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Fishing/Scuba
Page 1
Welcome to my fishing/scuba section. What you will find here is probably a little different than other fishing sites, more down to earth and realistic. I have truly enjoyed fishing ever since I was a kid. It was not all that long ago that fishing was a lot simpler, you threw together some basic stuff like hooks, sinkers and maybe a few simple lures along with your ONE fishing rod and you went fishing. If you had TWO rods and or a boat of any kind or appearance, you were living large. It was all about going fishing.
Now it seems like a lot of fishermen are more worried about how they look on the water and who's looking at them. You have the “fishing team look”, complete with matching shirts (kinda like some twisted version of those always pathetic “matching shirt couples”). The “like the fishing guy on TV look”, complete with expensive long sleeve shirt, even in the middle of Summer (who the heck wants to wear long sleeves in the Summertime heat?). And of course the expensive, shiney, neat and tidy boat that can't get dirty or get any fish blood on it.
Matching shirts sounds like a uniform to me, and the rest of it seems very corporate and like work as well. Fishing and scuba diving are things I do to RELAX, things I truly enjoy. The last thing in the world I want is for stuff that I enjoy to resemble my crappy Job! Around here we are all about getting one over on "the man". I do not want "the man" going fishing with me or getting into ANY of my personal time. And I like variety when I fish. It adds to the excitement for me to sink a frozen chunk of whatever bait over the side and what comes back in the boat might be a Grouper, Grunt or some hideous creature I have never seen before and I am not sure if I can touch it without injury. Its all equally good to me.
Anyway, if you like the flash, expensive equipment, photos of endless lines of large tournament fish of the same species weighing in, this site may not be your cup of tea. But if you would like to see photos of various Tampa Bay area fish big and small, pretty and ugly, and maybe some of Strange Rick's homemade fishing lures then this is your fishing site!
Picture Gallery
Speckled Sea Trout. Inshore fish. Good to eat. There are also a Silver and a Sand Sea Trout that do not get as big, and don't have the spots.
Leather Jack. Do not grab this fish with bare hands. It has sharp spines and the slime on it makes the punctures much more painful.
Jack Crevalle. Good fighter. Supposed to be a fishy tasting fish.
Bluefish. The Bluefish here do not seem to get nearly as big as the ones in the northeast. Supposed to be a fishy tasting fish.
Sheepshead. Good to eat but bony. Easier to do the gut and scale method than filet. Small Black Drum resemble Sheepshead with the dark vertical stripe pattern but the mouth distinguishes the two apart. Black Drum mouth is positioned more downward.
Gag Grouper. Most common Grouper in Tampa Bay area. Good to eat. Called Black Grouper by some locals. True Black Grouper while similar, are uncommon in Tampa Bay area. True Black Grouper, sometimes called Carbos, are more common south around the Florida Keys.
Red Grouper. Good to eat. Known to be a little more wormy than Gag Grouper. This small specimen posing for the picture before being released, fell for a DOA Shrimp lure.
White Grunt. Also known as "Key West Grunt" but mostly just called "Grunt". Good to eat and easy to catch offshore. Good fighters for their size.
Spanish Mackerel. Good to eat when fresh. Juvenile Kingfish can also have spots similar to Spanish Mackerel. The way to distinguish between the two is the lateral line running lengthwise down the fish. Toward the center of the fish the lateral line slopes down gradually on Spanish Mackerel and dips sharply on Kingfish.
Bonito. Good fighter. Supposed to be a fishy tasting fish. Have seen many fishermen on the various forums talk about their five hundred step methods of getting the fishy taste out of strong tasting fish but too much work. I often release keeper Grouper because I know I am not going to want to clean them when I get back to the dock so I am not about to add even more steps beyond cleaning fish.
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