Fish Scouting With Captain Denny Voyles

Thursday, my ruggedly handsome new cell phone announced a message from my friend, Denny.

The text message read:

"Scouting tomorrow for trout and reds. Wanna go?"



Oh yeah.



Denny teaches school, but he is also a professional fishing guide on the side. Before he went pro, we fished together quite a bit. These days, he's in such demand by his customers, that we don't get to fish together much.



So, when he offered to let me "help" him scout fish for an upcoming charter, I jumped like a tarpon who had just felt the hook.


This is Captain Voyle's current boat, the "Reel Therapy". She is an Old Pro boat made locally in Chiefland, Florida by a tiny boat company.

She is a classically beautiful center console fishing boat that combines a sweet appearance with fantastic functionality. If she were a woman ...


On the way out.

Here's Denny looking all Captainy.
It's a good shot of the boat's functionality too.

There are lots of rod holders, tons of moving around room, a bazillion compartments, and ultra wide gunnels for walking all round the boat as you cast or fight a fish.

We were on a mission to scout reds (red drum) and trout (spotted seatrout) for the family who would be chartering with Denny the next day. The tide was pretty low as we headed out, almost too low for some of Denny's redfishing spots.

Reds especially love oyster bars, so a place like the scene above has high red potential.

Here's Denny putting the mind mojo on the fish.

He did a good job with the mojo, because even on a mid-summer day with ultra high water temps, Denny put us on fish after fish.

I was not surprised of course.

He is just the fishiest guy I know.

It's uncanny.

Years ago, I gave him cast net lessons on the shore of North Key ... back when he drove a rugged, barely floating used Birddog boat.

He throws pretty well these days, so I'm taking credit for that.

Undeserved or not.

Denny multi-tasking.

He doesn't get to fish when he's actually guiding, so I think ... I know ... he was having as much fun as me yesterday.

We found a long school of baitfish that stretched in a zig-zag line as far as you could see off of Snake Key. It was only a dozen yards wide, but very long and the predators were nailing the small fish up and down the school.

We had great action here and caught trout after trout. These were quickly released and somehow I never stopped fishing long enough to take a trout pic.

The whole day was catch and release by the way. None of the fish you see here suffered anything more than a sore mouth before being released.

Here's a Spanish Mackeral held in the typical fishing pose to make it look bigger than it really is.

Only, when you hold it out in front, you are supposed to get your fingers out of the way. Otherwise they look cartoonishly large.

Since I teach Marine Science and you guys love cool new words to toss around or use in Scrabble, here's a few things about this mackeral ...

First, notice how streamlined he is? Good.

That's called "Fusiform". Any fish that is built for speed with a sleek, hydrodymanic body is fusiform.

Check out the pointy end.

Mackeral are rocket-shaped predators that run down their prey.

The spots are something called "Disruptive Coloration". It's not an attempt to match your background, but rather a way of losing your fishy shape in the mix of dark and light that is the mackeral's world.
Any fish with stripes, spots, or bars is using DC.

Here's a shark pup. We caught a bunch of these!

Yay! Go shark mommas!

This was a little boy pup. I didn't photo his private parts, but he had tiny claspers at his pelvic fin.

He's fusiform too, as are almost all sharks.

I think this little shark pup is an Atlantic Sharpnose, but I'm not 100% sure of that.

If I were betting money, that would be my answer.

Like most sharks, he's using "Counter Shading" as a passive defense. See the dark dorsal side and the light colored ventral side?

We fished that line of bait until the action finally slowed around noonish.

The trout, mackeral, sharks, and ladyfish had cooperated wonderfully all morning, so we gave them a break and took one ourselves.

"Reel Therapy" is a fast boat and in no time we were tied up at the Cedar Key dock and eating lunch in an open air restaurant with misty fans blowing cool refreshing air upon us.

The restaurant was called "The Big Deck Raw Bar".

(pronounce that carefully)

I got a Cuban and Denny ordered a shrimp wrap. Both were excellent and reasonably priced for a place like Cedar Key. Total lunch bill was about twenty dollars.

