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[seanu21]

A few months back my fishing buddy Casey asked me if my wife and I wanted to go to DisneyWorld with him and his girlfriend and her godparents. Um, not really, but then he mentioned 2 days at the park, then for 3 days we drop the family and take off in search of fish. That got my attention. My wife was on board so plans were made, a little research done on places semi close to Orlando that allow overnight fishing, a tentative game plan was drawn up and away we went. ROAD TRIP!

Casey left on Thursday w plans to fish a few places along the way and collect more bait on top of what I already had. A few truck mishaps changed his plans and he got no fishing done. I left on Saturday afternoon and luckily had no truck problems (we took my wife's truck because I'm not sure the Tacoma could handle a 1,200 mile journey just to the resort, let alone to the fishing grounds and then back to TX).
Me


Casey (Note the double whammy. Truck already on a flat bed because of bad fuel pump, then flatbed cuts corner at hotel and got itself stuck delaying fixing by a few more hours...)


Fuel Pump replacement ( Hotel parking lot, Lake Charles, LA)


Luckily, that would be the only mishap on the way there. We did our obligatory 2 days at the Parks, and actually Universal Studios was a blast. Geared myself up for fishing by eating\drinking as much as I could at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville outside of Universal. With Monday and Tuesday behind us, we (Casey, me and my wife) were off to fish Wednesday morning. 130 mile drive from resort to fishing grounds. First spot on the Atlantic:


Water looked great but life was nonexistent so we moved on bouncing around Public Beach Entrances til we found one we liked. Bait in water, bait blowing up in water, snorkeling proved good fish there etc so we set up one Shark rod for the night since it was late when we got there and figured we would see how it goes. Shortly after sundown, a MASSIVE storm from the Tropical Depression\Storm that was moving through got us good. Everything drenched, sun shelter damaged, tarps ripped, stinging rain from the 40+ winds + sand blowing just as hard as the rain. We ended up reeling in the one rod, and ran for the trucks. Lightning was amazing and thunder was deafening. We strapped one of the remaining good tarps between the trucks, put on the ponchos, lit the Bobber Q Pit and opened the Whiskey. Life was good again. After a few hours, the storm finally passed and we called it a night.

Thursday had us up and around and driving to one of the local reefs we read about in our research for some spearfishing action. We paddled the obligatory 100yds offshore (of a public, life-guarded beach to spearfish) and hopped in. HOLY! The water clarity is AMAZING here. 25 ft depth and 100% clear. Shot a couple of bluefish and shot at some other nice fish but the water was so clear we had a hard time getting in range for the guns. Saw a few nice lobster but the season was over so we had to leave them.




With fresh bait in hand, it was off to find a new fishing location for the night since we weren't super thrilled with our first spot. 3rd spot we stopped at had "the look" that we were searching for. Hauled the gear out to the beach and started running a few lines. Bait rods in the water were producing random bait stealers but was rather slow. We also caught a few Snook. That would prove to be it for the night. Shark lines sat quietly. It had rained off and on all day.
27"

25"


My First Snook ever. 26"


Friday morning had us up and pumped. I drove over to the bay to castnet some pony mullet and whatever else I could find since bait like that was not around in the "surf" (just a shore break). We did have plenty of little shad looking bait swimming around that the Snook seemed to like a lot. We decided that morning we really still liked the look of this place and decided to stay and make it camp for our last day\night also. And at 11:30am, our luck finally changed. Rod number 1 goes off. Casey's up first. After a semi decent battle, our first Shark of the trip on the sand. A fat obnoxious Nurse Shark. I've never seen a Shark do so many barrel rolls on the shoreline. I won't lie, it kicked our butts trying to get it out of the water. The wicked slope into the water didn't help matters but it slapped us around like we made fun of its momma. Removing the hook was quite the ordeal. It was like a Special Olympics Wrestling match but we finally prevail.

Casey's first Nurse Shark. Taped at 7'8".







And the release

And I hopped in with it to take some pics. Pretty sweet seeing that big ole thing just cruising.




