Spring '10 Gathering

[DOCREED]

Anyone from the Ft Myers area running up on Sat?

[snapper whipper]

Is anyone coming from the east coast across I75? Me and my wife are planning to leave Friday morning and if all goes well on the alley I will arrive about 1ish and launch at the 10th street ramp because we are "camping" at the Hyatt,I want to leave the boat in the water so I can spend as much time as possible fishing and exploring the Sarasota area which I am not familiar with soooo any local fishing knowledge would be greatly appreciated! I see when you get north of daymarker "20" it gets fairly skinny and I guess the passes and channels get a lot of boat traffic on weekends? Also I guess any no motor zones are clearly marked and everything else is west coast rules? We will be tossing artificials and are mostly inshore fisherpeople. I should be easy to spot its a 17' aquasport grey & white with a T-Top and snapperwhipper on the transom We are Mike and Alicia  cell=3058734817 (call with secret fishing tips)and we are looking forward to meeting new folks with similar interest. :fish:

[Circle Hooked]

Mike maybe we can meet up on the water Friday afternoon,and i can give you a heads up on where to fish,i plan on doing some myself.

I should be on the water between 3 and 4 Rick will be out around noon i think,My # 941-809-9266 and i will be monitoring ch 16-69 on VHF my call name is Circle Hooked if you didn't guess see ya on the water.
Scott

[snapper whipper]

Thanks for the # I will be on 16/69 also and give you a call in the afternoon
mike

[RickK]

2.5 more days for me  
I'll be on 69/16 - call name "Shady Deal" and my cell is nine four one five three nine two seven nine eight.

Come onnnnnn Friday - gotta break in these shirts  8)

[RickK]

Is anyone coming from the east coast across I75? Me and my wife are planning to leave Friday morning and if all goes well on the alley I will arrive about 1ish and launch at the 10th street ramp because we are "camping" at the Hyatt,I want to leave the boat in the water so I can spend as much time as possible fishing and exploring the Sarasota area which I am not familiar with soooo any local fishing knowledge would be greatly appreciated! I see when you get north of daymarker "20" it gets fairly skinny and I guess the passes and channels get a lot of boat traffic on weekends? Also I guess any no motor zones are clearly marked and everything else is west coast rules? We will be tossing artificials and are mostly inshore fisherpeople. I should be easy to spot its a 17' aquasport grey & white with a T-Top and snapperwhipper on the transom We are Mike and Alicia  cell=3058734817 (call with secret fishing tips)and we are looking forward to meeting new folks with similar interest. :fish:

I guess I must have blown away the laptop that had the BlueCharts on it so I can't place '20' in my mind.  North Sarasota Bay ranges from 6-10 ft all the way from the Ringling Causeway Bridge north to where the markers turn W-E.  Markers are few and far between in the bay because it is generally all deep as long as you stay away from shore  
The area just north of where the channel runs W-E is locally named "Long Bar" and it definitely gets skinny there in a hurry.  Nice fishing spot, lots of grass. The bar runs west a ways - just stay within the marked channel and you'll be fine.  The channel takes you west and then turns north and there is a temp marker just south of where you need to turn west to head out the Longboat pass and to the gathering which will be right outside the pass to the south.  Weather is looking to be nice.  Haven't checked the Marine forecast yet but the general forecast looks perfect.

[gran398]

2.5 more days for me  
I'll be on 69/16 - call name "Shady Deal" and my cell is nine four one five three nine two seven nine eight.

Come onnnnnn Friday - gotta break in these shirts  8)

Take a bunch of pictures for the cousins.....Have an awesome time, give the Hooter's Girls an oogle for me!

[RickK]

Here is the marine forecast - looking good!!! For you boyz coming across TB, doesn't look out of the ordinary.
http://www.wunderground.com/MAR/GM/853.html

Down to hours now  
Getting my list together and checking it twice.....there's only 2 things on it.......

[seabob4]

Gentlemen,
I, unfortunately, will not be making the rendevous.  Some things have come up that require Maggie and I's attention, nothing to do with our health or anything of that nature, but some things we have to attend to.  Don't worry about us, we're fine, and I'll be around on the computer when I can, although that's probably the last things you guys are bringing with you!!!

Hope you all have the greatest of times, catch some famous Sarasota Bay reds and snook for me (yeah, I know, the trout, whatever), fish the potholes for some flounder, but most of all have a GREAT time and, above all, stay safe, and take care of each other and the loved ones.

You guys are still the best!!!

[RickK]

Ok guys, see ya out there.