Most of the restuarants in Cedar Key are fancier and more picturesque than this little spot.(although, from where we sat, we could look out over the boat basin and watch boats coming and going.)

And now the hard truth ...

You can get some really poor seafood at a few of those pretty restaurants that line the waterfront.

From past experience, I think one or two of them operate under the "tourists won't notice poor seafood as they gaze out of our big windows at the Gulf" philosophy.

To which I say, "You can't eat the view."

So the food at the Big Deck Raw Bar was much appreciated.

After our break, we headed back out to sea.

It turned out to be "Species Day" as we proceeded to pull in a neat variety of fish.

Shortly after a huge seaturtle surfaced nearby, Denny caught this young remora. It came to the boat followed by a larger mature remora.

So ... if this were a quiz ... Is the remora fusiform? ... and ... what is it's passive defense?

Up close and personal with the remora.

This is the suction pad that the remora uses to cling to sharks, rays, seaturtles, ... even me! My kids and I once had a young one go from one of us to the other as we stood in waist deep water on a North Key flat.

... and of course, somewhere deep in my past Pure Florida posts, there is THAT old picture of Denny with one stuck to his arm.

We really picked up a neat sampling of the local fish populations. This Sea Robin came aboard for a quick photo and chance to prick Denny with it's fins.

Sometimes, it's good to be the photographer and not the holder.

Sea Robin smile.

That's because we released him just like every fish that we caught.

Plus ... he did get to jab a sharp fin into Denny a few times.

Turn about is fair play.

If you are reading this from locations above the redfish line. The fish above is a red drum, aka: redfish, redbass, channel bass, and most commonly ... a red.

I grew up surf fishing for them on Anastasia Island and we called them red bass. In those days, Sports Afield magazine mostly called them "Channel Bass".

After the "blackend redfish" restaurant craze almost drove them to extinction, everyone seemed to switch to "redfish".

Lucky for all of us, they have gamefish status these days, so the harvest is managed and reds have come back in great numbers.

I caught the one above on the final spot of the day with a sparkly thunderhead looming nearby.

All told, probably thirty fish came aboard the Reel Therapy Friday. Total species count was about ten.

It was an excellent day with lots of fishy action.

That's not unusual when you go fishing with Denny, in fact most of his charters see lots more action ... everything from inshore fish to giant tarpon or sharks.

What made yesterday such a testament to his fishing skills is this little fact ... it was HOT.

He put us on all those fish in the summer doldrums with ...

... water temperatures that almost defy belief.

Yes, that is 92.3 degrees Fahrenheit, and yes, that is the WATER temperature. It actually rose to 92.5 after that shot was taken.

Now, a lot of people fuss when the air temp gets that high.

Imagine being a fish.

The warmer the water the less oxygen it can hold.

Which means, if you are a fish, it's not the most pleasant time for you and typically, they are not going to expend a bunch of energy feeding under those conditions.

Yet, Captain Voyles put us on fish after fish all day long.

I tell ya, he's got the fish mojo thing DOWN!

It was a great day and right before that thunderstorm chased us off the water, we zipped over to Atsenia Otie Key to check out the seabirds roosting on an old pier.

It was the perfect ending to an excellent day on the Gulf of Florida.

I'm going to save the seabirds for another post, but I think you birders will enjoy it.

Gone Fishing

I'm going fishing with my old friend Denny (science teacher AND professional fishing guide) this morning.
This should be worth a post or two and the picture potential is positively delicious.

Now, I need to get my butt to the Cedar Key boat ramp before he leaves without me!

Have a great day!

A Slow And Somewhat Impulsive Ride Home From Tally: Part One- Shell Point

Tuesday afternoon, the FLVS training ended around 3:00 pm. As soon as I hit the JEEP, I pointed her south and kept on until I was just on the outer fringes of Tally. At a gas station near a fork in the road, I texted my fellow FLVS trainee and buddy, Stacy, for confirmation of my gut feelings regarding which road to take.

