Fishing with Mark & Kenny

Steve with a small ladyfish

As usual, we were up early, so we did our language lessons and had morning beverages before going downstairs after Mark, Cindy and the dogs were up and moving around. We had a cold cereal breakfast working toward finishing the Chex and Great Grains boxes that we brought from Kentucky.

Kenny came over before 8 am, and we loaded Mark’s boat with fishing gear to try to catch some snook. We fished hard for over six hours catching and releasing 10 undersized snook, several redfish under the keeping limit, and many ladyfish. We had no keepers.

While retrieving a lure from the mangrove snags in two feet deep mud, I took a spill landing on my rear. Watching me trying to stand up provided great amusement for Mark and Kenny.

Steve in the mud retrieving a snagged lure

By the time we returned to around 2 pm, the temperature was in the upper 80s. We were all pretty hot and had been in the sun enough for the day. We washed salt from fishing gear and scrubbed the boat to remove the mud that I brought on board after my fall.

We planned to meet Jodie and Grant at Marguerita Grill. When we drove up Hall’s River Road, we saw that they were closed on Wednesday. After talking with Grant and Jody, we went to Crumps Landing a little over a mile west of Marguerita Grill. We had never been to Crump’s Landing before, but there was plenty of parking, despite being very busy. We were seated at an outside table by the dock across the water from MacRae’s.

Jodie & Grant at Crump's Landing

Mary had a Cuban sandwich; I had the clam basket with chips.  Several of us had margaritas, and Cindy had a mojito. The meal and service were good. We really like the atmosphere at Marguerita Grill, but Crumps’s Landing is a good alternative.

Before we drove back, we made a side trip to Monkey Island near MacRae’s. Monkey Island is built on a rock outcropping near Homosassa that was a frequent hazard to boaters. In the 1960s a developer had a crew add material to the rocky structure, forming a small island. The developer had a lighthouse and other structures built on the small island and planted trees and other plants. He also obtained a few spider monkeys and squirrel monkeys, placing them on the island. Today the island is inhabited by five spider monkeys living in very nice accommodations providing great amusement to Homosassa’s visitors.

Monkey Island

Back at the house, Grant and Jodie played Phase 10 with Mary, Mark and Cindy. I fell asleep upstairs for a short nap.

I awoke when Grant and Jodie were preparing to leave. Mark and I went out to his garage workshop to disassemble a fishing reel that wasn’t working. After cleaning, greasing and reassembly the reel seemed to work well.

We strained the peanut oil from the fish fry on Tuesday evening. We returned the used oil to the original plastic jugs. Mark keeps the oil in the chest freezer above the garage for the next fish fry.

While we were working on the fishing gear and straining the oil, Cindy came out and told us that the air conditioning in the house wasn’t working. After testing connections and attempting to locate the problem, we heard a snapping sound coming from the connection box on the side of the house. Mark worked with HVAC a good deal in their 40+ years of owning and operating McDonald’s Restaurants, so he knew that the connection box was the source of the problem. We found that the disconnect box was arcing and that made the air conditioning unit stop operating. The box had been immersed in saltwater several time during hurricanes and other tropical storms, so it was not surprising that the box needed replacing. We temporarily wired around the disconnect, and the unit worked well until we could replace the box.

By the time we finished it was getting dark, so we came in and watched the final episode of season 1 of Clarkson’s Farm on Prime TV. We all turned in by 10 pm.

Kayak and boat fishing

We woke at 5 am, did language lessons on Babbel and had our morning beverages until we heard Mark and Cindy moving downstairs. Mark made biscuits while Cindy made sausage gravy; both of which were delicious. Mark and I took Jade and Sage out for a walk in the neighborhood while Mary and Cindy loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up after breakfast. Then they took their own walk. While the wives got ready for church, Mark and I went out in the kayaks to fish.

Kenny with his 30 inch snook

We paddled up Battle Creek to fish around some of the oyster bars in the stream. Mark suggested a hole near an oyster bar that might hold fish. He recommended that I beach the canoe and fish from the oyster bar. By the time I made it to the spot, two teenagers were struggling to get their small aluminum boat through the shallow water. Soon thereafter, an airboat circled through the area and attempted to fish. I waited until everyone left, then casted a gold colored Johnson spoon into the pool catching several ladyfish of all sizes. These ladyfish are not considered palatable, so I turned them loose as soon as I caught them. While they aren’t good to eat, the ladyfish are sometimes called the “poor man’s tarpon “ because of their ability to leap from the water as they attempt to throw the hook. They put up a good fight and are fun to catch. Mark caught a 15-inch sea trout.

Mark and Kenny on the boat

Back at the house we cleaned the kayaks and fishing gear and replaced line on one reel. We cleaned the sea trout that Mark caught and bagged it for a meal later this week.

