Fishing Report, Rich?

I see that you have returned. How was the fishing? Inquiring minds
want to know...

Harry J aka Thundercat

Thundercat wrote:
I see that you have returned. How was the fishing? Inquiring minds
want to know...


My trip to Florida.

There were 8 of us -- my wife and I; my daughter, son-in-law and two
grandkids, and my son-in-law's parents. We rented a 4 bedroom house in
Davenport, not more than 6 miles from Disney's southernmost entrance. The
house was in a development rife with ponds and small lakes.

The house was wonderful. The time spent playing with the grandkids was
better. Sea World was great. And yours truly -- the original anti-disney
even acquiesced to spend 3 days inside the evil Disney compound.

I had shipped some tackle down in advance to Bill (Doc). Moe had left his
boat with Doc for the duration of his winter experiment with insanity, and
we had Moe's permission to use if we could tow it. At least that's what
Bill told me. I sure hope Moe knew about it.G

Anyway on day 2 or 3 of my stay, Bill dragged his little 12 footer the 90
miles or so north from Arcadia, and we set out to fish Toho. We knew it was
in drawdown, but weren'te prepared to deal with what we found. After an
hour or so of filling his water pump with mud trying to find access to the
section of the lake that was still more-or-less wet, we pulled out and
headed somewhere else. Anywhere else.

Ended up at Lake something or other. It was so good there that I've already
put the name out of my mind. I did get a hook into a fish that felt awfully
heavy, but it came unpinned after a couple secs.

Bill dropped me back off at the house, and headed home. Our next trip would
be to Okeechobee with Moe's boat, several days later. Bill can't tow Moe's
boat, but the Trailblazer I rented would have no problem. It had a hitch
receiver and plug on it, so on Saturday, Jim (Son-in-law) and I got up
early and headed down to Arcadia. Unfortunately, the people who count votes
in Florida must also be in charge of the highway numbering system. The seem
to have decided that it would be a good idea to had 2 completely separate
routes with the same number, and to have them run together for a spell. But
then one of them goes off 30 or 40 miles or so to the east, and just sort
of expires. And before you know it, it's been a while since you saw a "Rte
72" sign, and the orange groves have given way to sod farms, and there's
some kid playin' a banjo on a rickety old front porch, and... Well amyway,
sooner or later, you figure out that you have to turn the hell around and
go find the right road.

You finally arrive at Bill's oh, 2 hours or so later than you had hoped you
would. You survey the hitch and trailer situation, then drive 10 miles or
so to wally world for a hitch and ball, and a plug adapter. And Jim's
fishing license. Opps, they clerk can't figure out how to log in to the
license system, so you still don't have that deal covered when you get back
to bill's and have to extend the wiring on Moe's tailer to reach the
hardmounted plug on the rented vehicle. Before you know it, you're on the
road! Only another hundred miles or so to the bigO.

Stop for a license. Unbelievably, Wally worlds appears to be using an HTML
based form at the Fish Commission through a dial up modem to sell licenses.
It "only" takes about 45 minutes! Then we stop to gas up Moe's boat.

So it's 1pm when we finally pull in to the ramp at Okeechoobee. Where
there's a BFL tourney underway, with about 300 trailers in the lot.

Bill can't get Moe's boat started. We electric out of the marina and across
the Kissimee to a nice little backwater, where we catch.. nada. But we do
put a hurt on the batteries.

Finally, the motor breaths! We set off for another for Bill's favorite
areas. Between the crappie (oops 'spec') fishermen and the tourney boats
moving toward the weigh-in, finding fresh water is a bit of a problem. But
not for too long, because the batteries won't hold us in the wind any more.

We toy with the idea of a ride across the windy lake, but with the way
things have gone so far, we decide that a ride home would be more prudent.
Of course we have to wait a long while at the ramp, as BFL boats are lined
up waiting to come out.

Back at Bill's house only a couple hours later, we toy with the idea of
taking the hitch and ball back to wally world and getting refund. But that
would be way to 'Al' for us, so we instead leave them in the boat -- spares
for Moe.

Another couple hours, and we're back at the house in Davenport.

Next morning, I get up early, grab one rod that has a 5.75" Fin-S,
unweighted, Golden Shiner color naturally, and head out to one of the small
ponds I've been driving past in the development every day. 20 minutes of
fishing produces 6 bass. None over about 2-1/2, but at least the trip isn't
a washout.

Ron Lindner & I have been playing telephone tag all week, and we are having
so much fun doing that, that we decide to keep at it. We never did get our
schedules alinged to where we could fish together this trip. I continues to
fish one pond or another in the development for a half hour each morning,
and caught at least 6 fosh each day. Should probably have never left the
development. All of them came on uhnweighted soft plastics. Fin-S Fish,
Salad Spoons, and even LC's new creature bait, just swimming it gently from
pad to pad in some newly emerging pad beds.

