I Hate Wind!!!!! 2

Timing is everything, if it weren't for bad luck.  The phrases that keep going through my head all start with something along these lines. I thought I would take a trip down to Florida and go after some of the variety of fish that are in these gulf waters.  Last week the forecast was looking good and I was thinking that this trip was going to be the kick-off to a great summer of fishing. The only problem with the 10-15 mph winds was that they were actually closer to 25-30 mph.  That combined with the threat of thunder showers made it very difficult to get out on our 21ft Sailfish center console. 

 Instead of fishing on Monday we ate at our favorite Greek Restaurant in Tarpon Springs.

Sponge Fisherman unloading at the Sponge Docks in Tarpon.

I came down to Fl on Sunday after a great 4th eating crab and smoked salmon at Nelly's. The plan was to catch some bait off the dock Sunday night and then head off shore to our favorite reef for some grouper action. After checking the forecast Sunday night it started to look a little iffy.  When we got up  on Monday morning it was a definite no go.  We couldn't even get out to fish the flats. No bother, I still had 4 days left and I had some business to take care of anyway.  The boys and their grandpa could catch more bait. On Tuesday, we were able to at least get out and fish the flats.  The outside of the island where the snook and redfish were was a little to rough to fish so we decided to anchor up in 8ft of water and chum up some sharks. Most of the day was filled up with with smaller sharks that gave us plenty of action.  A few of them even jumped in the air and put on a show.  The prize if the day was my son Mason battling a 6 ft hammerhead for 70 minutes.  The shark busted three baits behind the boat before finally hooking up on a bait pitched by my brother Jon. It really gets your adrenaline going when you see an aggressive shark in a frenzy right off the back of your boat.

Mason's Fish.

My Fish, I did catch more however.

Wednesday was met with even stronger winds and Thursday was calm BUT when I got up at 6 to get the boat ready I could hear the thunder rolling.  After checking the local radar we had to call off the day on the water. Talk about frustrating, although it has been nice to see the family, we came down for some serious fishing and we haven't been able to get it done.  A quick phone call to Nelly and the knowledge that Capt. John was going to co-host the show this week anyway will hopefully fix all of this.  The next few days of weather look really promising and I booked a trip on a long range boat out of Tarpon Springs called the Two Georges.  Hopefully a trip to the middle grounds will send me home with a cooler full of fish.