attached. During the migration season we are in now, the scientists keep track of them.

From North Captiva Pass we ran outside, down the gulf beaches. It was one of those perfect days, the water was like glass. The Snook were stacked up all the way down the beach. They were working huge clouds of baits in about two foot of water.

Snook season is over for a while, but they were there for the taking. Several guide boats were moving down
current with us, and those tourists got their moneys worth today, one after another up to 30 inch fish were boated.

The trees fallen by Hurricane Charley along the beach were holding gangs of big Mangrove Snapper, and we put the girls on some of them too.

We stopped for a while so the Guests could shell, and I hooked all the Spanish Mackrel I could want at Redfish Pass.

We enjoyed seeing the little island Ain'tRight's family lived on in the sixties, and watched the Redfish under the Mangroves. It was a great day in SW Florida, one of those magic times.

Tomorrow I will be gearing up, throwing the bait net and headed back to the beach. Sight casting Snook has got to be one of my favorite things to do. If I get tired of that, the Tarpon are rolling just off shore in about 12 FT of water.

It don't get no better than Pine Island in June...............


Till next time
Catch em and eat em

LULU

 

 

May 31,2008

Boogers:

The Trout are back on the flats here in Pine Island Sound.
It took a little while to figure out just what they would hit.
Our usual live Shrimp and soft plastics weren’t working, I had just been
to a yard sale at a retired pro Bass fisherman’s house and bought boxes of
mostly new lures for a buck each, among them a lot of top waters.
I rigged up a couple of colors and started working them, ten minutes and three 20 inch Trout later, Marley abandon her live (small summer) Shrimp and joined me in boating three more in the twenty inch range.
The water here is still very clear due to little rain, and what a thrill watching those gators
slam the baits, most with one or two following them up. I've always caught quality fish on top water baits and today was proving it once again.
Due to gas prices we are seeing more kayak fishermen out there, some with trolling
motors, I can't think of a better way to work a shore line. The coolest ones have a detachable foot controlled motor, and working a fish is simple. Most folks paddle until they get one on then use the 12v power.
We don't have much of a fuel bill with our 9.9 or 15, but I can understand the guys with 200 hp flats boats using kayaks on the quiet days.
The Tarpon are still here, and so are the Sharks, so you can still get that huge pull at anytime while fishing for Trout and Redfish.
The afternoon, falling (hill tides) are carrying small crabs in the current headed out the pass and the Tarpon are all over them.
These quiet days also make for great wading on the flats and when the temp hits 90, anchoring and sneaking up on those tailing Reds can cool you down.
Today one of my scouts is taking some folks up the river, past downtown Ft Myers, none of us has been up there for a while and it will be good to get a report from him this evening
Today I’m working on my Sailboat, doing this and that to get ready for our Carib. trip this fall, but Marley and I will be back on the water Monday-Thursday


Till next time

Catch em and Eat em

LULU

 

05-16-08
Boogers:

A thousand years before the first blocks were being quarried for the great pyramids in Egypt the first Pine Islanders were thriving. Artifacts, shell mounds, and human bones, on Pine Island date back 5,500 years.

The culture developed here for the same reason I am here, no winter weather,
and the wildlife, and sea life, that can't be found anywhere else in the U.S.

The CALUSA Indians, had a complex and social society ranging form Tampa to the Everglades. They are believed to be related to the MAYAN culture that
developed in Mexico and Central America, due to similar artifacts found in both areas.

I live in the last part of developed areas on the West coast of Florida,
Just 25 miles south of here, the great Sea Of Grass, known as the Everglades
located on the Southern tip of the state. I am surrounded by Mangrove islands, sisters to the Ten Thousand Islands, just south of here.

While I fish, hunt and explore our coast, it isn't hard to imagine the Calusa being here so long ago. They had to co-exist with the same Snakes,
gators, mosquitoes and No-See-Ums that I do.

The Calusa built shell mounds to a height of 60 to 80 feet, to serve as high and dry home sites, and Conch shell pyramids used in religious ceremonies, there are at least 50 ruins of them just on Pine Island.

Every time I throw a cast net or hook and line, I think of my long lost brothers
doing the same, trying to bring something home for supper, and telling stories
of the big one that got away.

It's May in Southwest Florida, and that means TARPON, the oversize Herring known as the SILVER KING, can be caught almost anywhere in our local waters. They will attack almost anything, in the early morning you can find them rolling on the surface and sight cast to them. At night they lie in the deep water passes to the gulf. Small crabs, cut Ladyfish, live Pinfish under a bobber, large shrimp, jigs, Thread Herring on a free line and Pilchards weighted on the bottom.

World famous Boca Grande Pass, is just 10 miles north of here, and on any given day for the next month there are at least 100 boats jockeying for position each with a fish on. In those close quarters heavy tackle is a must to keep some kind of control of the 100 plus pounders.

If you are unsure of the rules of etiquette at Boca Grande this time of year,
Go with a veteran Tarpon hunter or guide and see how it works. You don't want
to be the Monkey that messes everyone up. Any way, any where you get one
this time of year, can be the thrill of a lifetime.

