After yesterday's fun but low-productivity (we caught no fish) fishing charter, we decided to try our hand at do-it-yourself fishing from our Hobie Tandem Island. We had been told by the guy at the bait store that the eelgrass next to Sea World was a great place to find spotted bass. He equipped us with some gummy-bear wormlike things (OK, they really weren't made of gummy material), and some quarter-ounce leadheads with hooks (Warning, these leadheads contain lead – a compound known to cause cancer by the State of California.) (Thanks California, I was just about to eat one too – when I noticed that, in addition to lead, they also contain LARGE BARBED HOOKS. Whew!)
We set sail from our campground beach, and about a half hour later we arrived at the inlet near Sea World. We furled the sail, put in the mirage drives (pedals) and started working our way along the grassy shore. Before long, I caught a combination of a 15" spotted bass and about 15 pounds of eelgrass. There was so much grass tangled around the fish when I landed it that I though I'd just hooked the grass at first.
We fished for a couple more hours, and returned with enough fish for some nice fish stew that Laura dreamed up.
(posted by Kevin)
