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ISLAND EXPLORING
By, Rod-Bender, 11/24/08

Im off all week so I decided to fish I wanted to go somewhere i'd never been so I headed to Shired Island. Got there around 11:00. It was pretty chilly but a nice calm morning so I explored around the bars off the islands and picked up some trout and short reds. Moved into some creeks a little later and started catching some bigger Reds. >>Forum Thread & More Photos

GROUPER AND CLAWS
By, Danjae, 11/20/08

Launched at dawn to 37 degree air temp and water temp of 52 at the ramp. Wind was light so that is something to be thankful for. With the air and water so cold I knew it was going to be tough to catch pins in the morning so we just decided to troll.

Ran out and checked our crab traps and took a easy 2 gallon limit. Pulling the traps was very cold on the hands and to make matters worse I was not paying attention and a crab got a good grip on my thumb......man those crabs can bite hard.

Headed out a bit further to 12 feet of water for the outgoing tide and started to troll. We didn't go 100 yards and I had the first keeper of the day. Figured we were in for a hot bite but that was not the case as it took almost a hour to get the next fish which turned out to be the big fish of the day at 31 inches also caught by me. My fishing partner had a hook up of a sub legal 20 inch fish and as the fish was brought in with the engine in neutral I twitched the rapala I was trolling and as happens quite often it got hammered by a nice 27 inch fish and I was now up 3-0. Then fortunes sadly reversed and my partner stomped me by catching the next 11 fish in a freaking row......5 of which were legal and the rest shorts. I was a bit miffed but the fishing gods decided to quit screwing with me and I took the last two legal fish to finish our limit. The fish were 31,27,25,25,25,25,25,26,24,23. We headed in and were off the water by 2:30. We moved around a bit but trolled in water between 14 and 9 feet deep. Only 9 of the 10 fish are pictured as we had one for dinner. >>Forum Thread & More Photos

JACK RUN
By, xmuskyguide, 11/13/08

Mike and I fished the "Coochie" Jack run twice this week. Fishing was excellent both days with several double headers. We mostly caught them on spoons and soft jerk baits but also a couple on shrimp. We caught some monsters today but no pics due to getting too caught up in the action. Probably more fun than two old guys deserve. We had some broken hooks and reels almost spooled. Looked like a fair number of people launched out of Ed's today. >>Forum Thread & More Photos

CEDAR KEY
By, Red Bonz, 11/6/08

Well for those who got to hit offshore, the Weather was perfect. Cool morning and almost no wind all day. Seas were like 1' all day. Perfect Hit our first hole and the bite was steady with some nice Gags and a lot of short Red Grouper. While at this Rock pile we decide to hit the water for a dive as this is one of our favorite dive spots. Water was quite cool but the vis was great. Here is a few of the Hog fish we pop'd.

Ran out to our Red Grouper hot spot and the fish were willing to play, with everyone getting in on the action. All the legal size you would want to catch of these endangered spieces. Really only made Two stops and at the first one the Red Grouper would beat all the other fishies to the bait. Just a beautiful day on the big pond with some good buddies. >>Forum Thread & More Photos