Snook season has ended, with the new slot 28-32 inches and one per day
it was tough to bring anything home. We caught a few and sighted a lot of them
this year but the catch was slow all over. Undersize or oversize, they are still
one of the great pulls in the water. We will see the next few years what the new
rules and regs does for the stock. I'm sure the Florida Saltwater Commission
knows what they are doing. (RIGHT!!!!)

Sharks are everywhere this time of year, and can show up anytime. I'ts common to pull up half a Trout, or to have a 3 footer take a jerk bait.

While drifting for Trout, rig a medium size rod with one of the big Pinfish
that took your Trout bait and drift it behind the boat. On a slow day it can give
you a pull while you’re looking for that big “Yellowmouth”.

The neighbors caught a 7 foot Hammerhead yesterday and got some good pictures of it in the water. No, they didn't boat him, my neighbor likes his 17 foot boat.

Speaking of Trout, the bite has been a little off due to the east winds the last week or two. Some of the Panhandle Boogers were down for a while, we caught some nice fish, but not our usual limit in 3 hours and 50 fish caught. This wind will lay down soon though and things will be back to normal.

Redfish are always here, but you have to target them. Work the overhanging Mangroves with Shrimp, cut Ladyfish, DOA's, Pinfish. Practice your sidearm casting and lay your bait as far up in the shade as you can. Using a popping cork can give you a little more control getting it in there and it will keep the bait out of the roots. Once "Ole Spot" takes it, get him out of there as quick as you can, then fillet and release in hot oil.
Stone Crab season ends today, boats with thousands of traps are chugging up
my canal, to clean and repair them. A lot of Crabbers will truck their traps to the Keys to prepare for the up coming Commercial Cryfish season. “A trap sittin on the hill all summer don't make no money”.
The Panhandle Boogers will be showin up in a couple of weeks, so I better get
out there and do some scoutin.
June brings some hot and still days, so I'm riggin up my biggest straw hat
and my top water lures.


Till Next Time
Catch Em and Eat Em
LuLu

 

 

 

April, 5 Pine Island Fla.

When Boogers asked me to do a page on the web site, I was happy to do it. I have been a songwriter and musician for 45 years and I am now working on a book about my life in the music business. Doing this page will also help me keep my writing chops up.
I'm a veteran live aboard cruiser, there are still some of us who own little but our boats, and will take off at the drop of a line just to visit some island somewhere.
I have worked a lot of private fishing yachts as captain or mate over the years. I'll try to throw in some stories of fishing with some of the world class fishermen and fisherwomen I have been on the water with. We have rented a small place on Pine Island Fla. for a year to prepare and gather money for our next trip to the carib. We live on a canal and my old sailng yawl “DESIREE” is
tied to the dock about ten feet from my back porch, she is ready to go again but there are always things to do to get her cruise ready.
I have a 14ft skiff and I fish at least 4 days a week. I am on the water just about every day due to the fact that everywhere I need to go can be reached by water. Groceries, hardware, and local pubs are just a boat ride away. We often carry our music equipment by boat from island to island to play shows up and down the coast.
It's Saturday and I'll be waiting till Monday to fish, The snowbirds have almost gone but the water traffic is still heavy on the weekends.
My buddy local CRACKER fisherman, " AIN'T RIGHT" just dropped off six crab traps he found in someone’s trash. Repairing them will take a couple of days, but then
we will be enjoying some fine Blue and Stone Crabs.
I hope you enjoy my page and I will continue to report all summer and into the fall as we make our way down the Keys and to the Bahamas.

Catch em, and eat em.
LULU

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Pine Island Sound, Florida April 2, 2008

Boogers:

Pine Island, April 2, SE wind 10kts, high Tide 12:57 pm, Waning Moon 17% full.
March is finally over and the wind has laid down. April is the finest fishing around here, the grass is coming alive the flats are warming up and the bait fish are showing up. The Snook and Tarpon bite is already getting better and the next two months will be the best of the year. Due to severe drought conditions the water is still very clear. It hasn't rained 10 hours in 10 months we are over 20 inches below normal rain fall.
Marley and I have limited out on Trout 3 out of the last 5 times we have been out.
With the baits showing up, we will start doing more Red and Snook fishin. Somebody stole my Pinfish trap, so I'm back to the cast net. The Snook are at the rock jetties at the pass and are hitting white
bucktail jigs 1 1/2 ounce. Most are under size but a few big ones are being taken there.
My Buddy “AIN’T RIGHT”, has been seeing Tripletail holding just behind crab pot buoys waiting for the small crabs they pick off the buoy line. Low tides in the morning, and the mirror surface of the water are revealing tailing Reds on the shallow flats. We eat fish at least three times a week, so keeping the freezer stocked is an on going process, we are headed back out this morning, to find baits and hit the Mangroves for Reds and Snook but this time of the year the Mangrove Snapper are good size too. With the 10 inch size limit it takes a few for supper, but they are fine eating.
Look for Updates more often now that the season is here.

Louis&Marley
Pine Island Fl.

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