[akbridge]

Is there any particular time to be there tomorrow?  My father and I are going to come out for a while.  And I am just wondering when to show.  The tide will be ripping the afternoon.  That means better fishing in the afternoon by my watch.  See ya'll tomorrow.

[akbridge]

It was great to meet ya'll.  Sorry we couldn't stay too long.  I haven't gotten much fishing time in this year, because of my circumstances (pregnant wife and all).  So we had to make the most out of the day on the water.  Hope everyone had a nice safe day on the water, no bad sunburns, and I hope to see some of ya'll later this year to go scalloping.  By the way, the river I was talking about is Chassahowitzka River.  http://www.bocc.citrus.fl.us/commserv/c ... index.html

[GoneFission]

Let's see some pix!

[RickK]

Boy what a beautiful weekend 
Started off a little windy and stayed breezy all the way through keeping it tolerable and cooler.
We started the weekend off putting in about 1:45 Friday - Dave had a flat tire on the trailer like a qtr mile from his house and had to turn around and head back to change the tire.  Seemed like an omen but that was it as far as anything to stress over.  We launched and headed over to "the Cove" next to New Pass bridge to hang out for a few hours with some club members.  Seems the annual Mako "Funament" was taking place at our club this weekend and there were a bunch of people there on Friday, which was a surprise. So here we were - 2 Aquasports among the Mako gathering - seemed a little out of place even though they said they don't mind SOBs (some other brands).  Dave said he wanted to run his boat some to see if his repairs were ok so I jumped into his boat and left mine with some friends at the cove.  Off we went and his boat ran beautifully - seemed the temp was up in one of the engines (the one he DIDN'T work on) but he thinks it's a sensor because the tattletail was not any warmer than the other engine and the water pressure gauge said it was getting the same water through it - he blew it off as a sensor.  When we got back to the cove there were 2 more boats in our little group - 2 Aquasports, Scott (Circle Hooked) and Mike (Snapper Whipper from Miami) - let the gathering begin.
We hung out a lttle longer, Mike had to head back, fishing on the way, to the hotel and would see us tomorrow.  Scott and Josh in their 225 Explorer, Dave in his 250 Explorer and me in my 230 Explorer cruised over to Lido Park and dropped the hook for the night.
Staurday morning Scott took off to go fishing and later pick up his wife and Dave and I headed North via the gulf for the gathering.  The gulf was 2-3s for the most part with some 3-5 thrown in to make sure you weren't sleeping at the wheel and the wind was blowing the way we were going so it made it not a terrible 10 miles.
CUSnookin was there already, as usual, when we got there, JoAnne - missus CUSnookin - had been schooling Chuck on the proper way to catch fish.  We started hanging out and it seems like we're almost family now, we've been to so many gatherings together.  Water temp was around 82 (little shock as you got in but perfect after that) and the air temp wasn't a whole lot more to start the day off.
We had a total of 8 boats attend throughout the day 3-170s Chuck, Mike and then AKBridge came by - (sorry I didn't get a chance to introduce myself to you - seems you had your hands full with the pup and all the other members around chatting with you.  Nice looking boat BTW.  You and your Dad did a nice restore on her) and the 3 Explorers that I mentioned earlier.









Then JJ and his wife pulled up in his Back Country 151 - he's grand-fathered in since he had a CCP in another life PLUS he brought a bunch of tasty Gumbo out 




AKBridge's 71 170




Mike's 170 (Snapper Whipper)


Chuck's 170


Then around 4 I guess, DocReed drove right past us heading out to the outside thinking we'd be there - JJ went out after him and brought him back.  Nice big 250 CCP in great shape.


Hmmm, seems I didn't take any pics of my boat again - since I was wearing this, on and off, yesterday I guess it will do.


Beautiful day and again we met some new friends.
We camped right in the same spot that night and then took off about 7:15a Sunday morning for the ramp.  Was home about 9a.  Had enough sun for the week

[woody]

Man o man . Wish I had been there . I'm still breaking in the rebuilt yammy , thought this would be a good chance to put some hours on it . My lady and I went out about 4 pm Friday for a test run . I was on a portable fuel tank with double premix as per instructions for breakin . It ran great , but then had fuel starving problems due to a bad squeeze bulb ( found out later ) and kept stalling out. Got a tow back in from a very nice young couple in a flats boat . His name is Jon and owns Bluewater pro lures. He wouldn't accept anything for his time , so I'm plugging his company and products , sold locally at Economy tackle . I think they are available online as well , but I couldn't find his website .
 I will wait for the next round up and I WILL be there , Glad you guys had fun , hope you caught some fish and didn't get too much sun .