mosquito lagoon youth

a couple weeks ago i took the covenant pres youth group camping out at mosquito lagoon. we had a blast. caught a ton of fish, played capture the flag on the island and had some sweet mafia games around the camp fire at nigh. cant wait to do it again. one of our trips, oliver and i caught 20 reds and several trout in about an hour.

3rd times a check

today we had our 3rd extreme bass tournament on lake kissimmee. the weather was, well, wet and windy very windy. we fished all day in a constant down pour and 30 mph winds. not the best fishing conditions and not many folks brought back fish to the scale but we managed to cash our first check on the tour. we caught about 12 bass but all save one were to small to keep. however, "the one" was a monster. she weighed 9 lbs even and that was plenty big enough to claim "big bass" honors.

toho prefish

a nice little bass from our prefish yesterday at lake toho. i wouldnt say we found the fish but i think we eliminated some water.

fishin with richie

from last weekend when richie and i went fishing. caught over a 100 fish. kept a limit (50) of speck (my favorite fish to eat). we both had a blast and richie finally got to keep some fish he caught and eat em. yum yum!

a day late

and $1500 short. that was the 1st place pay out. so the tourney went pretty well (we had our limit by 9am) but our best five only weighed 11 pounds and we needed 16 pounds to get into the money. we just couldnt get the "big" bite. however, the next day that wasnt a problem. ryan and i stumbled onto a spawning flat in the lake behind his house. we only had one rod but we managed to land about twelve bass over three pounds and up to six pounds. sure would of been nice the day before. dosnt fern look like shes having a good time?

south chain scout

yesterday vince and i went over to the winter haven south chain of lakes to do a bit of scouting. we dont have a tourney there for another couple of weeks but we want to spend as much time there as possible since the xtreme bass classic will be held there this year. we found several new spots and caught a ton of fish. our best five would have weighed about 25 pounds. not a bad bag o' fish. i caught two 5 pounders and vince caught a 7 pounder. many others in the 3 to 4 pound range. pics posted above.

first xtreme tourney

our first tourney is this sunday on the lake kissimmee chain of lakes out of camp mack. its a lot of water to cover but hopefully we can find the big ones.

bassmaster classic

boyd duckett made classic history yesterday. he is the first angler to win a classic in his own state. while most people were watching the oscars last night, i stayed up and watched the classic final day weigh-in till midnight. what a fishin dork! for those who dont know, the bassmaster classic is the superbowl of fishing. its what every bass fisherman wants to win.

going xtreme

vince and i have decided to step it up a notch in the tournament fishing. next month we are starting to fish the xtreme bass tour. we will fish ten tournaments starting march 11th and going till August 18th. if we fish all ten tourneys that will qualify us for the championship at the end of the year. vince is out right now trying to scrounge up a couple of sponsors. if anyone can do it, its vince and if anyone out there would like to sponsor an "xtreme fisherman" just let me know.

superbowl fish

we had a superbowl party over at the roberts house. thats me frying up some bass and speck. i fried fish for over 3 hours. it was well worth it. speck is my all time favorite fish to eat.

foucault's outhouse

ive started another blog. foucaults outhouse

i cant seem to stop. someone help me!!!!!!!!

tornado camping

so we decided to pick the tornado weekend to go camping. of course if we would have known we wouldnt of gone. i guess if anyone had known there wouldnt be 19 dead floridians because of the tornado. it passed about 20 miles from where we were camping. needless to say we felt some of its effects. we are all very thankful that no one got hurt since we had 5 adults and 6 children ranging from age 9 weeks to 5 years old. friday night we really didnt know what was going on. we just thought it was the cold front moving in a day early and were pissed that the fishing was gonna stink the next day. it wasnt till the next morning when we turned on our cell phone and noticed all the messages we had received from concerned family and friends. kinda puts things in perspective when you realize that while you were getting mad because fishing was gonna be bad and your kids were getting wet in their tents that people were dying a few miles away.

all-in-all we had a pretty good time. fishing wasnt all that bad. we had plenty of trout and reds to eat at night around the campfire. vince had purchased a huge tarp (just incase of rain, hehe) that kept us dry when it was really pouring. the kids seemed to have a fun time and no one was injured or anything. cant wait for the next trip!!! if you wanna see some more pics you can go to vinces blog and check em out.

where and what for

u may already know from past posts but mosquito lagoon in canaveral national seashore is one of my all time favorite places in the world. im going camping tomorrow thru saturday so i thought i would post up a few pics of the lagoon and what we will be fishing for (the king of all fish, the redfish). if you click on the map at the top you can see where we will be camping. jones canal, campsite #6. the other pics are of a school of reds and a redfish tailing (the best sight in the world). hopefully it wont be too cold and the fish will be on the flats.

got a stiffy?

well yesterday i got a "stiffy." might not be what you think. its a brand name for a type of push pole. i can now throw away the pool cleaning pole ive been using for the last 6 years. next week we are going camping over at the lagoon so soon ill be polling around on the flats.

dr. bass

saturday i went fishing with dr. bill roberts. we caught a bunch of bass and speck. we kept a limit of bass and 21 speck. it was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect!

toho

sunday after church, vince and i went over to lake toho for a couple hours. caught about eight bass. not too bad since we had a front move in the night before. jerah will be glad to know that we released all the fish including the ones in the picture.

saw thousand of ringneck ducks rafted out in open water. heard a lot of gun fire from the north east side of the lake. hard to focus on fishing when there r that many ducks flying around but somehow i managed.

taxidermy

my first duck mount. two hoodies that i shot last season. let me know what u think.

fly tying

i always wanted to learn how to tie my own flies. ive been fly fishing since i was in middle school, mostly for bass and bluegill and trout a few times. anyway, for christmas i got a bass pro shop gift card from my brother and sister in law (thanks guys) and decided i would finally learn to tie flies. so i got a fly tying kit a new 5 piece travel fly rod. here r my first attempts at tying flies and my first fish on my own fly. hes not big but im proud of him! from top to bottom; caddis fly, woolly booger, and winged ant (from this angle you can only see one of his wings). the one in the bass' mouth is a pattern i made up myself, which made catching him double fulfilling.

national champs

once again i gotta give props to the florida gators for winning the national football championship. football and basketball all in the same year. first time a school has ever done it. too bad it wasnt miami!

this pic comes from a guy on the florida waterfowler forum. this is how ohio state wished things had ended up last night

redfishing vicariously

i told a friend of mine (jarrett) about camping and fishing over at mosquito lagoon and since he loves camping and saltwater fishing he couldnt wait to get out there. here r a few pics from his first of many to come trips to redfish heaven. glad u got on to the fish jarrett, now its time to get u hooked on duck hunting!