Taking a Beating for the Sail

Saturday morning we headed out to what could only have been described as a marginally fishable day at best. A cold front came through the night before, and we were facing 50 degree temps and 28-35 mile an hour winds.

Sure, people fish those conditions all over, be when weather like that comes through here, the fish clamp down, bait retreats from their normal homes, and tackle crashes around the cabin with every wave.

We had a couple of MIT students with us, and we went out and attempted to get bait, with no luck. So we turned to our kites which we had bait penned up for, but even with the specially designed "high wind" kites, it wasn't meant to be. Greg put the first kite up, and when he attempted to reel it back into make an adjustment to it, the wind snapped it off the 60 lb mono, and the kite crashed to the water. Fortunately we were able to recover it, but the kite option was gone.

We headed back again to a patch, where our angler caught a couple of small grouper on a jig, but the bait fish, which had been plentiful, didn't show up for breakfast. Everyone then agreed that it was time to go in, and we'd see if the afternoon brought any better weather.

Greg and I did some kite repairs from about 10am-12pm and the angler returned to about 10 knots less wind and a bit warmer temps, so we decided to head out and give it a go with the kites again.

Turned out for the best, as the skies were totally clear, temps hit the mid 60s, and the wind really eased up. Seemed almost remarkable how the day had changed from morning to afternoon. We landed a nice sail of about 65 pounds which I got into the boat for photos, and all were happy.

I had today off, so I was planning to go out last night, but my body had different ideas. After a burger and a couple of cocktails with Greg in the early evening, I headed home and proceeded to sleep for 12 hours. I think I needed it.

Heading up to Miami to a buddy's place to watch the game tonight. Hope everyone out there enjoys it.