I'll have a little fish with that

While browsing some old photos, I came across this one I took at our last fish fry. We have had fish frys (fries?) about twice a year for a many many years. It usually consists of: fried flounder, fried baby whole flounder, fried shrimp (butterflied and popcorn), boiled shrimp, crab cakes, hushpuppies, slaw, potato salad and cheese corn muffins. 

You can see many of these in this photo. Nobody was shy about dipping a huge plate (these pans were full to the top at the beginning).

How to have a fish fry :-).

And while I'm on the subject of cooking the fish we catch (the shrimp come from our favorite local shrimp boat), I also found this photo of a perfect breakfast (or supper) meal. Fried fish, shrimp and grits (a southern favorite). And since it's early morning here, I'd love to have this plate in front of me right now.

Shrimp and grits - Southern Favorite

Do you eat shrimp and grits?

Another Nice Florida Flounder!

So I was a little bit discouraged this morning about a lot of things. So I went outside for my daily fishing therapy and just as I retreived my favorite lure, whammo! A nice fat flounder was on. I finally got it dipped and as you can see it thrashed in the leaves a little before I got ahold of it.

20 inches Nice Fat Florida Flounder

Manatee - What I've Been Waiting For

See the mud bar against the retaining wall? It's not mud at all. That's the back of a manatee. I'm so glad I finally saw one. Actually this is the second one I've personally seen this year. I didn't have my camera for the first one.

Florida Manatee in Canal

First Cast Catch

Gotta love it when you make a catch on the first cast. We caught this flounder on the first cast with a mud minnow on a cork. Nice. We weren't yet dressed for the day. This is my mom :-).

A face only a mother could love - Sea Robin

This is what I caught today. A fish that looks like it has wings - a Sea Robin. Kinda of looks like a frog too. It's greenish brown and made noises. 

Fish with wings, spines, greenish brown, weird!

Finally! Monster Flounder!

I only have a minute to post this picture (I'll give the details later). But here's a nice 5 lb flounder I just caught. So glad I got the net under him as the lure came right out when I got him on the dock. Sooooo happy!!!

OK, I'm back home and can give the details. I caught this fella at about 1:00 pm this afternoon. I was, of course, using our favorite lure a Tsunami Swim Shad 3 inch (we like olive or black back colors). He put up quite a fight and I saw him a few times before I netted him. I had the fishing rod in one hand and the dip net in the other. After seeing how loosely the hook was in its mouth, I realize how easily it could have gotten away. So glad I landed this fish! It ended a streak of no fish for me that's lasted way too long. Official size is 5 lbs and 20 inches. Permit me to brag a little with a few more photos.

My biggest flounder ever.

Nice Flounder! 5 lbs and 20 inches. St. Augustine, Florida canal catch.

See the cat's tail in the bottom photo? That is our cat Meowzers and she had to lick the Flounder a couple of times, then hang around a while.

Smokey Morning in St. Augustine

It hit me as I stepped outside this morning. The smell of smoke. I could see the smoke rising yesterday to the southwest as I traveled west across the 206 bridge. Here's a picture of smoke hanging over the waterway this morning.

Fire burning somewhere near St. Augustine

I can't find an updated news article about where the fire is, but I did find this hilarious news story and just had to share the link: Police Shoot Gator Lawn Ornament. It has nothing to do with the fire, but gave me a needed round a laughter this AM.

Do You Know a Little Blue Heron?

Little Blue Herons are the neatest sort of bird. They are about 1/2 the size of a Great Blue Heron. They start off white and as they mature, they turn a deep...umm...not navy blue, but confederate blue. I don't recall seeing one during the change of colors. Until yesterday. I wasn't able to get closer because of all the egrets and herons we have around, these fly off the quickest when they see us. I was able to snap this one shot.

Little blue heron changes from white to blue.

My Sibley Field Guide has an illustration that looks a lot like this photo.

Flounder and Ladyfish

This was a fiesty critter. He was very shallow and hit with a solid lick. 15 inches long.

And here's a ladyfish visiting the canal tonight. It hit a tsunami.