See, Stacy has one of those fancy Drone ... no, wait... that's different, ... a DROID phone that can do almost anything you ask of it.
I do not.
I'm a flip phone, basic package kinda guy ... although I did just get a new phone ... a CONVOY. It's a man's phone built to military specs, weather proof, shockproof, and FC proof!

No, since you ask, I do not have a GPS in the JEEP.
I have a Silva Ranger Compass that is 30 years old and needs no batteries or satellites. It does require a brain however.

I'm off on a tangent aren't I?

Apparently my brain forgot to toss a road map in the JEEP this trip, hence the text to Stacy.

I new SR-61 would get me to the coastal zone, but would SR-363? I thought so, and Stacy used her fancy girl phone to confirm that for me.
So I headed south on that fork.

After awhile I came to US-98 and cruised a little west and south to Shell Point.

Most of Shell Point seemed to be private homes, but there is a little beach with a sweet curve for the public to enjoy.
It was mid-afternoon on a workday, so the beach was almost empty. In the parking area next to the sand, some locals stood around a pickup with a pretty yellow lab in it, just enjoying the great breeze flowing off the Gulf of Florida.

A tough old red cedar stood a few feet from a slowly rising Gulf. It seemed odd to have a fence around it ... red cedars are not a migratory species after all.

So I walked over to read the sign.


Shouldn't that be "... in AN effort ..." ?

The tree is doomed by rising sea level, but the efforts here and the toughness of a red cedar should keep it around for a while.
There's no denying it's a beauty and this beach would miss it dearly.



It makes me wonder why "Extraordinary" efforts weren't used to save the area above.
If you turn 180 degrees from the beach tree view, you get this.

A row of ugly condos, an almost certainly dredged basin, seawalls, and probably filled wetland.
If it were an old condo, it would not be so surprising, but it's very newish looking ... we are STILL dredging basins like this in this day and age?

I should have expected condos and yachts when I hit the "Golf Cart Community, 15 mph" sign at the entrance to Shell Point ...

It was a bright day with good contrast.

(subtle no?)





This willet was about the only decent critter shot on the whole ride home. Mostly the trip was about scenery ... rivers, boat ramps, a little saltwater, tiny communities in transition, a favorite honey (the sweet kind, not the girlfriend kind ... now that doesn't sound right either ...), bodacious BBQ, and a final glorious sunset.

All to come in the next couple of posts.

You are invited.

Cabbage Creek

Quickie post as I get ready to check outta this motel and go to ONE more day of training.
After two weeks of training in Gator-land and now two days in Seminole-land, I am ready to be home again.

I am really, really sick of restaurant food too ... blecchhh.
No wonder this nation is hypertensiive and overweight.

Here's a few scenes from my slow ride up last Sunday afternoon. I always take the backroads if possible, in the hopes of finding little gems like Cabbage Creek.

It was off and on stormyesque that day and the sky was pretty beautiful.
These pics don't really do it justice.


Above, a hardwood relic reminds us of the oak forest that preceded the planted pines.

I love summertime skies.

This Cabbage Creek trail was not spectacular in anyway, but it was a nice diversion and to be fair, I did not have time to get out and walk as I was due in Tally.

Actually, I'm due in class pretty soon so I better go!

I will take the slow way home too, so keep your megapixels crossed!

Harmless Hognose Threat Display

This Hognose snake was slipsliding across a woodsy road just after a rain yesterday as the JEEP and I came around the bend.
By the time I pulled to a stop, he had oozed off into the grass and was only a few feet from disappearing into the safety of a palmetto grove. At that point, he was in escape mode with no theatrics.

When I stepped between him and the palmetto, he reacted with an impressive threat display. The photo above isn't great, I was trying to get an angle on him, while blocking him, and he was constantly moving.

I think the video is better.
Let's watch it and then we'll talk about these harmless snakes.

What?
You already watched it 3 times?

Okay, ... for those who did NOT jump ahead, let's check it out.


Pretty impressive display. It's an instinctive response to a threat ... in this case me ... as if,
I'm on his side.
Unfortunately, I think it usually triggers the "Grab a hoe and chop like there's no tomorrow!" response in humans.

