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Wednesday, 19 May 2010 02:00

The Tale of the Big Ugly's part 2

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Day 2  “Un-Announced Breakfast Guest’s”

Day 2 dawned and since we were dealing with a low tide, (low tides up here equal not enough water for a kayak) we decided to have some breakfast before heading out. Our buddy Tom had arrived the following night, so we were just getting ready to grub out when our guest’s showed up. Now we had been warned about them before hand, but these guests almost ended up as part of the meal.


 Un Announced Breakfast Guests

After breakfast we arrived at the launch to find someone has stolen all the water. No worries. Hoping Windfinder.com would be right about the winds dying down later, we shoved off.

Tom and Dave shoving offThe winds were up

Finding some relief from the leeside of an island, Dave took the opportunity to break out the fly rod. His goal of taking a redfish on fly was not achieved this trip, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

Dave FlyfishingDave Flyfishing

Once the tide had come up, we went back to an area we hit the day before and the reds were there.

Heading back outFish on

Redfish hooked upBill with a nice Red

Dave with a beautiful multi-spot redfish.

Dave with a beautiful multi-spot redfish

All three of us had really good luck with 1/4oz Johnson Silver spoons.  Not too much later our ole friends who we had to come to refer to as the “Big Uglies” showed back up.

Tom CoffeeTailer

Another TailAnother Big Ugly

Dave set up on one and waited for the perfect opportunity.

Dave setting up Daves patience pays off

Dave with a nice Black Drum

Another great day came to an end.

Another nice sunset
This area is calm country; they farm them just off shore, so we just had to have some for dinner.

Clam dinner

Read 579 times Last modified on Tuesday, 18 May 2010 18:44
Bill Howard

About the Author: Bill has lived and fished the South shore of Tampa Bay since 1972. An aspiring photographer and writer, he has had several of his pictures published in several local fishing publications and was selected to write for an Australian Kayak Fishing Journal called “Blade”. He is on the Pro Staff  for Fins Braid, Columbia Sports Wear and Slayer Inc.

As a member of the Malibu Kayaks Pro Team, Bill is active in the local and state tournament scene. He has won numerous Catch, Photo and Release tournaments as well as several online tournaments. He has also helped organize demonstration days and seminars covering such topics as safety as well as fishing the flats.

In 2008 he completed a 129 mile, 17 day trip around Tampa Bay. The event called “Paddle Around the Bay” raised nearly $4000 dollars for the American Heart Association. He also volunteered his time and served on the Hillsborough County Sea Grass Task Force. Charged with developing plans to protect the fragile sea grass in Tampa Bay, the committee made recommendations directly to the county commissioners that when put into place will greatly improve the health of the sea grass in the bay.

Bill serves as Vice President of the Tampa Bay chapter of Hero’s on the Water. This group is tasked with taking injured and recovering veterans out fishing in kayaks. Paddle. Fish. Heal is their motto.

My Sponsors

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    Malibu
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    Slayer Inc.
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    Fins Fishing Line

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