KING OF THE SOUTHWEST

If you guys like salsa, I would recommend trying 505 Southwestern out of New Mexico. Stuff makes me sing and dance. Proof below:

Hike With Me, Show Me Your Boots.

I have written a series of songs and would like to post them here on my blog because, well that's what a blog is for. To share experiences and thoughts with an audience that cares to listen or read said experiences and thoughts.

So with out further a due, my first You Tube video entitled, "Hike With Me, Show Me Your Boots", a story of an outdoor romance.

Mahi, Mahi Mayhem!!!

The boys and our bounty.

"Move fish, get out the way, get out the way fish, get out the way!" I could not help but think of the lyrics from this famous Ludacris song (substitute fish for female dog) as fish came flying on deck during a family fishing trip on the Cutting Edge out of Key Biscayne, FL. When the fish were on, it was complete mayhem. We were casting over each others heads, literally throwing fish on the deck, yelling up to the captain for directions on where to cast, and running with hook in hand to load up with fresh bait. We are all lucky we made it back to shore without any hooks to the face or gaffs to the rib cage. It was wild! So wild in fact, that it made me feel like a wild animal. I caught myself grunting a few times, like Tim "The Tool Man", from Home Improvement.

Coryphaena hippurus, Mahi, mahi, (which means very strong in Hawaiian, and fish in Persian), also known as dolphin fish, or dorado, were the targeted species for the day. They are surface dwelling ray finned fish found in off-shore temperate, tropical, and subtropical waters worldwide. Once on the line they are incredibly flashy, iridescent and acrobatic, with beautiful blue, yellow, and green coloration. Out of the water, the fish changes color to several hues of gold (giving rise to their Spanish name, dorado, "golden") then fading to a muted yellow-grey upon death. Even after death their journey continues through the mouth and into the belly of a human being, where they can only be described as delicious.

Sabinki rig loaded with bait which were used to catch the dorado.

We alternated between two different techniques for catching our fish. One technique involved our Captain using high power binoculars on the top of our boat looking for diving frigit birds, which signaled bait fish and where there's bait fish there's dorado. We would then drive over to those schools of bait and the Captain could see the dorado and point them out so we could cast our fly lined bait fish in front of their faces. That's when the pandemonium would begin.

The other technique involved us trolling an artificial squid behind the boat as we cruised from one bait ball to another. Both techniques worked for us as we ended the day catching between 25-30, 22-30 inch size dolphinfish. When we finally docked the boat around 1 pm, the fish were filleted and we began brain storming cooking ideas on the drive back to Miami. It all sounded good and since we had plenty of fish we decided to cook it a number of different ways but all on the grill!

Fishing day collage!

It was so great to spend time with family and go through a little mayhem together, because even when you argue, fight or push each other out of the way to get a fish in the boat, at the end of the day you work it out, and by doing so grow closer. This ultimate hunter gather bonding experience was further exemplified that evening with a wonderful fish dinner that fed 9 of us! Fishing, as with family, you take the good with the bad, and a little mayhem is worth it as you grunt and bite, into a juicy fish taco followed up by a slurp of ice cold beer. This bud's for you "Tim the Tool Man", Grawwrrr, grawrr, grawrr!

Skyman out.

To Bowl or Fish on Your Birthday, That is the Question.

Everybody loves to go bowling  or fishing on their birthday followed by blowing out the candles on a big ole slice of cake. For my mother's birthday we decided on fishing, and although we did not have any cake, we made up for it in pounds of bass. It's funny how things just seem to work out on your birthday. I could not promise my mother she would catch a trophy bass all I could do was plan a nice outing on the lake with an opportunity to catch something.

The birthday girl and her 6 pound bass. 

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and that is no doubt what happened here. My Mom was prepared by knowing how to fish a drop shot rig, and by fishing in areas that had great potential to hold fish, if opportunity knocked she would be quick to answer. And answer she did! Her deafening screams from the back of the boat let everybody on the lake, including the jealous tournament anglers know that she'd just hooked in to a fatty!

"Get the net", she screamed.