Which is really too bad, because these little guys are just not dangerous in any way.

The flattening of the head might be construed as a form of mimicry ... if cobras existed in the wilds of North America.

Since they don't, it's probably just a "See how BIG I am? Fear me!" sorta response ... just like dog hackles or feathers on a rooster that's about to fight.

If the hissing bighead display does not scare away the predator, the Hognose may roll over, belly up, with his tongue hanging out ... playing dead.

I was hoping to illicit that response too, but as I filmed, he decided to make a swift slither for the safety of the palmettoes.

I was filming with one hand and trying to grab him with the other ... which is why the end of the video is all swooshy bumpy.

Sometimes my multitasking is ... lacking ... in the "multi" part.

Late Culinary Smackdown Entry, Boilt Pnuts

Well, I slept right through the deadline for the current Culinary Smackdown.
This one had a summer veggie theme, so I looked for the current local big-deal crop.

Watermelons have been over for some time, but the peanuts are coming in, so let's make some traditional boiled peanuts.


Here are some beautiful jumbos. These are green peanuts, fresh out of the field. I imagine such a thing is hard to find north of peanut country. They are a major crop in this county and have a bit of a reputation.

My good buddy,Denny, who is a fishing guide out of Cedar Key recently told me that one of his clients always asks him to pick up two 50 pound bags of Williston Jumbos as a favor. The client is from south Georgia ... which is definitely peanut growing country, but he preferred "those Williston Jumbos" to the local Georgia variety.

(By the way, if you are planning a visit to Cedar Key and want to laugh your butt off with the funniest and luckiest fishing guide on the Gulf of Florida, give Denny a call at 352-486-3763 ... you won't be sorry!)

Back to peanuts ...

Listen carefully, because this is a tough recipe.

First you boil some water.


Then you add some salt ... about 1 tablespoon per quart of water.

Pictured: A raw green peanut ... yes I ate it.

Add your peanuts and boil them until they are soft ... I like them "al dente".

When they are about done, turn off the heat and let them soak.

The longer they soak, the saltier they will become, so how long they soak is up to your own taste.

Whew!

That was tough.

Now ... here's the thing.

There's no need to go all crazy thinking of other seasonings to toss in the pot.

All boiled peanuts need is salt.

Sodium Chloride.

NaCl.

I see the roadside boiled peanut stands advertising cajun or garlic boiled peanuts as I ride around and I confess it boggles me a bit.

It is not necessary to Food Network-up all food.

If you want to put mint chocolate raspberry sauce on your fish or add urchin roe to your grits, well, I guess it's a free country, but I'll pass.

Pass the salt that is!

If, somehow, all your boiled peanuts are not eaten the moment they cool off, they will keep in the fridge for days.

So class, to summarize:

Boiled peanuts are slightly more difficult to make than boiling water.

You can do it.

I didn't make Eggy's deadline, so this is a noncompetitive post for her smackdown, but I'm still posting for the fun of it. I believe she will have more on the subject so you might want to drop in on her.

Gecko Crunch And The View From On High

Here's the view from the chimney of PFHQ. I'm up there a lot lately.

The pucker factor is as high as my perch ... I don't know how those sheer vertical rock wall climbers can stand it.

Looking this way, the cedar siding encased chimney is at my back. The dormer nearest the chimney is tres, tres convenient as I am able to brace myself against it and paint the chimney siding with a brush on an extension pole.
It's pretty exhausting since I am essentially doing a modified chimney (coincidence) climb, ... you know, the kind where the rock climber braces her back against one wall of a narrow vertical opening and her feet against the other wall?
I prop my little hand paint bucket in the angle where the vertical chimney meets the steep slope of PFHQ's roof line, brace, dip, and then lean to paint.

Every part of me, mostly, is tensed and working to hold position and paint.

It's hot up there too, so I tend to save chimney work on this side for the last painting of the day, when the temperatures have cooled down to 93 or so.

Did I whine enough?
Any pity out there?
No?
Dang.

