Went fishing out of Jupiter Inlet, Florida again the week of July 11th. It was a week of catch-and-release sport fishing, rather than catching fish that we could eat. The problem was, this wasn't our choice. We all like to knab a Shark, Marlin, or Sail now and then, but the real goal is to catch edibles, like Wahoo and Dolphin (Mahi-Mahi). Things just didn't turn out that way.
But, before we start that story, let me mention the Buckner Board. As you'll recall if you've followed my fishing expeditions, the boat in my yard belongs to my SC friend, Buckner. After our last trip, Buckner decided it was time to build a board to fit over the rear fishbox, to be used for cleaning the fish. As it was, we'd been using the top of one of the coolers, which didn't really provide enough room to handle some of the large fish we were catching. After he built the board, my wife Joyce, of FauxByJoyce.com fame, volunteered to paint and seal the board. She created a really nice painting of a Sail and Dolphin, then sealed it with several layers of a fiberglass-like acrylic coating. Thankfully, we managed to catch a single dolphin that needed to be cleaned, thus resulting in using the Buckner Board. Below, photos of the board, before and during use. AS ALWAYS, CLICK ANY FOR A LARGER VIEW!
Then there was this bird in the pool. I walked out my back door one morning recently and saw what I thought was a duckling swimming frantically around our pool. I put on my suit and went in and captured him. Turned out to be some sort of wierd water bird, with huge feet and almost no wings at all. I went out back and looked in the drainage ditch back there to see if I'd see any family - none noted. Walked out front and across the road and looked around the retention pond there. I saw several Herons and other wierd-looking birds, but there were two swimming around in the weeds along the edge that looked alot like adult versions of our captive. I carried him over there and put him in the lake. He initially just hid in the weeds, but I'm assuming the family got reunited eventually.
The amazing thing is how he could get from the pond, across our neighbor's yard, across the street, under our 6' wooden fence, find the door open to the screen around the pool and patio, under the child-proof pool fence, and into the water. I guess them little fellers are resourceful when they wanna be. I also guess this doesn't fit with the fishing chapter, but I just wanted to pass it along for your entertainment. Hope it entertained you!
The Buckner Board
The Board in place on the fish box
Buckner, cleaning fish on the board
Now, on to the trip details. As always, we camped at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Jupiter. For those who might consider camping there, don't believe the website that says there are no sites available. They've been cutting trees since last year's hurricanes, as shown back in Chapter 65, so have simply marked all sites as unavailable on the website until they're done. I phoned and just reserved a site, not worrying about where it was, with the plan of choosing the best site when we got there. Worked fine! As it turns out, they assigned us to site 66, which is a great campsite, but there were many, many available, had we not wanted to keep 66. Bottom Line - if you check the website and see that no campsites are available, phone to make sure. You may run into this same situation.
First day out, Buckner lands a nice Sailfish, and guess who forgot to bring the camera. Also caught several Bonita, really good fighters, but not edible. One time, we were trolling four lines, and got 3 hits at once. The first one got away before he got anywhere near the boat, I landed the second one and threw him in the fishbox, and Buckner got the third, a nice little Dolphin, right up to the boat, then let him slip the hook - the maneuver sometimes referred to as the Palm Beach Release. But that's not the real bad news -- after some examination, we figured out the one I landed was a Cobia, which has a minimum size limitation of 33". Ours was only 24", so back he went into the water. First Cobia I ever caught and Buckner says they're great eating, but rules are rules! So, that night, our supper involved a visit to the local Mexican restaurant.
Second day was the day of the Dolphin! After landing a good number of little Sharks and several Bonita, Buckner brought in our supper. That's the fish you see being cleaned above. Also, among all the inedible sport fish, I managed to bring in a mean-looking Barracuda. Those fish have the most fearsome teeth that I've seen - even worse than a Shark in my opinion - photos below.
Showing off a rather large Bonita that I landed
Closeup - click to see those bad teeth clearly
Bringing in a fearsome Barracuda
One of many Sharks caught and released
Third day was a day of strange calm. It started off really wierd, with the ocean being as smooth as a lake. We've boated out of that inlet at least a dozen times and I've never seen it that smooth. Sort of like one of those calms in the Bermuda Triangle that you see in the movies. I guess, depending upon which definition of the Triangle that you believe, we actually are either in or very close to it when we're off the coast at Jupiter. We started out with the usual search for bait-fish just out of the Inlet, but found none. As calm as it was, you could see a fish jump from quite a distance. We saw a few jump, but caught none, so went on out for a day of trolling and using cut bait. As with the previous two days, we caught many Bonita and Sharks, but nothing edible. So, we get to the Gulf Stream, about 10 or so miles out, much faster than usual. We trolled off and on from 500 feet depth back in to 100 feet, then back out again. Another great day of sport fishing. Fun, but not as productive as we'd like. Ended the day with one of our favorite meals - hot dogs and Chili in the RV.
