Weekend Recap (In Pictures) That You've Probably Already Seen On Facebook Or Instagram...

Because I know you want to read all about MY Labor Day weekend too...

The wife & kid were out of town on Saturday and most of Sunday.  With no agenda other than making sure our newly "rescued" dog didn't use our carpets as a toilet, I had a little time to do some things on Saturday; such as clean up some unwashed dishes that were sitting in the kitchen sink and starting to smell, get my hair cut, and watch meaningless college football.  How about those Nittany Lions?

However, I did get a few fishing-centric activities in; the first being that I stopped by the Floodtide Festival at Blackfly Outfitter...

Afterward, I spent the rest of the evening downing a Jersey Mike's Sub and finished up my tenkara rod build.

Both were pretty fun, but the sub, hoagie tasted better.

On Sunday, I snuck out in the morning to try the tenkara rod out on some local bass...

Yes, I'm probably holding that second one "wrong" and it's jaw will never recover from being held at such an angle...  Go ahead, call BASS, or even PETA on me...

Anyway, as for the rod, it's a bit heavier in hand than what I've been fishing with lately, but far from unyielding.  It tosses a #3 level line like a champ.  The Winn grip performed well too.  It's actually more sensitive to vibration than I thought it would be, and since I tend to hold my tenkara rods with the butt end in my palm, the short length of the grip didn't pose a problem.  I'm pleased with the build, and will happily put the rod in my normal rotation.

The rest of the day I went over to a co-worker's house for some backyard food, drink, & games.  I'll spare you the pics of dudes in the swimming pool.  I left a bit before the party was over as the wife & kid were due home around 8PM.  So curtain closed on Sunday.

Monday.  Labor Day.  We all pretty much slept in...well, except Lilly who woke up early to sneak on the computer and watch Minecraft YouTube videos.  I don't know if any of you have kids who like this Stampy Cat character, but holy crap...FML...


Not going to tolerate a "video game day," we packed everything up and went to the beach after lunch...

The surf was pretty rough (although it doesn't look too bad in the pics), and kicked all of our butts...we didn't last too long, instead retreating for dinner of chicken tenders and Coke Freestyle machine...which is by far the best invention in the history of soft drink dispensing.  They really need to make a home version.  I'd buy that in a heartbeat.

Now, it's Monday night, I'm knocking out this blog post while my wife is downstairs watching the Unauthorized "Saved By The Bell" Story on TV.  I guess my efforts to block the Lifetime Channel from our cable service when we moved down here were unsuccessful. *Sigh*

And that was it.  Long weekend over.  Gone too soon...and not exactly enthusiastic for the work week ahead.  At least we've got the NFL to look forward to...which kicks off on Thursday with the Packers & Seahawks...but more importantly (once again for me) is the Eagles vs. Jags on Sunday.  Original hometown vs. current hometown.  Go Birds!

Eh...who am I kidding...I'd probably rather be fishing.

Maximize Your Ad Dollars the New JAX Way

You've worked hard at building up your website or blog's audience.  You've spent time creating great content, you've mastered SEO, you've tweeted like crazy, but you're ready to take the next step and spend some money on advertising...

Perhaps you've decided to try a Facebook "sponsored" post... or you've bought Google keywords...or maybe even placed highly visible banner ads on popular websites.

Guess what...  You're doing it wrong.  Horribly.  Wrong.

Come September, we're holding a T! Party on a Rollergirl's leg.  

Can you say high yielding, ass kicking, return on investment?  

Want in?  You know you do...

Help send the #14 team in the World, the Jacksonville RollerGirls' "New Jax City Rollers," to the WFTDA Divisional Playoffs in Indiana...

...or don't...because you're scared of girls...

June in Florida in Pictures

I've officially been a Floridian for a year.  Check that, I'm just a transplanted Yankee, but I've now lived in Florida for a year.  While I missed most of the month of June last year, after the past 29 days I've found the weather pattern to be pretty predictable.

Morning...

Oh, it's far to hot too get out of bed...

Afternoon...

Can't...move...sun...no...energy...ugh...

Early evening...

Daily lightning Armageddon

Evening...

Oh, it's finally under 100 degrees, maybe I'll try fishing in the last hour of daylight...

5 Minutes Later...

F*CK, here come the mosquitoes...

