The Finest Kind » Sportfishing

(Not so) Skinny Water Fishing Report 4.25.2011

Administrator — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 02:50:25 +0000

On another day with my friend from the UK, Mr. Mike we blasted out to some near shore gas wells off of Fort Morgan, AL. We spent the previous day searching in vain for migrating cobia…with no luck at all. Never saw the first one. At least we were not the only ones. Word one the radio was about the same. That day was picture perfect. Very calm, clear water, light offshore breeze so I guess you could call it too perfect. Fishermen always have an excuse, right? Anyway, that was the day before. On this day we ran the 18 miles on very calm water to rigs. I haven’t made that run in my flats boat in over two years but Mike was wanting a big pull that only offshore species can produce. We had success immediately! The red snapper cooperated right off and Mike landed several on strip retrieves and dead drifts on his 12 weight fly rod. He also struggled to control several more that simply would not stop heading for the bottom until breaking off his leader. I t was great fun to be down there again and we basically had it all to ourselves. When we least expected it four cobia did what they do best and swam right up under the boat and refused to eat a fly. One would have tipped the scales at probably 40lbs (US). They popped back up one more time for a few seconds and then disappeared again.

Time flew by and after lunch we headed back stopping by one last time at a single gas pipe and caught a little cobia, 10lbs on the Boga-Grip. Mike’s first cobia, although awfully small. We were happy to catch him…and let him go! Chalk up another beautiful day on our Gulf of Mexico. We are so lucky to live here!

Mike catching Red Snapper on his fly rod

Skinny Water Fishing Report 4.21.11

Administrator — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 04:28:51 +0000

Our old friend Mike from the U.K. paid us a visit last week for a bit of fly fishing. He hasn’t been here since 2004 and it was great to see and fish with him again. We started out a week of fly fishing last Monday the 11th. Capt. Clif was kind enough to let us try out his his new East Cape Skiff for some super skinny water fishing. We got into some nice redfish right away and proceeded to break off the first to reds we hooked. Now normally a guide would suspect knot failure if tied by the angler but that was not the case this time…and I’ll take the blame. I let Mike fish with his own leader which was already on his rod. The problem was just days before he came to fish with us he was in Mexico bone fishing with…you guessed it the same rod and leader. Yep, the prudent guide would have insisted on a new leader, but no.. lazy me said “it looks good to me Mike”. Well we managed to catch the next one (no surprise) with a new leader. We saw many more reds that day but between refusals to eat the fly, botched casts or bad boat position (my fault) we managed to end the day with only the one red to the boat.

Check back tomorrow for more on our week of fishing, story telling and Malbec drinking. Plus Mike’s take on the drink called Crown and Seven!

Sight Fishing Big Lagoon, Nov 1 2010

Administrator — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 03:23:18 +0000

The day after Halloween started out beautiful and got better as the morning went on. It started out with a short drive to drop Jr. off at school then a cup of coffee with a friend. On the way back to the house to do some Monday morning work I got a text from Capt. Clif. “Runnin down the beach on the outside…meet me on the North shore of Johnson’s beach in 20 min…” Well I didn’t think about it to long and headed his way. We met up and took off on his new “Lostmen, East Cape Skiff“. We started out fishing in Big Lagoon, a estuary of Pensacola Bay, Fl. It didn’t take long before we spotted a couple of nice speckled trout following a small school of bait. I got a cast on one of them but didn’t get a take. Trout in skinny water are, 1 tough to see and 2 VERY skittish. A few hundred feet more and I blew a shot at a redfish, pulling the jig right out of his mouth.

After working that shoreline for about an hour we saw and had shots at, at least 8 more redfish. After an hour or so we scooted across the lagoon to the other side and spotted a couple more redfish but not near as many on the other shore. Well before you new it it was 1pm and it was time for me to run. Capt Clif dropped me off back on the beach and we parted ways.

A text a little later from Clif read, ” Fished a little longer after dropping you off….saw a pompano in super skinny water as well as several more reds.” All in all a pretty good morning!

Drop us an email to book a trip…. rick@southern-waters.com

Small Alabama Redfish

Notes from the South Pacific #1

Administrator — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 13:03:26 +0000

"Fish On" aboard the Dreamin On

Here is the first of our reports from our Southern Waters Ambassador, Capt. Randy Hodgekiss and the “Dreamin On” crew.

Well, the New Year’s here and we’ve received news that the Dreamin On will arrive in Papeete on the 17th or 18th of January. She is riding aboard the ship “Super Servant 3″ which was delayed for 10 days in Panama for unscheduled maintenance. Our crew has got our flights set so that we arrive before her. When the Dreamin On arrives in Tahiti we’ll go through the process of clearing customs and immigration. The next step is a through washing. Its been 5 weeks since she has had a bath or seen any wax. After a day or two we’ll get her refueled and be off on our journey. We’re all anxious to see Tahiti. After growing up watching movies of the Kon Tiki (That shows my age!) this trip will complete a desire of mine to see the South Pacific since I was a young bilge rat. Stay tuned for more reports.

Capt. Randy

Southern Waters and the “Dreamin On” World Tour

Administrator — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:25:40 +0000

Southern Waters is super excited to welcome Capt. Randy Hodgekiss and the crew of the 78′ Garlington sportfisherman, “Dreamin On” to our pro staff. Capt. Randy and crew will be traveling the South Pacific with the owners of the “Dreamin On” for all of 2010 on a trip that others can only “dream of”. The “Dreamin On” is currently riding piggy back on a ship to be dropped off in Tahiti right around January 25th. From there they will be island hopping the Coral Sea searching out the best offshore fishing in the world. This is a trip that rivals the one made by Zane Grey back in the 1920’s. Truly an unbelievable trip!

Capt Randy Hodgekiss

Check back with us often as we will be following the progress of the “Dreamin On” as they make their voyage across the South Pacific. Capt. Randy and crew will be ambassadors for the Southern Waters brand by helping to field test our products and represent the Southern Waters Ocean Lifestyle.

The Southern Waters Life.

Administrator — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:46:27 +0000

Thanks for checking in on our blog. Our goal is to focus on the way of life that we live, which is based around the ocean. You’ll be seeing stories from our contributors who are living the life around the globe in and on its “Southern Waters”. Fishing, Surfing and Diving in places like Panama, Tahiti, Australia, the Bahamas, and more. We welcome your stories and informative articles too. Feel free to tell us your “Sea Stories” if we like them we’ll post them, and if your really good we may even make you a regular contributor.

So check back in with us soon and we think you’ll like what you find.

Captain Rick Haag

The "Big 80's" on the Tournament Trail