It's not all misery and heat up there. The picture above is the view looking south from the chimney.
A few days ago, as my paint ran out and my supply of sweat was dangerously low, our pair of resident barred owls landed on a branch a few feet away. They were shoulder to shoulder, as close to each other as they could get.

They just sat there watching me.
This would be the day I was strictly business and did not bring the camera up with me of course.

Today, I'm going back up to paint the chimney trim, but I'm going to do something easy like the porch ceiling first while it's hot.

My two weeks of training in Gainesville is now complete. Yesterday, I took the slow way home. It was a hot afternoon and almost nothing was moving in Devil's Hammock, but the wildflowers were blooming.

I apologize on this one, I just took it yesterday and I haven't opened my Florida Wildflowers and Roadside Plants field guide yet to ID it.
Feel free if you can beat me to it!



There are times in Florida swamps when I have NO problem picturing the Carboniferous Era scenery. I wouldn't be surprised to see a dragonfly with a 3 foot wingspan to zip by.

I had worried a little about our resident gecko. There are two and they like to snooze in the gap between the siding and the trim during the day.

With all the powerwashing and brushing of paint, I was concerned we might have accidently smooshed 'em.

So, last night I was relieved to see the chubby one up on the porch ceiling.

As I watched him, a spider came strolling by ... danger close ... and sure enough, the gecko snapped him up!

I dashed in for the camera and got this heavily cropped shot. You can see a spider leg sticking out of his mouth.

Now I have some homework to do, but I have some excellent photo ops coming up on the way to two more days of (different)training next week.

Whatever happens, I'll share it with you.

Change For A Dollar

Buddy, can you spare a sand quarter? ... how about a sand dime?


I'm in deep immersion training this week and my posts are few ... yes, and tiny.
I know, I know.

It's all about change ... the training is good, ... very good, and unlike 90% of educational training, it will cause a change in the way I teach.

Here's a brief moment in the FC household life for you to ponder while I am so absent (minded)this week.

Monday, class had just started when I received a phone call from Mrs. FC.
She had just hit two deer in her shiny kinda new truck, about a mile from the house.
She was okay and she almost ... ALMOST ... missed them, but at least one of them bent some "things" on the passenger front side.

She was okay, which is always the only thing that matters.

But still ... sigh ... my family seems hell bent on reducing the deer population in the region and they are determined to use cars as their weapon of choice.

Anyway, ... she called the cops for an officer to come out and make a report, and then she waited.

It took a little longer than expected, because ... THE OFFICER HIT A DEER AS HE TURNED ON TO OUR ROAD!

Tiger (beetle) In The Kitchen

This tiger beetle (Bug Doug ... what kind?) was running around my kitchen counter top Sunday, so I scooped him up in a Chinese restaurant take out soup container ... huh? Oh, what kind of soup? It was Hot and Sour actually. Next time you are passing through Chiefland, Florida, stop in at Mya's Noodle house and try it.

Mya is a sweetie and she KNOWS how to do Hot and Sour.

What were we talking about?
Oh , ... Tiger Beetles.
These insects are aptly named as they are voracious predators ... probably much more so than your typical Tiger who tends to eat a lot and then sleep a lot. Tiger beetles always seem to be late for something ... in a hurry, can't stop, must dash, must flit, must fly, must scurry away ... just as you kneel down and get ready to photograph.


Nice bulgy eyes (this might be the elusive Marty Feldman Tiger Beetle).

Bulgy eyes help you to see a wider view ... another reason why sneaking up on a Tiger Beetle for a close up is sometimes maddening.

Check out those mandibles too.
That's some serious equipment.



I painted away the weekend, but I did stop long enough to catch a wasp using the bamboo wasp house. As a scale of reference, the bamboo ends are about the size of a big drinking straw.

In other words, that is a pretty tiny wasp.

Gotta go!
Almost late for my training ... as you can tell by the staccato nature of this post!

Fryday Celebration

When I heard that the cap had stopped the oil yesterday, I decided to celebrate with some wild, Florida shrimp.
Yes, I know something could still go wrong, but for now, as I write, no oil has flowed from the pipe for about 16 hours.
Even that is cause for some celebration down here.