Next day, Friday, was our checkout day from the campground. Checkout time was 1:00 PM, so we were trying to decide whether to try some fishing or just get up, pack up, and head home. Since we didn't yet have any fish to take home, we decided to try fishing one more day. Because the park was nearly empty, the ranger said it would be okay if we missed checkout time by a little. We had done some research on the best time to catch bait fish and decided we wanted to be on the water by 6:30 AM to be sure we'd get some. On every trip prior to this one, we always had been able to catch a dozen or more of the little bait fish, called Greenies, just outside the Inlet. This trip, we'd tried and hadn't been able to catch a single one. Consequently, when we had dropped out lines, we dropped them with simple cut bait instead of the more attractive live bait.
Up at 5:00 AM, just like the previous three days, but this day we didn't make any stops on the way out except to get gas and ice. Previous days, we'd not gotten on the water until between 7 and 8. This day, we were on the ramp by 6. On the way out, I took several photos of the sunrise (included below), I guess to prove our early start to those who don't believe that I can be up and out that early. We went out the Inlet and tried to catch those elusive Greenies for about 30 minutes with no success. Finally, after a lengthy discussion, we decided to go back in to the bait salesmen and BUY our live bait! This was certainly a first for us! The guy we went to had no Greenies! He said nobody had been able to get any for several days ... at least, we weren't alone in that regard. We ended up buying some larger ones called Grunts or Croakers or something like that, due to the sound they made when you took them out of the water. One dozen for $60! Seemed high to me, even though Buck said they went for $120 in Hawaii. Whatever ... we were determined to have some, so we'd be sure to exhaust all options in our quest for edible fish.
Sunrise photos - Left to Right: At the gas station, at the boat ramp, by the lighthouse, and finally, moving out of Jupiter Inlet
Friday turned out to be our day of unusual events. Maybe these strange events are really because of the Triangle ... hmmm ... but, let me not wander off in that direction. We trolled for awhile, then decided to stop and drop some lines to make use of some of that expensive live bait. Well, those little fish were great bait - they were so active, that I kept thinking I had a bite that turned out to just be the bait swimming around. After a short time, I got a hit on one of the poles that was really taking the line out. I grabbed the pole and watched as the line on the reel got less and less. Buckner was about to start the motor and follow the fish to avoid losing the entire reel, when this fish broke the water about 100 yards or so out. Wow! ... I was jumping around saying Yahoo! Yahoo! or something to that effect. I thought it was a Sail, but Buckner later told me it looked like a Blue Marlin about 300 pounds! Wow! At any rate, I was really excited. That fish jumped completely out of the water and walked on his tail about 3 or 4 times. Every time he jumped, I tried to take some line back, but as soon as he went back in, the line started zinging out again. On about the 6th jump, he was really dancing and twisting, when suddenly, he slipped the hook and the line went slack! Later, Buckner gave me another short how-to-set-the-hook-better lesson. It would have been nice to see the fish closer up, but hey! I got the thrill, fought him for about 5 minutes, then relaxed with a beer and talked about it. If I'd really set the hook, that might have easily been an hour or more of battling, following around with the boat, possibly losing a reel-full of line, and eventually having to release it anyway! No matter how large the fish, I have no intent of ever keeping one of those beauties for mounting. Don't want to kill a fish like that, don't want to spend the money, and I doubt that Joyce would find any room in the house where such a trophy would be appropriate. As it was, it was a great thrill -- and, no, I didn't get a photo ... hahaha.
We had just recovered from the Marlin and put the lines back down, when Wham! Wham! Wham! -- we got three hits, one right after the other! One got off real quick, but Buckner and I each grabbed a pole and started trying to bring up the other two fish. They both turned out to be very large Bonita - possibly the biggest Bonita we'd ever seen. We were both playing with them, hoping they'd just slip off the hook. Buck's finally did, but mine kept pulling and fighting. Several times, I got it right up to the boat and got a real surprise! Buck's Bonita was following mine around, trying to help, I guess. Finally got him close enough for Buckner to put the gaffing hook into his tail and bring him onboard. Buck was holding the fish by the tail and head, while I tried to pull out the hook with a pliers. Seems this was one of those hooks with the weight attached, so we really wanted to get it back instead of just cutting the line. We try not to throw out a $6 hook, unless we have no choice. After I struggled with the pliers for awhile, we decided that I'd grab the fish while Buck tried to remove the hook. As soon as he succeeded, I picked up the fish and tossed it back into the water -- with the gaff still in his tail! We watched helplessly as he dove straight down into the deep water, pulling the gaff behind him. So, we'd saved a $6 hook and lost a $40 (or so) gaff! I was feeling badly about doing such a stupid trick, apologizing, and offering to pay for a new one. HOWEVER, about a minute or two later, I looked about 20 feet out and there floats the gaff! The Bonita had managed to flip around enough for it to come out, and the manufacturers had had enough sense to make the handle of material that floats! How about that?!? We reached out with the other gaff, pulled it in, and sat back for another celebratory beer! Not much worth mentioning after that - tried a variety of different depths, both trolling and just stopping and dropping lines, caught a bunch more Bonita and Shark, and finally called it a day. The final surprise was that I hadn't taken any photos the entire day! .. unusual! We decided that buying that bait had been a great idea - we probably wouldn't have seen the Marlin or those giant Bonita without it. We also decided that a half-dozen would probably have been enough and would've saved us $30 - a lesson for next time.
My Travel Log
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67. A Week of Sport Fishing
