Just a little something to make you jealous...

While everyone up there is asking for ice reports, thought I'd take the time to make you all a little jealous. Left for Florida Monday morning. Drive was terrible with snow all the way to North Carolina. Got down here to Cocoa Beach about 12:30 PM on Tuesday. Made a run to the bait store in the evening. Everyone there was glad to see me, Jake got to tell me about his latest tragedy (he has one about once a week) and Jimmy (he's from Clearfield) got my bait. Neither of them have good math skills as two dozen shrimp ended up being about 50. Watched the party boat Ocean Obsession come in with a decent catch of red snapper and flounder.
 
Wednesday morning I hit the beach at 7 AM. Water was cold (64) but clear with 4-5 foot waves. Nobody else fishing. Whacked 8 nice whiting which fried up nicely for dinner. Several of the regulars wandered past and commented that I had the most fish they've seen combined the whole month of February. Thursday, word had spread as 4 other people were fishing. First rod out immediately got a bluefish (bad sign). Next cast came up better with a 16 inch black drum. Got a couple really nice whiting, then a rod goes off and the fight is on. 19 inch (to the fork) pompano after about a 10 minute fight and 100 yard run down the beach. Ended the day with the drum, the pomp, and 5 nice whiting in the bucket. Also got another blue and had 3 cutoffs (darned blues have a lot of teeth). Surf was clean, still 4-5 foot but a few degrees warmer.
 
Friday I was on the beach again at 7, surf conditions were the same, maybe a little less wave action. First rod out, immediate blue again. Darnit! Don't tell me it's going to be one of those days! Get the second rod out, bang, big hit and the fish starts running. I'm thinking a big bluefish until I see a forked tail pop up out of a wave. Woohoo! Pompano! Ended the day with 4 pompano plus lost a BIG pompano (2 foot plus!) lost in the wash when a dropper broke right at the knot. I found out it's tough to cry and swear at the same time. The fight attracted quite a crowd, 15-20 beachgoers plus two of the 5 other fishermen. I ran it 50 yards north then about 100 yards south when I lost it. Pompano are flat like a crappie but with big shoulders, they are very fast and can really run. Lots of disappointment on the beach when I lost it.


Yes, I drank the beer too!
 
Had broiled pompano for dinner that night. Little butter, pepper and garlic salt, under the broiler for about 3 minutes. They are a very firm fish with sweet meat. Filet Mignon of the sea!

 
Saturday was trash day, the wind was coming out of the southeast and made the surf dirty, which results in trash fish. Got a couple blues, a few small drum, a bunch of small jack crevalles, croakers, and a few small whiting. I ended up keeping a nice whiting and another pompano. A couple times I'd hook a small fish and hand the rod to kids on the beach with their parents. Always fun to see the kids reel 'em in. Lots of smiles and pictures. Had beer battered fish sandwiches for lunch. Pompano, whiting and black drum. Had some left over so I gave it to the people at the pool, that went over well. Looked like seagulls attacking!

 
Today wasn't good. An approaching front had wind straight out of the south at 20-30 MPH. Surf was fairly flat but very dirty and since the wind was blowing straight up the beach a 100-yard cast equaled 200 yards of line. The only way I could fish was to hold the rod. Even so, a very strong south-to-north current ran the rig right up the beach. Couldn't hold bottom with 3 ounces. Got two small jacks and two small whiting, missed two other hits. Decided to give up as fishing conditions were almost impossible. As I was reeling in a small stone crab grabbed onto a bait and got the line wrapped around it's claw. Another guy was fishing down the beach so I took the crab down to him to see if he wanted it for sheepshead bait. I was messing around talking to the guy and the darned crab grabbed onto my middle finger. OUCH! Anyhow, the front came through and now the wind is pretty high but straight out of the west. I may try to fish tomorrow morning but no guarantees as it's going to be awfully cold, maybe down to as low as 45 degrees overnight, with high of 65 tomorrow. May be time to hibernate! Oh, here's what it looks like when I head out to fish in the morning.
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Hope you're all having fun on the ice! And remember, a bad day surf fishing is still a day at the beach!

