While you guys were up North dealing with a Nor-Easter, Cath and I were in Florida dealing with chilly temps froms the High 30's at night to the High 50's in the day...
So much for a SUNNY FLORIDA
But anyways we did get a fishing trip in on the Crytal River with Captain Rick Spratt
http://www.captainrickspratt.com/ Who guides part time when not working with the Dept. of fish and Wildlife
. He started the day of by taking our crew made up of Me, Cath, our son Drew and his wife Dory back to see some Manatee's back up into the gin clear spring fed waters of the river where the water stays a comfy 72 degrees year round
Needless to say the ladies enjoyed the sights of the Manatee hotel and HUNDREDS of Manatee
. Drew said the magic words " Can We Go Fishing Now"
Thats my boy, The Capt obliged with a lets do it! Our Captain worked hard to get us into fish with a falling tide a cold front,and a chilly NE 15 to 20 kt breeze. He tried a few spots before settling on the resident Ladyfish population to boost morals and to keep us busy for awhile, then he had a little honey hole out of the wind for some Mangro Snapper. Once the tide started to come back in it was back out into the bay for speckled Trout. On the way back in Drew wanted to get me hooked up with a Redfish. So a we made a quick stop and second cast of my shrimp I had found the targeted species on the small side but a Red then backed that up with a eatin size Black Drum.
I can't say enough about our guide and his 24ft bay/flats boat very comfortable with lots of open space. although the weather was not normal 70 and sunny it was nice to be catchin
Pic 1 Manatee's Pic 2 Captain Rick shows us how its done Pic 3 Cath with a Mangro Snapper Pic 4 the boat lay out Pic 5 me with a Black drum Pic 6 Our Catch for the Day