As the afternoon passed, storms kept circling around us and just missing us. I had my VHF set to the weather station listening to reports because it was supposed to be bad and we also had the phone watching the radar. For whatever reason, the spot we picked had a force field around it and we only got the outer edges of the passing storms. And I mean they were bad. The condos about 2 miles up the beach (in our original nights location) would disappear behind the rain it was so thick down there and yet we only had slight sprinkles just a short ways away. At one point, there was a hurricane warning that had us on the edge of our seats because it was only 5 miles away from our location. We were ready with camp mostly packed and ready to cut lines on the rods and run for the truck but it still only sprinkled where we were. About 7pm, we get our 2nd run, I'm up and handle a little BT to the beach.

Taped at 5'6". Check the clouds in the background...


Then Casey up again at 10:30pm handling Shark 3. A nice 6'6" BT.


Other rods would get hit with short runs throughout the evening and night but nothing would hookup. Luckily weights kept re-sticking themselves so we could leave them out. Figured it was more pesky BT's taking bites out of our baits. Reeling in proved that as they all had multiple bites taken out of them. Then, as it seems for most of my fishing trips as of late, Saturday morning was amazing. Sun out, rain gone, but time to pack it in and head back to the resort for our last night in FL.



All in all, an amazing trip. Had a fun road trip there and back, fun at the park, fun fishing a new area, caught my first Snook, got 3 Sharks on the sand with one being Casey's first Nurse and his new PB Land Based Shark.



So as the sun sets on another adventure in my book of life, here's some final thoughts. As fun as it was, it was not my TX. If you don't appreciate the fact that we get to drive on our beaches, take a trip there and haul your gear from the parking lot to the beach and make camp. It sucks, even with the Yellow Battle Wagon Of Power. I'm sure they have it all figured out since they do it all the time, but I'm used to and really enjoy the fact that I can pull up and be fishing off the rack, with all my gear in the bed of the truck instead of sitting in the sand. So PLEASE, stop leaving all your shi* on the beach and clean up after yourself before we end up fishing like them and PINS, or driving anywhere on the sand in TX, is a thing of the past. I'm glad to be back in TX. The dream of catching big Sharks in FL is hard to resist and I will go do it again at some point, but I would never trade for what we have here. 2,700 mile round-trip if you're curious.

Thanks for reading. See ya on the sand.
Sean

[Bighead]

AWESOME report...thanks for sharing that and nice sharks!

Bighead
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[TexGator]

Where were you in Florida. I am from there and there are many beaches that you cannot drive but in North Florida around St. Augustine and Daytona you can. Hard to fish with all of the people and bikinis all around though. Good report

[Tyler]

Great report but what's up with a fuel pump already in that new of a truck, ethanol maybe?

That looked like a great adventure, thanks!
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[seanu21]

[Tyler]

LOL 92 IS new of you're driving a 1988! Honest though I thought those came out in the early 2000's.
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[Chef Lefty]

EPIC!! Thanks for sharing.
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[BamaRed54]

The avalanche first came out in 2001 as a 2002 model! That looks to be an 02 or 03!!!
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[TomP]

Thanks for the report Sean I haven't been to Florida in 15 years glad to see you made it back safe. I see what you mean about us keeping our beach clean, it's no fun carrying all your gear to fish the surf, I've been there and done that. Cool Pics that water sure looks clear.
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Hook'em and givem Dragggg !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[seanu21]

[Kingz]

Good read...Thoroughly enjoyed it...G

[ladyfish]

very nice report

[Mr.Schertz]

I grew up in Melbourne Florida,looks like you all might have been around the sebastian inlet area? Maybe even as far south as Jupiter? I miss Florida a lot. Now I am here in Schertz and three hours from the beach and rivers. I use to walk across the street to the beach or walk out my front door to the river.

[rabbit]

Nice report and pics. Thanks
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Fishing and Kayaking its a rough life but somebody has to do it.

[seanu21]