Fishing Stories from
the Captain
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A Strange Day on the Water
It started out pretty normal. Managed to have a day to myself and
decided to do some Red Fishing along the Spoil Banks in Crystal River.
While there and waiting for the Reds to start biting, a Homing Pigeon
lands in my boat, which was quite a surprise as there were many other
boats close by.
Going from place to place doing around 30 mph, he is staying with me,
resting on the bottom of the boat behind a fish cooler.
Meanwhile, I decide to change and do some “Inshore” Grouper Fishing in
the Intake Channel. At about ¼ tide, the shrimp grass from the night
before starts coming in with the tide. Looking across the channel I
see a large carcass around 12’ long floating in with the grass. Trying
to make out what it is and still fishing only about 50 feet or so
away, suddenly a very large shark, jaws open, (no kidding, looked like
a scene straight out of “Jaws”) comes out of the water and grabs the
carcass in the middle and sinks it. Within a minute it is back up and
floating towards the boat. Now I still haven’t figured out just what
it is that this huge shark was wanting so bad, but the shark is still
circling under it and it is now a lot closer to the boat. (Remember
the Homing Pigeon? He’s still in the boat with me resting)
About that time I get a hit on a Grouper, the shark then decides he
would rather have a fresher meal and comes right after my Grouper. I
grabbed the line and hand pulled the Grouper into the boat at a fast
rate of speed, not wanting it to swim into the rocks and also not
wanting it to become “Shark Bait”! Needless to say the Shark was not
happy about it, but went back to the carcass.
Still not recognizing what exactly it was that the shark was after I
decided to pull anchor and follow to see if I could get close enough
to get a good look at it. Much to my surprise it turned out to be
about a 12’ Alligator floating belly up. Apparently he had somehow
been killed and floated out to sea only to float back in again into
the path of the shark.
Now it’s the end of the day and time to go back in. Upon reaching the
Marina and the boat slip, the wife is there waiting on me. Of course I
had to start telling her about my strange day on the water, no matter
how strange it might have all sounded (and naturally had NO camera
with me, which I heard about!) But Aha! At least I still had a little
proof of what all had happened that day. There still resting on the
bottom of the boat (and in the same place) was the Homing Pigeon! He
had stayed with me all day. I reached down and gently picked him up,
held him up in the air and he then proceeded to fly away.
Captian Jake Herrin
www.captainjakeherrin.com
Cane Pole Fishing for Grouper
The idea had come to me out of the blue, like most odd things I come
up with. So, going out fishing by myself one day, I decided to give it
a try. I had purchased a cane pole from one of the Bait Shops here in
town, wasn’t a Calcutta like I wanted but thought I’d still give it a
try.
Wrapping 100lb test line from the middle of the pole up to the top
(trying for extra protection of the pole), I set out to the Intake
Canal in Crystal River, which is where I do most of my inshore Grouper
fishing. Got all set up after catching some nice pinfish to use for
bait. Now, I also had a grouper rod & reel set out too, wanted to make
sure I covered all bases. J Well to keep a long story short (as I have
the main story yet to tell) I came in with two nice keepers; one was
25” the other 23” and had a few more that were “almost” keepers. Funny
thing was, never got a bite on the other rig. Needless to say, had a
hard time convincing others that I had really caught them on the cane
pole.
Now, it’s a few weeks later and my oldest son Joel, had come over for
a day of fishing. He wanted to go for some grouper so off we went to
the same area. Again, we had caught some nice baitfish, so we baited
up with regular grouper rigs and went to fishing. Bam! First off Joel
gets a 23” keeper and a few more shorts. Well it slows down to nothing
for about 30 minutes then I decide it’s time to take out the ole cane
pole again. A grin comes over my son’s face like “yeah, right!”
(another skeptic)
Baiting up I dropped it over the side of the boat with the bait just
touching bottom and “boom!” down it goes. Well it was only 21” so had
to throw it back. Joel made the comment that if I caught another one
he wanted to give it a try. Grab another bait, put back down and
another one hits! Gotta hang on to this one, it’s a big one and trying
to head for the rocks. Managed to get it out but I hear the pole
starting to crack! Grabbing the line I start hand lining it up from
the bottom. Joel, meanwhile has gone for the gaff. As the grouper gets
close enough to the top, he’s gaffed and put in the boat to be
measured. Twenty seven inches! But, alas, the cane pole had caught
it’s last fish. (but in front of a witness this time!)
Now we are both sitting there wishing we had an extra pole to fish
with. Two drops, two hits. (It just don’t get no better then that!)
It’s off shopping for a new one now. Maybe I can find one of those
good ole Calcutta ones.
Captain Jake Herrin
www.captainjakeherrin.com
The
Day of the 67 Pound Cobia
Had a party of 3 guys this day, leaving out from Crystal River Water
Sports in Crystal River. Decided to start out fishing for Speckled
Trout. Well by around 11 a.m. or so, between the 4 of us, we had our
limit. Asking what they wanted to do next, I mentioned we could try
for some Spanish Mackerel in Crystal Bay, everyone agreeing, off we
went.
We caught up several nice pinfish to use for bait. Adding corks to our
lines, we started catching some nice sized Mackerel but in the process
we were getting some really big hits and loosing some big fish of some
kind. Thinking they were probably some nice sized sharks, I decided to
put some stronger leader on the lines. No luck, still were breaking
off. So after a few more times of that, decided we needed a really big
rig set up right! Pulled out one of the grouper rods with 100 lb test
plus some steel leader. That’ll show ‘em!
Rick
(one of the clients) puts a large pinfish on and throws his rig out
only about 20 or 30ft or so from the boat and we all wait and watch,
still thinking that the misses we were having we probably sharks. A
few minutes later he says he thought he saw a Cobia swim by and about
that time, down goes his cork, quiet as you please. Seconds later this
very large Cobia swims up to the top (not knowing that he was ‘hooked’
yet).
Of course everyone is getting excited about that time. Rick reels up
some and sets the hook, the Cobia then realizes that he is indeed
hooked and starts taking off. So with line screaming the chase is on!
I pull up anchor and we start chasing after it.
Nearly
30 minutes later, after much fighting and running around, he gets it
close enough to the boat to gaff. It takes all of us to get it up into
the boat. Amongst much cheering and yelling between Rick’s father,
Richard and friend Jeremy, we all take a few minute ‘breather’.
Now, with a limit of trout, several nice Spanish Mackerel and this
very large Cobia that won’t fit all the way into the cooler, we decide
we are going to have to call it a day. And it’s only still early
afternoon, but we just don’t have room for any more fish!
Once we get back to the docks, pictures are of course taken and the
guys get the fish weighed, a whopping 67lbs! Biggest one for the year
so far. Didn’t get the length but you can tell by the picture that it
was a long one.
Captain Jake Herrin
www.captianjakeherrin.com
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