"I think I caught a big one!

"Sky, take the reel I can't do it!"

Getting a lesson on how to hold a large bass.

No way was I going to rob her the feeling of reeling in her first 6 pound monster, bucket mouth, fatty bass hog of a fish.

"Don't stop breathing," I told her as she reeled herself to exhaustion. Luckily her drag setting was low enough that the fish could make runs and not snap off. When it got close to the boat I was able to net it and take a few photos of the happy angler and her catch before we released the fish back into the water.  

It was not my birthday. 

Bowling and fishing are similar in the fact that even a novice has an opportunity for the biggest moments in the sport. This might be why they are both great American past times and why so many people go bowling or fishing on their birthday. We all think that the odds might be a little bit better on our birthday for that 10 pound fish or a few strikes at the bowling alley, in reality practice is the real way to increase our odds. So if you really want to catch a trophy bass like my Mom or bowl a few strikes at the bowling alley, get in some practice and when your birthday rolls around pins will be falling and fish will be biting.

Skyman out.

Cut The Crap

When I was younger I would cut fishing line with my teeth, until i started to notice they were wearing down at an alarming rate. If I would have kept this up, by 25 I would be purchasing my first pair of dentures. Sure, it would have been a cool party trick to pop out my teeth and say things like, "get er done," or "pass me the yogurt," but I was not ready to go full hillbilly yet, so I switched to nail clippers. Which are great until you need to cut your nails and they are buried in your tackle box or boat.

That is why it is a good investment to have a set of line clippers whose sole duty is to cut fishing line. Boomberg Tool Company was kind enough to send me a sample of their product called, "The Snip," which is a retractable heavy duty line cutter with an LED light. The stainless steel jaws cut clean and smooth and have no problem cutting through braided line. The LED light allows you to do your cutting in the dark, which is very handy on early mornings.

The retractable cable is a key feature so you can attach the tool to your person or belt loop, that way during a tournament you won't waste time looking around the deck of your boat just so you can cut your line. This is the moment the thought pops in your head, "use your teeth, they aren't going anywhere." Well sure at that moment in time, but if you keep using them, you will lose them! 

Cut the crap, stop using your teeth, ditch the nail clippers and get the man-i-cure upgrade to "The Snip." Your teeth and nails will thank you for it.

Skyman out.

   

When Duty Calls, Sometimes You Gotta Let It Ring.

Looks beautiful, but man is it freezing!

This last month I fished a tournament at Piru Lake during extremely tough conditions. Lake water was down 50 feet, air temperatures dipped into the 30's and the water looked like chocolate milk. Cold water from the bottom of Pyramid Lake was being pumped into Piru, further confusing the fish. Yet I still made the enigmatic decision to leave a group of beautiful women at a bar the night before, to go fishing. Dummy.  

Fishing with my back to the wall.

When duty calls sometimes you don't answer, or if you do just say you are sick. I should have just let the phone ring off the hook that November evening and done a bunch of shots with the hot women. Seems ridiculous to me now, but staying at the bar is a slippery slope that I have fallen down a few times in the past, so I did what I thought was right.

Who knows what would have happened if I stayed at the bar with the girls, I could have ended up face down in the gutter, but I think it was worth the risk considering the day turned out being a complete bust. The seductive nature of the south bay didn't get me this time, but that's not to say it won't get me the next.

I don't think I am going to answer my phone for awhile so go ahead and leave a message after the beep.

Skyman out.  

Stop Slimming Me You Old Hag-fish.

"They call me a hagfish, don't mess with me! If you die around me I will eat you."

With Halloween right around the corner, what better time for a post on the the slimer of the sea, also known as a hagfish, class Myxini order Myxiniformes and family Myxinidae. The stem myxin means "slime" and this fish is the triple threat of the gooey stuff. If Dr. Venkman (Bill Murray) would have encountered a hagfish instead of a ghost in that swanky New York City Hotel in the opening scene of "Ghostbusters", he would have been choking on slime. That's the kind of slimming capabilities these creatures possess.

