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