When it bacame painfully obvious how bad the weather up here was sucking,
everyone else in the house voted to stay an axtra week. But I had
commitments at LC, and had to come home. I sure wish I didn't have to,
because yesterday morning was the first morning since Sunday that I didn't
catch bass. Bummer.

A big thanks to Doc, and to Moe, for the help and the use of the boat, even
if we didn't get to go out on it for very long.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

You seem to have more than your share your share of problematic encounters with
license issuance clerks. The last one i recall was the one at Niagara and
muskie fishing.

Ah yes. Officer Chapped Buttcheeks. I remember him well. He was soooo
despondent when the Conservation Officer told him he was dead wrong.

In this case, our problems were related to you favorite place -- Walmart --
not the license issuing authority.

As to me experiencing "more than your share your share(sic) of problematic
encounters with license issuance clerks" bear in mind that for the past 30
years I've gotten licenses in anywhere from 4 to 12 states/provinces
annually. Encountering one complete blithering idiot in the employ of the
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and a couple rather slow clerks at
Walmart (which should come as a surprise to no-one) I can't recall ever
having much trouble.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

Another reason why I like to purchase my license online whenever possible.

"RichZ" wrote in message
...
Ah yes. Officer Chapped Buttcheeks. I remember him well. He was soooo
despondent when the Conservation Officer told him he was dead wrong.

In this case, our problems were related to you favorite place --
Walmart --
not the license issuing authority.

As to me experiencing "more than your share your share(sic) of problematic
encounters with license issuance clerks" bear in mind that for the past 30
years I've gotten licenses in anywhere from 4 to 12 states/provinces
annually. Encountering one complete blithering idiot in the employ of the
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and a couple rather slow clerks at
Walmart (which should come as a surprise to no-one) I can't recall ever
having much trouble.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

"Jerry Barton" wrote in message
...
Another reason why I like to purchase my license online whenever possible.


On-line license isn't bad, but soemtimes you can't get the stamps you need
like shared usage for interstate waters.


"RichZ" wrote in message
...
Ah yes. Officer Chapped Buttcheeks. I remember him well. He was soooo
despondent when the Conservation Officer told him he was dead wrong.

In this case, our problems were related to you favorite place --
Walmart --
not the license issuing authority.

As to me experiencing "more than your share your share(sic) of
problematic
encounters with license issuance clerks" bear in mind that for the past
30
years I've gotten licenses in anywhere from 4 to 12 states/provinces
annually. Encountering one complete blithering idiot in the employ of
the
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and a couple rather slow clerks at
Walmart (which should come as a surprise to no-one) I can't recall ever
having much trouble.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

Never really had a problem getting a license..well that is unless you count
Wisconsin, but after the blood test and rectal exam filling out the require
32 page form in triplicate wasn't that bad. I kept last years license for
the trip out this year. I hate needles..... : )
"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
"Jerry Barton" wrote in message
...
Another reason why I like to purchase my license online whenever
possible.


On-line license isn't bad, but soemtimes you can't get the stamps you need
like shared usage for interstate waters.


"RichZ" wrote in message
...
Ah yes. Officer Chapped Buttcheeks. I remember him well. He was soooo
despondent when the Conservation Officer told him he was dead wrong.

In this case, our problems were related to you favorite place --
Walmart --
not the license issuing authority.

As to me experiencing "more than your share your share(sic) of
problematic
encounters with license issuance clerks" bear in mind that for the
past
30
years I've gotten licenses in anywhere from 4 to 12 states/provinces
annually. Encountering one complete blithering idiot in the employ of
the
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and a couple rather slow clerks
at
Walmart (which should come as a surprise to no-one) I can't recall
ever
having much trouble.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

Richz
(snip)
Encountering one complete blithering idiot in the employ of the
Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

Richz
I know where the clerk got tripped up. With a conservation license there is a
zero catch and possession limit. Catch means to catch and keep and not catch
and immediately release live. He interpreted it to mean you couldn't fish for
muskie with such a license. Having such a license is useless if you tie into a
world record or accidentley kill the fish. Remember you can't let a fish go to
spoil. The CO should have explained that to you and possibly encouraged you to
get a sportsman license for a few dollars more. That license allows you to keep
one muskie which solves the problem. Most muskie fisherman go for the sportsman
license for that very reason. The extra dollars go into fishery operations.
I know a muskie angler that also swears that you can't fish with the
conservation license for muskie.