Inshore Fishing Report
Sunday, September 13, 2009
My youngest daughter, Julia, had been asking me for some time to take her kayak fishing. Now that she is all of seven years old, she decided she wants to join Dad on one of his fishing trips. Once our schedules finally allowed us time to indulge in some saltwater fishing, the weather wasn't all that cooperative. It rained all night and continued into the morning of our fishing trip. However, the weather gal on TV assured us it would be clearing up as the morning went on, so we loaded up the kayak and our fishing gear and off we went.
After a quick (and rainy) trip to the bait shop, we secured one dozen live shrimp and headed to Little Talbot Island State Park. The campground there has a nice hard sand primitive boat launch onto Myrtle Creek. This is one of the few places in North Florida where the creek bottom is mostly sand and not the gooey marsh mud that is found in practically every other inshore creek here. The weather was beginning to cooperate, too. About the time we stepped out of the truck to launch the kayak, it had stopped raining.
With our gear loaded, Julia safely seated, and the kayak in the water, I cranked up the "kayak motor" and off we went to a favorite fishing spot. As kayak motors go, Julia gets about 50 yards per granola bar:

Our first fishing hole didn't produce any bites, but Julia was all set and ready to catch some fish:

The clouds stayed with us most of the day, but we brought along our umbrella as rain insurance. Had we left it in the truck, I"m sure it would have poured buckets on us. Our next fishing spot was more productive. Julia got a big bend in the rod and a firm tug on her fishing line on the very first cast:

Here she is with her very first fish, ever! For her efforts and patience, she was rewarded with a nice little spotted seatrout:

He was too small to keep, so we released him to grow bigger. Maybe we'll come back another day and catch him again. After the little trout, the only bites we got were some small pinfish that kept stealing our shrimp. Julia was starting to get tired (and bored, I think), so we negotiated one more stop at another fishing hole on the way back to the launch.
This time, we were rewarded with a couple of rat sized redfish:

Julia likes how they can raise and lower their dorsal fins. She also thinks its pretty funny when the fish splashes Daddy as he puts them back in the water to swim off. After releasing the third of our undersized fish for the day, Julia asked me, "Daddy, are there any fish in this creek we can
keep?" I like how she thinks, but it was not to be today. We only found (and released) underslot fish, with no keepers in the bunch.
The sun was now getting hot, and Julia's fun meter was at its limit. We headed back in to drive home so she could tell Mommy and her sisters all about her fishing adventures and catching her very first fish. She did great on her first fishing trip, and I'm sure we'll go out again soon. Only next time, we'll catch a few keepers for dinner.