I've been in Jacksonville for nearly two weeks and have yet to catch a fish. Well, that's not totally true. What I should have said is I've not caught a fish on hook and line. I did catch four mullet and four pinfish in a cast net the other day, but that's only bait. What I've been doing with my time is trying to find the best places a man can fish from shore or from a kayak. So far the most promising places are under bridges where tidal currents regulate fish habits. Right now it looks like those bridges on Heckscher Drive look the most promising. There is a little bait shop at Brown's Creek that is now near the top of my list. For $2 you can fish from their little fishing dock.
Just got off the phone with good friend Ray down in Orlando and he's saying I should give an inlet a try before fishing the back country creeks. For those of you who salt water fish you know there is a tremendous difference between the two kinds of habitat. I'm going to heed Ray's advice and give Fort Clinch State Park a try tomorrow. The tide/solunar tables are basically saying that tomorrow and the next day will be two of the five best fishing days in January. We'll see what's what with Fort Clinch. Their north shore where the fort overlooks the inlet looks to be a pretty perfect spot to fish from shore. Having the fort within sight makes for some interesting scenery and might be considered a bonus. I scouted the area last week and know the basic lay of the land. The state has stabilized the shoreline with jetty rocks and they are piled parallel with the shoreline. Between jetty rock segments are sand beaches where I can setup with my new beach cart. I really should take a picture of it for show and tell here. It will carry everything I need for a day of beach fishing. I wish I could take Romeo with me, but Florida has placed a ban on dogs on their beaches no matter how small or cute. So, there it is, then. I'm fishing the Ft. Clinch inlet tomorrow on the falling tide using live shrimp and cut mullet for baits. I can only hope to catch some live mullet, but if I do then they will be on all my hooks. If there are fish there I'll find out starting at about 10 AM in the morning. The tables are saying the lower the tide the better for tomorrow. I never really knew how complicated fishing could be before I started salt water fishing last year. Ray is a real wealth of fishing information about all kinds of species and habitats. There was a time when all Ray wanted to do was fish. While he's slowed down a bit since those prime years of the 80's he's still forgotten more about salt water fishing than most will ever learn. I think when I get onto a good bite then Ray will be tempted to come on up from Orlando and wet a line. But, it's up to me to figure out the lay of the land, so to speak. I think I've scouted enough to state with confidence that I know most of the prime shoreline fishing locations along a 20 mile stretch starting from Amelia Island and working south. The further south you go the more people you see fishing from old bridges and creek sides. Ray's of the opinion that those folks really don't know what they are doing. Yet, they seem to be ever present where ever fishing is allowed from bridges or piers. They appear to be poor folks, mostly of color. After living in the mountains of Arkansas for the last eight years seeing someone of a minority race became a rarity. Down here in Jacksonville there much more diversity and I find myself welcoming the change. It's fun to engage people in conversation and learn that our differences only make us more interesting.
Today, at a public boat ramp I spoke with an interesting older couple about their travels. They don't RV, but prefer to fly to their destinations and then rent cars for getting around. We agreed that touring the West will be a spectacular thing to do. They want to see Glacier and then work their way over to the Pacific coast pausing at Yosemite and Sequoia and then driving up the coast highway north to Olympic National Park and Seattle. It didn't take much prodding from me to get them talking about their wonderful and less than wonderful experiences. They did take a few minutes to enlighten me about reservation Indians, though. They had a bad experience with groups of Indians in cars who were being confrontational. I had heard that reservation Indians, especially the Navajo, were prone to confronting tourists in very unpleasant ways and here were two people who had been frightened. If you frequent the RV discussion forums as much as I do you know there are always nightmare stories for the reading. Personally, I really prefer to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but I'm also aware enough to sense the potential for confrontation and avoid it. If push came to shove I'm always packin', so I'm not one to stand idly by and let some punk kids rob me when I can defend myself. I only have .22 pistols, but they make a loud bang, just not as loud as larger calibers. If circumstances have degenerated to that extent then firing past someone's ear would, I imagine, get a positive reaction. Anyway, the idea of hostile Indians does not bother me in the least and I'm not certain why I mentioned them here, except that in their case bad things did happen to good people.
I'll try to get back on tomorrow after my fishing expedition. Hopefully, I'll have caught a few fish or maybe even a lot of fish. See you soon.
mb/jd
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