The Sky is Falling

Last year we noticed these little tiny packages dropping from the tree above the fish house. I had forgotten about them until they started dropping again this year. Sometimes our chairs are under the tree and they will plonk us on the head. They are perfectly wrapped up pieces of leaves from the oak tree. Some little insect is doing a grand job with wrapping. I'm going to try and ID them as soon as possible.

They are about 1/4 to 3/8 inch long.

I think this is the biggest flounder since my mom visited

A Nice Morning Catch

Here's a better pic. You can see it is passed the 15" mark at both ends. I'm going to say it was 17".

Beautiful Sunny Morning in St. Augustine

No fish today (yet :-), but I did see a jellyfish swim by and since I had my camera, I took this short video. It swam right up to the bulkhead, then swam away. I don't know what kind it is, but we see these all the time. Sometimes there will be 3 or 4 near our dock at the same time. I'll try and ID it and add that info here.

I also had a fishing buddy today. She didn't catch anything either except a good scrubbin'.

Meowzers on patrol as the lookout.

What do you see 'ole girl?

Thomas is staying in a posh hotel while working down south, but says he'd rather be in the fish house :-). For now, I'm on fishing duty.

Thomas and an AM Catch

Thomas meets our daily flounder quota with this 13 incher.

An Early Flounder on a Beautiful Florida Morning

Nice way to start the day. A nice 15 inch flounder for me (Paige) this AM. Second cast on Tsunami Swim Shad. As usual, it was like reeling in an old boot 'til the flounder was near the surface then a little fighting. It's a beautfiul cool sunny morning with a good bit of wind.

Ha! I can see Thomas out the window as I'm typing. He walked back to the bulkhead to cast a few times. He was "in a hurry" a minute ago :-). Maybe he'll catch one too before leaving for work.

15 inch Flounder • St. Augustine, Florida • Catch and release

The flounder is on top of our bait tank. We use it for live bait like mud minnows and shrimp. Thomas bought the 40 gallon tank part and then added the plumbing to make it work for us. Here's a 10 gallon similar one at Amazon already set up.

Nice Flounder!

Flounder daily? Yes! I just love the name Thomas and Savannah came up with for the blog. Here's one from this AM. Even though it was a tad over 15", I threw it back. I know what Thomas will say. He'll say, "You shoulda kept him and added him to the cooler with the one Guyton gigged." But I'll let Thomas do that when he fishes tonight.

As usual, it hit the tsunami lure and reeling it in was like moving a log off the bottom. They don't put up a fight until they are close to the surface (at least that's our experience) so sometimes it's hard to tell if we're reeling in a clump of oysters or a flounder. Then they fight a little near the surface gliding through the water with a flat body.

15 1/2 inches St. Augustine Flounder - Catch and release

 - Paige

Looks like the Flounder are Biting Again

Thomas had to head to work early so I was fishing alone. The only problem with that is dipping fish with one hand and holding the rod with the other, but we've all gotten pretty good at that. That's exactly what I had to do when dipping this flounder. He wasn't up to our new "personal standard" size of at least 15 inches (Florida law is 12 inches), so I threw him back. I actually enjoy throwing them back and watching them swim off.

Flounder caught in St. Augustine canal at our home.

Fishing Report for Today

Thomas and Guyton took the boat out and fished late this afternoon. They caught 3 flounder in the mouth of our canal. Nothing caught from the dock. What did the flounder hit? Our favorite Tsunami of course!

Mullet Schooling and Feeding?

Never seen this before here in the canal. I'm pretty sure these silver mullet (fantail mullet) were feeding on whatever that is in the water. Can you see it? It's where the water is a darker redish color. It looked like a tannic substance, like what you would see in a creek. Maybe it's some sort of organic matter in the colored water they are feeding on. We see mullet every day, but this is a first seeing them schooling and/or feeding on the surface in such a large group.

Night-time Fly Fishing for Trout near St. Augustine

Sweet! Two trout for Thomas under the light near our dock tonight. They both hit a small shrimp fly (the trout are feeding on 1.5 inch small fry shrimp this evening).

Thomas with a trout caught on fly rod - night fishing.

Fly is one similar to these shrimp flies from the SaltyFeather.

No fish today - but there's something else in the canal...

