Fun in Orlando

We strayed from the the norm while visiting Orlando. Instead of trying to endure long lines and blistering balmy heat at all of the theme parks we opted for the less crowded and cooler Banana River. The breeze off of the water was great and is something that you you don't get much of while you are inland, and needless to say we wanted to do a little fishing. We hired a guide, Rocky Van Hoose, of Cocoa Beach, FL, who has fished this area for decades. He has a younger fishing partner Peter, who also came along. This is something that I have always wanted to do and my wonderful wife made it all possible. Flats fishing, Fl style. The guides took us out on their flats boat which Rocky had dubbed "Flat Broke". These boats are really cool. They can enter and navigate very shallow water and are able to stalk schools of hunting fish. The outboard motor is shutdown and raised, and the guide takes to his station on the fish spotting and poling platform. The boat is then propelled by the guide using a push pole through the shallow water. Rocky called it "stealth mode". The Redfish we were after eat Mullet. This is not the same kind of mullet that you often hear Heather refer to! Mullet are a smaller bait fish that the guides caught with a cast net and put in the bait well on the boat. We used chunks of these smaller fish to catch some monster Reds. The Reds are spectacular fish. They do not migrate and spend their entire lives right in the area that we caught them in. They are found all through the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and Eastern Florida. The fish that we caught were all caught out of 3 feet of water or less.

My first Redfish- 30 + lbs.

Heather, of course, had to out fish me with an almost 40 lb fish and it took her just about half an hour to land using light tackle. After avoiding a crazy attack dolphin, Captain Peter broke his net to pieces trying to land it. An epic battle the I am sure Heather will remember for a long time to come. If she doesn't, I sure will. Heather is still, after all these years, a little timid of the larger fish. To watch this crazy battle past this link into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aowJ4yDJEZw
After loosening up a bit

This is my favorite shot. After boarding the boat, Heather pulls out a banana that she has packed away in the cooler. Rocky proceeds to tell us that bananas are perceived as bad luck aboard boats. He did not seem very bothered by it though. He said some charter captains won't even let you bring banana boat sunscreen on board! So here we are in this photo, the first red of the day not a half hour after the dreaded Banana had been eaten, on the Banana River (which isn't really a river, more of a bay), and Peter our other guide, decides to pose us with our catch!
CLASSIC!
To view the fishing report on Captain Rocky's website paste this link into your browser: http://www.nativesonsfishing.com/reports/