Steinhatchee Redfish

[Neal Osborn]

My trip to Steinhatchee, Florida. Overall a bit of a blow-out because the rain and wind have us grounded.  Yesterday the greater than 20 knot winds and rain blew our chances for any site casting and we eventually couldn’t even blind cast so we were done by 11am. So I just practiced casting and took pictures.  Note, see my reply post to Lando about the buzzing rods and lightning.

casting at the docks

artsy fartsy

potential fly tying material

Wind wind wind

Dinner on the water

Today, we headed out at dark to take advantage of a pocket of calm water and catch the tides outgoing.

Early morning at the Sea Hag Marina (by the way, these are taken with my Olympus 770sw in low light of course, not bad – this little camera continues to impress me)

calm morning before the storms

Saw a bunch of tailing reds on the flats and managed to land a couple before the storms rolled back in.

Brett, the 8wt was good but changing to the 10wt in this wind was the Ticket 😉

rain coming

Sometimes you pay your money and the gods send you a receipt like this one (I am right under the yellow cloud).  

Here’s what I posted on Lando’s post about destination fishing:

Lando, I have an answer for your question – A BUZZING ROD.  I am in Florida fishing this weekend and the weather is very bad (see post trip report later).  I am out this morning during a two hour rain-free period and I noticed that when I lifted my rod it would hum and buzz.  Lower the rod and the noise went away.  Raise the rod and BUZZ.  I didn’t want to say anything because I thought I was hearing things or that is was the wind. Told the guide and that was the end of the day’s fishing.  I post this because I truly didn’t know what a buzzing rod meant (many of you probably already know this).  Anyway, it means static discharge and that the air is “charged”.  We headed in as did all the other guides and not 30 minutes later a massive lightning bolt “discharged” into the ocean on the flats nearby. That was probably  
one of the strangest things I have encountered fishing.

Yep, a buzzing rod will now get me to stop fishing.  

[Zach Matthews]

Great job, Neal – thanks for sharing such great content with us.

Zach

[Mark Landerman]

Nice trip……….I wish the weather would have been on your side.

[Gary Sundin]

Very nice.

[Brett Hoskins]

Neal

Damm the wind on the flats!!!! Story of my fishing life this year.

[kevin powell]

Nice trip. Sorry about the bad weather.

ALSO, Thanks for sharing and an extra thanks for the walk down memory lane. The last time I was in Steinhatchee was is 1999 when my grandfather passed and we sold his place – some of the memories turned sour from that.

All the pictures clicked the great memories. Bay scallops and the greek potato salad at Roy’s. Mowing ant hills on accident in the St Augustine lawn and the sand spurs. Catching sheapheads from the docks and flounder at the mouth of the river. I could go on and on. Memories since the day I was born. This board has really brought back some old memories this week. I could fill a book with the crazy fishing experiences that I had with my granddad.

I never encountered the buzzing rod but I have been on the flats and everyone in the boat had their hair stand on end. That happened on multiple occasions. That is a bad feeling.

Thanks again.

[bradn]

Thanks Neal, good info buzzing rod syndrome – never heard of it.

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