Fried Florida shrimp, Selmo salad (search blog for recipe), and homemade datil pepper relish.

No Bear, you can NOT have all my shrimp tails ... I LIKE them too!

Sadly, this is the final meager pickings from my super productive blueberry bushes.

What a crop!

They deserve to rest now and recover from overfruitilization.

Those red things are 'maters ... our blueberries are blue down here.

Have a great Fryday!

Pictureless Post

Why pictureless?

I am in a two week training course in Gainesville this week and the next. It's about 40 wacky science teachers (not me of course, I am a model of decorum) ... and it's taught by a neat physics professor from UF.

The class runs from 8am until 3pm, and by the time I get home, it's either time to paint or time to cook supper ... or both.

So there's not a lot of photo taking going on this week, although as usual, I always have it with me.

Except for today of course.
This morning we got to experiment (PLAY!) with dry ice to our hearts content.
It was great! There were great photo ops that I missed, because for once, I forgot to tote my camera along.
Actually, the whole course is great ... just enough lecture and lots of hands on activities.

The whole focus is a deeper understanding of some physical science principles that we teach in our classrooms.
Very good stuff so far and I am in an excellent group with the right mix of old friends and new aquaintances.

And one more excuse for sporadic posting this week ...

I decided to try for a change in my teaching career, so I have applied to the Florida Virtual School (FLVS) as a biology instructor.

It's our highly regarded online school, really a model program that a lot of states envy. I was already set up to teach online as a part time addition to my regular classes in the upcoming year for extra dough, but since then, FLVS has announced a full time regular biology instructor vacancy (vacancies?) , I have applied for that also.

It'll mean big changes in my teaching life if I get it, but change is good.
Teaching at FLVS is a work at home ... work anywhere situation.
I have friends who are working for FLVS now and they are very busy, but they all love it.
This past school year, Junior took two courses through FLVS and it was a really neat experience.
I have to say I was impressed with the course and the FLVS teachers who stayed in contact us as he progressed through the course.
The current classroom teaching situation is nice too, so it's good either way, but I am thinking I would like to stretch a little ... maybe step outside of the bricks and mortar box for a change.

So how does this affect my posting this week?
I have HOMEWORK!!!

ARRRRGHHHH!

To teach for FLVS, even in the part-time position that I have scheduled, I have to complete a training course, and I have to have it done by late July when I go nawth for a face to face training session.

Soooooo, I am working on that course each evening and should actually be doing that right now ... ahem, I guess I should get busy now and do MY HOMEWORK!

Maybe this weekend I can get a photo or two deserving Pure Florida exposure.

That is an assignment I look forward to completing.

Pac-Man Pads

Anybody else in the mood for a game of Pac-Man?
Something about this picture speaks to me.


This beauty and her stigmata were strung between the cattails and above the pads.

This beauty was directly below, skittering from pad to pad and across the quiet water.

She's not much for spinning webs and waiting for something to happen ... better to actively seek than sit and wait ... even if it means outfishing a fish.

She's a hunter not a trapper.

We had very heavy rains this morning and the creek up the road from the quiet lily pond was tinted by runoff from the lime rock road I was traveling upon.

I found these pads, spiders, and the gator by taking the road least traveled on the way home from a training session in Gainesville.

They were much appreciated ...I have been painting PFHQ so relentlessly lately, that I have not had a chance to be OUT THERE.

In fact, I realized as I started the JEEP this morning that I had barely been off my property since Thursday.

So, as you might imagine, I needed a little gator time.

It was kind of nice to be clean, not dripping in sweat, covered in paint, or toting a paintbrush for a day.

It was also nice to never once step on a ladder today.

Not once.

This past weekend, I was high as a kite (ladder high, that is), painting at the upper capacity of my 32 foot extension ladder with a bucket in one hand, a paint brush in the other, and my heart clinched between my teeth as I paint the upper most regions of PFHQ.

There will be pictures.