Go all the way down there and miss all this nice weather !! Looks like way to much fun .

Pomps are the best eating fish, by far!!!!
Congrats!!!

Bob......dude...... you straight up SUCK
 
First you send me pic messages of your catches, then you send me pic messages of them cooked. Not to mention it was like 1 degree here this morning.
 
I showed the pics on my phone to Amelia and Kim, they both asked "Where's ours?" and that was after we had frozen Gortons fish that night.
 
Good to see your fishing, eating, and drinking, is going as planned!
 
You know my address
 
 

What type of setup/gear do you use for the Pomps?  I'm in Florida every year with the family and never manage to hook into any from shore.  I do catch plenty of sharks of various size, and I even know of a section of rock jettie that is filled with black snapper...which I am more then happy to keep my limit of....but I've never been lucky enough to get any pomps....

Just like eyezandgills said. The ABSOLUTE KEY is good bait. As I said in my original post, I just cannot talk these other people into using good bait. I have an insulated bait bucket and aerator. It costs me a pair of D-batteries every 4 days and $7 for 2 dozen live shrimp. The guys at the bait store have poor math skills as they go 1-2-3-KERSPLASH-4-5-6-KERSPLASH... you end up with 35 shrimp or so. I run the aerator 24/7 and have to replace batteries every 3-4 days. Bucket goes inside a cooler with 2 ice packs when I'm not fishing. I change the water when I fish in the morning and again in the evening. I can keep shrimp for 3 days easy. When fishing, I grab a shrimp (normally a challenge as a well-aerated, cold shrimp is a very happy shrimp) and pinch off the head. Then I pinch the tail in half. If you smell the baits on my rod all you smell is salt water. Also, it is almost impossible to peel the shell off the shrimp. The other people who fish down here buy what they call "fresh-dead" frozen shrimp. They come in a heat-sealed baggie. As soon as they thaw out you can smell them, and the shells slide off in your hand while you're trying to get them on the hook. They are also a darker color; my "fresh-dead" shrimp you could read a newspaper through. This is the main reason that I have kept 15 whiting and 7 pompano since Wednesday. The other reasons are the same as freshwater: light weight, light line, and smaller hooks. I don't use Sputnik or Spider rigs because when there is that much current/surf, it's normally muddy anyhow and the fishing sucks. Clean water=edible fish, dirty surf=trash. Sharks, jack crevalle, bluefish, etc. That and bad bait makes for a lot of fun but eating Burger McWendys for dinner.
Guys who are contemplating a trip to the shore needn't worry about so-called "saltwater" tackle. My rods make great muskie rods up north. Actually, the best surf rod I ever had was a 9' steelhead rod (a freaking pelican broke it on the pier last year). I have caught a lot of fish on 7' freshwater rods here too. Right now I am using a maximum of 17# test on one rod just because if it's real rough I might cast a 4 ounce pyramid sinker. I try to use the least amount of weight possible, normally 1 to 2 ounce. I fish double droppers but I tie my own using main line strength for the main rig and drop to 10-12# fluorocarbon droppers off 3-way swivels. Believe it or not, these fish have seen every rig ever tied and they ARE line-shy. I use exclusively circle hooks too. When you are casting 100 plus yards there is just too much stretch in the line to make good hooksets. With circle hooks, when I get a good hit I just pick up the rod and start reeling. Actually, "setting" the hook loses you fish in the surf. Plus, with decent fish (especially pompano), you really don't need to. The main thing you have to worry about is getting to the rod before it disappears into the ocean! This isn't "finesse" fishing, it's more like "gruesome" fishing. I'm not kidding; I lost a rod last year. I was talking to a guy with a metal detector when he says "there goes your rod". I turned around and the sandspike was lying on the ground and the rod was just going into the water. I chased it out about 300 yards, it looked like a jetski bounding across the top of the waves. Last I saw it was 75 yards in front of me and going about 30 MPH. I am guessing it was either a big drum or big pompano. I was worn out when I got back to shore, and minus a rod. If you're interested in pier fishing, here's another tip. My son and I were fishing from a jetty a few years ago. We had out a double-dropper rig in the channel, a double-dropper in close, and a bluefish rig with a dead sardine rigged like a salted minnow with a treble. My son had a hit on the double-dropper in close and I had a hit which I missed on the blue rig at the same time. A guy up the pier yelled at me, I turn around and look and the rod out in the channel is zipping up the channel. I reeled in the blue rig as fast as possible and made a cast out in front of my fast-disappearing rod. Got the line, get the rod up, and ended up with a 23" (to fork) pompano. After that, I started carrying tent/tarp tiedowns. When I'm fishing somewhere like the pier or jetty, I stand the rod up as straight as possible. This does two things; (1) it keeps tourists from stepping on your rods, and (2) it uses the whole rod in working the fish. Then I put a tiedown around it. Last year, on the pier (it's 300 yards away from my apartment; has a bar at the the end that you can sit and drink beer and fish at the same time while looking at bikini-clad young things)
 