As we were finishing, Kenny came over with a 30-inch snook that he caught this morning. It is the first day of snook season and only fish between 28 and 32 are legal to keep. We made plans with Kenny to go out in the boat at 3:30, so we had a quick lunch of salad, deli ham and corn chips before we loaded the boat for our evening fishing.

We headed out to try to catch a few redfish from around the mangrove islands in the area. We moved around a lot looking for fish trying the Johnson weedless spoons and plastic paddle-tail jigs. We had a few strikes, and Mark and I caught sea trout that were below the legal limit.  We released them immediately. Kenny caught the only keeper, which was a 21 inch redfish.

Mark retrieving a snagged lure

We fished until the sun was setting around 6:30, then we took the boat back to the dock behind the house. We once again hosed the saltwater from the gear and boat including purging the engine’s water pump. Kenny cleaned his redfish, and we put the equipment away.

We invited Kenny and Jodie to come for fish tacos for dinner in 30 minutes. We cleaned up quickly and came to dinner.

We enjoyed the redfish tacos and the roasted vegetable mix that Jodie brought. We had margaritas that Jodie made and had great conversation over dinner.

After dinner Mark, Cindy, Mary, Kenny and Jodie played cards, while I sent pictures to Kenny and caught up on this journal. We are looking forward to seeing Joann and T tomorrow for a visit then dinner at The Freezer.

Fishing

As usual, we were awake by 5 am. We did a few language lessons on Babbel then went downstairs for breakfast. Mark made egg bites and bagels for breakfast, then he fed and kneaded the sourdough that he started yesterday evening. After breakfast we took the dogs on a short walk on Standish.

We planned to meet Kenny at 8:30, so we came back to the house to prepare for fishing. We loaded life jackets, fishing rods and baits along with sunscreen and water for our morning on the water. Since the morning was damp, we dressed in layers with long pants and long-sleeved T-shirts. The three of us piled into Mark’s boat and went out of the canal into Mason Creek and the surrounding islands.

Redfish

We were casting Johnson  Silver Minnows, weedless spoons, into the oyster beds and near mangrove roots for redfish. The water was very shallow, making maneuvering even the tunnel hull shallow water boat difficult. After fishing for nearly an hour Kenny had caught a ladyfish, an undesirable species which he released, and I had hooked a small sea trout that got off the hook as it was at the boat. After another hour I caught a large 26-inch redfish that put up quite a fight, especially as it neared the boat. It didn’t tire easily and made an exciting time until Mark was able to net the fish. After removing the hook and measuring, we put the fish in the live well, but we were unable to get water to flow into the live well or bait well. We could hear the pump working, but water wasn’t entering the tank. We poured buckets of seawater into the live well until we could figure out the problem.

Sea trout

Mark caught a beautiful sea trout that was just under the 16-inch limit so he released the fish. Kenny caught another ladyfish, then I hooked another large redfish. This fish fought even more than the previous fish, but we were able to net it more quickly. This fish measured 24 inches so was within the legal limit of 18-27 inches. We fished a little longer and caught no more fish. I had a strike that felt like a large redfish, but the fish didn’t stay on the hook. Because Kenny had promised to take his wife, Jodie, to the Homosassa mullet festival this afternoon, we came back to the dock behind Mark’s house by 1:30.

Redfish

Mark and I sprayed the gear with freshwater to clear the saltwater and cleaned the boat. Mark filleted one of the redfish as I assisted, then I filleted the other fish with Mary assisting. Mark looked at the live wells. For some reason that we don’t know, the pumps to the live wells began working as they should. Mary bagged the fish fillets for freezing, and we took our fishing clothes in to be washed.

Lunch was a garden salad with deli turkey and potato chips. The rest of the afternoon we relaxed or napped since we were both very tired. I called Steve Minor to see if he had a good birthday on Wednesday. Mark did the final kneading of his first batch of sourdough bread and put the loaves into large bowls for baking.

Mark and I took the dogs on a quick evening walk then came in for a meal of smoked turkey that we brought from home, a garden salad and plenty of Mark’s sourdough bread. Everything was delicious.

After dinner, Kenny and Jodie stopped by for a short visit. Jodie will go to church with Mary and Cindy tomorrow. We plan to fish with Kenny tomorrow afternoon, although Mark and I may go out fishing tomorrow morning.  I renewed my Florida saltwater fishing license for another year since we were hoping to come to Florida earlier next year.

After Kenny and Jodie left, we watched an episode of Clarkson’s Farm on Prime TV then an episode of Astrid on PBS. This season Astrid seems to have left the original format and become a bit far-fetched. We hope that the show hasn’t “jumped the shark”.