30th Class Reunion

I recently attended my 30th High School Reunion. The photo is of me, Mark Ballard, and my friends Henry Riess, and Raul Aragon. Henry is now a pilot for American Airlines and Raul is a Pharmacist and owns his own drug store in Boynton Beach Florida. We all graduated from Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach Florida in 1977.

In case you're wondering it was a tropical theme.

Messer hooks inshore slam worth $1,000

A total of 133 anglers participated in the Riverside Café / Vero Tackle Inshore Fishing Tournament on Saturday. But no one won as big as Wayne Messer.

Messer took home a $1,000 payout for catching a slam of trout, redfish and flounder, which weighed in at 10 pounds, beating out Bruddy Tyson's slam of 9 1/2 pounds.

Most of the big trout were caught early in the morning on topwater plugs. Derek Seiger won $750 in the trout division, finishing first with a weight of 7 1/2 pounds. Mike Olvey won the redfish division and $750, with a fish weighing in at 6.6 pounds.

Colin Willis won the junior angler slam, catching a ladyfish (.85 pounds), a jack (1.3 pounds) and a sheephead (2.05 pounds) to win a rod, reel, cast net and $100. Cody Ward won a rod and a reel in the junior division as well.

Fish Addict sweeps snapper in TCBA

By ED KILLER
edward.killer@scripps.com

June 11, 2007
FORT PIERCE — The busiest weekend in Treasure Coast fishing tournament history came to a close Sunday as competitors weighed catches in four of the weekend's five events.

A quick scan of the leaderboards revealed that it was a good weekend to target snapper, but maybe not so good to target swordfish, while spearfishing is pretty good right now.

Click here for the full story.

Fly Fishing In Martha's Vineyard

Here's a nice article from Steve Grant of the Hartford Courant

May 20, 2007http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
By STEVE GRANT, Courant Staff Writer

MARTHA'S VINEYARD -- We were bouncing down the beach in a big four-wheel-drive pickup, going fishing, when Cooper Gilkes, one of the most respected guides on Martha's Vineyard, stopped to talk to a ranger.

You should have been here this morning," the ranger said. "Six o'clock this morning, it was unbelievable." That is, there were striped bass everywhere. Now, it appeared, they were somewhere else.

"Don't tell me that," Gilkes said. "I don't want to hear that." I was riding shotgun, and I didn't want to hear it either.

I had come to Martha's Vineyard for one reason: to catch a striped bass on a fly rod.

It was early May, after a winter that wouldn't go away. The migratory striped bass and bluefish showed up off the Vineyard more than a week late, and even now were only trickling in. Fishing was agonizingly slow, at the very time of year when anyone who even occasionally wets a line has the itch to be on the water. (More)

Breast cancer survivors enjoy fly fishing with event

By DAVID THOMPSON - dthompson@sungazette.com
DAVID THOMPSON/Sun-Gazette

Diane Chesnut vainly attempts to interest a pair of large trout into taking a bite of her Wooly Bugger fly as Trout Unlimited volunteer Rich Masters looks on. On Saturday, the Susquehanna Chapter of Trout Unlimited hosted “Casting for Recovery,” a day-long fishing trip in which volunteer fly fishing experts teamed up with breast cancer survivors for a day of trout fishing on Lycoming Creek.

(More)

Splash and dash: Florida is a haven for seaplanes

Here is an interesting article by By Wes Smith of the Orlando Sentinel. However every time I see a sea plane I can't help but think about the one that crashed off of Miami Beach two years ago.

Snook Season Comes To An End

Snook anglers have until 11:59 p.m. tonight to keep the season's final two fish between 27 and 34 inches. Snook season will close tonight at midnight until Sept. 1.

While it will be strictly catch and release for snook until September, there is a strong possibility that anglers on Florida's Atlantic coast will have the bag limit reduced to one fish per person and the slot reduced to between 28 and 32 inches.

The proposed changes to the snook rules will be discussed at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's meeting and final public hearing on the matter June 14 at the Radisson Suit Hotel Oceanfront in Melbourne. To see the complete agenda, visit www.MyFWC.com and see the news release.