I watched a guy's rod take off like a rocket. He had it straight out and the main guide bent over like a beer can and off it went. Couldn't even reel up to cast at it. The tie-down or a bungee cord saves a lot of problems. Many times I've got to my rod when then only thing holding it to the pier is the tiedown right at the reel. If nothing else, it's better to break line than lose a rod. People wander past on the beach all the time, watch the rod tip wave with the waves, and ask how I know if I have a hit. I tell them that I know I have a hit when the rod tip is pointed at Bermuda.
 
Eric, I won't forget you! Actually, you can catch your own fish but since you invoked the names of pretty girls I'll make sure they ( and I guess you, too) get something to eat. I call pompano "filet mignon of the sea" as they have the same consistency as good beef. Very tight meat, no flaking to them but more like beef, and so sweet you'd think I put sugar on them. I've never had any kind of freshwater fish that compares to a pompano. Whiting I think are comparable to perch but sweeter.
 
Sorry, no fishing report for the last two days. This cold front that came through made it too cold to fish yesterday, so I had to golf instead. Sank a 55 foot putt! Today was cold too but I had to pick my daughter and her boyfriend (see what you have to look forward to?) up at the Orlando airport. Too cold to do much but lay around the pool, drink beer and tan. Tomorrow is looking good though so I will have to make a bait run to the port and then eat at Rusty's (think Hooters with really good seafood). Awful tough life I'm leading, isn't it? And to think I have to do this for almost two more weeks. At least the weather is going to improve, upper 70's and clear for the forseeable future.
 
So how is the ice up there?

Well, fished yesterday, surf was decent wave-wise but dirty, again leading to trash. My daughter and her boyfriend are down here and this was his first opportunity to fish in the ocean. He likes it. This morning I hit it right at daybreak, had 3 biteoffs and then got a good-sized blue. To try to beat the dirty surf, we headed to the pier. Still some dirty water, first few fish were bonnethead sharks.
 

 
They are a cousin of the hammerhead. They only get to about 3 feet long. Again, a sign of dirty water. Also got two sub-legal pompano, a few other trash fish, a HUGE bull whiting, and a Spanish Mackeral, unfortunately 1/2 short. Spanish are a blast to catch as they are fast as hell. We get them quite often while jigging off the pier. Pick up the jig, let it start to drop, and the line will be clear under the pier in a split second. Again, good bait saved the day. The pier was crowded with guys throwing junk shrimp and other than a few little jacks and croakers we saw only one edible fish caught (I think that guy had an aerator so he might have been using decent bait).
 
At 11 AM, the bar opened.
 

 
That's my girlfriend and daughter sitting at the bar while my daughter's boyfriend fishes in the background. As usual, the men are trying to provide for their families while the women hang out at bars all day!
 
At noon, the Cubans showed up. "No habla Englaise" apparently is Spanish for "I like to cast across everyone else's lines and I don't know how to reel up slack". Gave up fishing, went to the Sunset Grille for a fried grouper sandwich and several beers. Weather was mid-70's and sunny. No rain for the foreseeable future and 70's to 80's.

Try catching a barracuda...those things are nasty and fight like hell!