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I suppose being able to fish in the winters without wearing some trendy Nano-Puff jacket make up for it.  (Even though once it gets below 85 degrees down here people break them out anyway...)

You know about Gore-Tex?

Squatchin' Hits Home...

Oh my...there's evidently a Jacksonville, FL area Bigfoot hunter (that isn't me)...

Courtesy Jacksonville.com

"A Mandarin [FL] man appears on a Bigfoot hunting reality show that premieres Friday evening.  David Lauer appears on “10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty,” which is on the Spike network at 10 p.m.  The show pits two-man teams against one another in a search for irrefutable proof that Bigfoot or some similar creature exists."

So should I tell him about the Tenkara Sasquatch in St. John's County?

Original Sighting Photo

Enhanced

Nah...

Wednesday Weather Forecast

Not to rub it in, but these December temperatures are why people evidently live in this God forsaken Hades on Earth otherwise known as Florida.

Screen shot of bi-polar NBC12 / ABC25's First Coast News.
Yes, two networks share the same news broadcast down here...go figure...

You have to love a weather forecast that calls for a Friday/Saturday combination of "Partly Cloudy with a chance of Fish & Tennis."  I don't recall ever seeing a weather forecast predict "FISH" back in Philadelphia...although I never watched the weather for the temperatures.  First Coast News obviously doesn't know I live here now...it would probably say "SKUNK"...

(Acutally, this post is for my Mom, who's coming down to visit for the first time on Sunday for Christmas week.  Bring your flip flops...oh, and I guess umbrella.)

I've Had Enough of the "Salt Life"

No, not Florida, but those damn Salt Life stickers that are on the back of every freakin' truck, minivan, and SUV in the greater Jacksonville area.  I know they've probably spawned, and may very well be in your neck of the woods too (wherever that might be), but Jacksonville is literally ground zero for these things...it's like stick figure family stickers x 10,000...

That said, it's a little bit humorous to see some of the spin-offs that some of the creative locals have come up with.

From the SEC fooball lovin', gator-centric Swamp Life...

To the beer-centric Malt Life...

To the intensely serious dog loving Lab Life...

To the somewhat unnerving Assault Life...

And I could go on and on, but won't...

There's even a local lifestyle brand / Salt Life competitor called Fish On! that is starting to show up on more and more rear windows...they supposedly make clothes, but I haven't seen too many people wearing them yet.

My wife (who once upon a time was a graphic designer) can't stand the typography, and says all she sees is FISH JNL.  Regardless, I do kinda dig the kayak tee they make.

So yeah, the sticker scene is pretty ridiculous here in NE Florida, and I blame those Salt Life bastards for it.

It must come to an end.

I mean who puts stickers in their car windows anyway...

Scenes From The Beach

We'll work on including fish pictures the next time...

#FISHWORLDPROBLEMS

Talkin' smack on Florida...that was the mistake I made on Saturday night.  Clearly created some bad karma for Sunday.

An innocent comment, not so much negative about Florida, just that I missed the cool of a trout stream.  See, down here in the summertime, when you dip a toe in the water while fishing, it's warm...like bathwater, or worse.  Not so refreshing.  But I digress...

So Sunday was pretty much a debacle.  Actually, it wasn't that bad, but if you're familiar with the term & the jokes around "first world problems"...I was probably having far too many "fish world problems."

Anyway...I rolled out of bed around 7AM and headed toward the area northeast of town that's got beaches, marshes, all that jazz.  Figured I'd try to throw around some flies for a little bit...low tide had passed about two hours before I got there at 8, so I was eager to see if in another 3 or 4 hours the high tide would bring anything into the shallows.

I started at the beach, and the wind was blowing like an absolute bastard from North to South...which was basically right back in my face.  I tried punching a few casts into the wind, but this was clearly going to be an exercise in futility, so I quickly packed it in, relocating to another beachy/marshy area where I'd be able to cast with the wind at my back.  Casting into the wind is something I need to practice...I never really had to worry much about it back in PA with all of the tree cover.

Some dude blowing down the beach...
(I didn't take this picture, but let's call it an accurate representation)

Hmmm...I was probably there an hour.  Tried the beach thing for a bit without much luck (wasn't expecting much) before I retreated back down one of the creeks along the tall grass.  You could tell it was pretty fishy, or looked that way to me.  There was definitely a lot of activity with ripples and swirls in the areas of slack water.