Today was the first spotting of a manatee this year. Our neighbor saw it, but we didn't. We knew something was up when they ran to get the water hose and run the fresh water stream into the canal. Manatee drink fresh water. Isn't that weird? Anyway, we will now be looking for them every day. Savannah got the best pictures last year - here's one she took of our new friend...

Florida Manatee - what a cutie!

One more thing, I found this awesome watercolor manatee t-shirt on Zazzle. Love it!

Manatee Tee Shirt Whimsical Original Art by Whimzicals

Browse Manatee T-Shirts

Fishing Report - 2 Redfish, 1 Trout, 1 Got Away

Happy Easter! We fished the Intracoastal Waterway near Crescent Beach/St. Augustine and then met up with Guyton and crew down near Matanzas. Later we had a wonderful supper with family - hamburgers on the grill. Yum!

We gotta stop here and give a quick plug for Genungs Fish Camp. It's run by the nicest guy you'll ever meet. Shabby Chic at its best. Bagged ice is $1.00. You can't beat that anywhere. It's located near the 206 Bridge in Crescent Beach, Florida and you can get there by land or water. We stopped here first to get some ice.

Genungs Fish Camp on the Intracoastal @ the 206 bridge.

First fish caught was caught by Thomas - just short of a keeper.

I landed this Redfish a few minutes later. I love the little extra spot on the side!

Trout makes #3.

Here's the trout. I took this photo in a rush because Savannah had a fish on and I was struggling to get the dip net. Unfortunately her whopper broke the line :-(.

The last thing we did was meet up with Guyton and crew down near Matanzas Inlet.

-Paige

Monarchs Have Visited Us on the Canal - My Milkweed Project

My milkweed plants have been growing like crazy since it's warmed up. These are the milkweed plants I documented growing from seed last year. We've seen several eggs laid by Monarch butterflies as they pass through and at least two have survived the predator wasps and made it to full size caterpillars. I always search the trees for those who have wondered off to undergo the miraculous transformation known as metamorphosis and thankfully sometimes find them. Here's one I found attached to the side of our house. I'll take pictures every other day and add the pics here until the butterfly emerges.

Monarch Caterpillar Day 1 of "the change"

Day 3 Chrysalis

Monarch Metamorphosis Day 5

Days 7 and 8 - Starting to see some color on the chrysalis.

Day 11: What a difference 3 days makes! It will be very soon.

And it's out. Just an hour or so after I took the photo before this one.

This post will be ongoing until the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis.

Fishing Report - 1 Flounder Today

This morning around 8:00, I (Paige) caught one flounder 15 inches long. It hit a Tsunami Swim Shad (our favorite lure). Something we've noticed the last couple of months is that when we release a flounder, some of them settle back to the bottom of the canal exactly where we throw them back. They do not swim off right away. I took this photo immediately after releasing today's flounder - you can see it lying on the bottom.

We've also noticed that sometimes when we get a strike, but miss the fish, we can catch the same fish at the same spot a couple of casts later. So they settle back down to the bottom after striking too.

The coloring on the flounder, seen here, matches exactly the bottom of the canal.

I also got a short video of the flounder as it swam off about 3 minutes after I released it.




- Paige

What is a Mantis Shrimp?

We've spotted a new critter in the canal. 

Movement in the edge of the water caught my eye but I had no idea what I was seeing. It looked sort of like a shrimp, but kinda like a lobster. It was mostly brownish gray, but also had some blue on it and it scurried across the bottom of the canal foraging as it went along. I grabbed my camera and got this video.
 

I now know what I was seeing was a Mantis Shrimp. I called Thomas over and he knew what it was. There are many types of mantis shrimp, but I'm pretty sure this is Squilla empusa.

Watching the video, you can see how it jumped as it entered the shadow. And now that we've seen another one (maybe the same one) I noticed they always hesitate when moving from lighted areas to shadows and vice versa. Maybe it's a danger signal for the mantis shrimp. There's an extensive section over at Wikipedia about their eyes which are "the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom." I also learned that these little critters are known as "thumb splitters" because they can lacerate fingers. I won't be attempting to handle any of these! 

- Paige