Hagfish are jawless, worm like creatures that live in temperate seas and have long fascinated biologists as the only living representatives of the ancient creatures that gave rise to fish and humans. Preying extensively on invertebrates, but are also important scavengers on the ocean floor. They can quickly congregate in large numbers on dead whales and fish with the ability to cover a carcass in a "writhing swarm" with enough action to stir up surrounding sediments and completely engulf the dead animal with slime. Being scavengers, they are not scared to enter a dead or dying fish through the gills, mouth, or anus, and consume their prey from the inside out! Like a miner entering a mountain to extract the gold.

It is not uncommon for marine commercial fisherman who use set lines or gill nets to find fish in their nets that are occupied by feeding hagfish. Once on deck the hagfish secrete incredible amounts of slime that sticks to both deck and fishermen.

Their main defense mechanism is their burrowing behavior and their slime, with which they can coat themselves in large quantities quite quickly. The slime is also used to coat dead fish, thereby making it unpalatable to other scavengers.  Talk about marking your territory. That reminds me of when we were children and you would lick every doughnut in a dozen so no one else would eat them. Apparently the hagfish does not like to share with others.

How do they get water into their gills when they are completely covered in slime? Good question, what they do is tie themselves in a knot, which passes down their body pushing the slime away. Kind of like natural Sudafed, clearing out those breathing passages. Very resourceful, inspiring creatures if you ask me.   

This Halloween when you are contemplating what to be, I hope this post inspires you to consider dressing as a hagfish, because it's cool and original. Sure, people might not know exactly what you are but when they ask, you can look them dead in the eye with a Clint Eastwood smirk and say, "I am a hagfish, and if you don't give me all of your candy, a bunch of my homies and I are going to cover you in slime until you can't breathe and then eat you from the inside out."

Be safe this Halloween, don't talk to strangers.

Skyman out.  

 

Reference:
Moyle, P.B., Cech, J.J. Jr. 2000.  Fishes: An Introduction to Ichthyology, Fourth Edition. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ.pg. 212-214. 

The Fluke is No Fluke.

The Fluke (3/0) and Fluke Jr (1/0). 

Fall for me equals pumpkin spice lattes, clean air, goofy sweaters, football, and shad. Bait fish really ball up in the fall and can create a bass feeding frenzy. If you can find these balls of bait, you will find the bass, and there is no better bait out there than a fluke for imitating a dying shad.

A little morning cruise. 

The fluke is an underestimated, underutilized bait in my opinion that often gets overlooked for the fancier more expensive hard baits on the market. There is not much to them, they are 3"-5" pieces of soft plastic that come in a small bag. They may be soft but they are hard to beat in the fall. It's subtle movements when paused remind me of a senko but it can also be fished as aggressively as a rip bait, or on top like a walk the dog type lure, you could even rig it on a lead head and bounce it off the bottom making it one of the most versatile baits in your tackle arsenal. It's main job is to imitate a dying shad and it has never seen an unemployment line.

Oh baby! Get ready.

So it's no surprise that it played a pivotal role in our teams first place finish at Pyramid Lake October 14th, 2012. We started off in the morning using top water to no prevail so we switched up to the fluke. The cove that we were fishing had lots of bait, so we knew the bass were feeding on shad, we just didn't know if the fish wanted an aggressive approach or a more subtle presentation. The fluke proved that subtlety was the key that opened the door to feeding bass but it was a door that kept closing on us through out the day. We only caught 3 keepers on the fluke, one coming on a hula grub, so it was not a wide open bite. But it was just enough to squeeze out a victory by 0.22 lbs over second place. Our total weight of 7.85 pounds just beat out the 7.63 brought in by Walt and Orin's son Andrew.

Orin T. and Angel A. holding our winning weight. 

In the Fall when the going gets tough, the tough tie on a fluke. So next time you're in line at your nearest tackle shop wearing a goofy sweater, drinking a pumpkin spice latte, don't Fall for the gimmicks and go with the original and best soft jerk bait on the market, you won't be disappointed.

Skyman out.
  

It's a Fluke party ya'll.