Then I saw something moving from left to right on the far bank, unfortunately behind me, so into the wind.  I don't know what it was, as it was just below the surface but leaving a nice sized v-shaped wake up top, so I started casting to it.  Trying to get my cast to go the right distance into the wind, the first cast came up a little short and the second was never made.  It got snagged in the tall grass on the backcast, and when I brought the rod forward to sling the little weighted crab fly...

Yup, you got it.  Broke my rod tip.
Here's a re-creation of the festivities...

MS Paint y'all!

Without a backup rod in the car, I left the marsh sulking.
Especially considering it was what I'd chalk up to user error.

Oops.

See what I mean...? #FISHWORLDPROBLEMS


Side note:
On the drive home I tried Southern Boiled P-Nuts for the first time...
Owl Jones told me once they weren't authentic if they weren't spelled with the dash...

I'm sure Steve boils a mean p-nut, but I'm just not feeling it.
They taste like beans or something.
Hey southern readers, what am I missing here...?

A (Non-Fishing) Southern Observation

I like having this blog because it gives me the forum to write whatever the heck I want.  Yeah, I guess with a name like Troutrageous! it's supposed to be fishing themed, but who cares...

So here's the bit of randomness for today...

Does every restaurant in the South offer you a drink "to go" at the end of every meal?
As in, "Can I get y'all anything else...can I fetch y'all a drink to go?"

Kiss my grits?

To which they'll undoubtedly find the biggest Styrofoam cup possible to fill with your beverage of choice and send you off on your merry way...?  The Yankee in me does not comprehend...

It may be old hat for you, but it's a concept totally foreign to me...sure, the places I frequented in Pennsylvania gave refills during meals, well at least if the waitstaff remembered to offer them; but it was rare that I remember, probably because it never happened, that I or my family was ever offered up a refill for the road.  (And I'm not talking coffee either, because none of us drink that swill).

Heck, I don't think there's been one restaurant down here that hasn't tried to make us leave at least 32 ounces heavier.  From diners, to BBQ joints, to pizza parlors...

I have to admit that to date, my instinctual knee-jerk reaction to what is becoming a regular offer has been to refuse, simply because I'm clearly missing the part of the brain required to comprehend the offer.  Which in retrospect, and considering my affection for sweet tea, seems kind of odd...  Just like boiled p-nuts & okra...but I haven't tried them yet either...

Flailing In The Salt - Big Talbot Island State Park

One of my co-workers mentioned to me the other week that if I wanted to see something pretty interesting, to head up to Big Talbot Island State Park along Nassau Sound.  He said I had to see the "Dead Tree Beach," or something along those lines...

With KC & Lilly hanging with the in-laws down in Melbourne, FL, I thought it might be an opportunity to do some exploring...and where there's water, heck, why not bring the fly rod just because I didn't pay for that Florida fresh & saltwater fishing license for no reason...

Well, they weren't kidding, this place was pretty crazy.  Tons of dead trees (I assume toppled by erosion) that were bleached by the sand & salt, just line the beach for a really long stretch.  And then there are these slippery as heck "rocks" I guess that are made of compressed sand or mud or something...  Pretty surreal...I almost expected to round the corner and see the head and outreached arm of a buried Statue of Liberty in front of me...to which the only appropriate reaction would have been to drop to my knees crying, "God Damn You All To Hell"...


Here are some pics...

As for the fishing?  Well I tried for a bit, but I'm not really versed on what I should be casting to, or what I should be throwing, or really anything.  I did see the fin and tail of a small shark cruising in the shallows, so I tossed a fly at that for a little bit.  Had some follows, but no takes.  Probably for the better...I mean it would have either shredded my leader and stole my fly...or I would have had to figure out what the heck to do with it once ashore...  Are you supposed to remove flies from inside a shark's mouth?  I don't even want to think about that...  Maybe it's better fishing at high tide.  There were TONS of crabs scurrying about the sand everywhere.

While the fishing on this day wasn't so hot, I'll probably head back up that way again as there were some promising looking salt marshes on the other side of the highway opposite the beach and along the route just South.  I think one was called Simpson Creek?  Will probably need a kayak or SUP or something though to best fish those.  I'll have to do some Googling to figure out what the deal is there.

Anyway, I guess this is all a part of adjusting to fly fishing this part of the country.  Although I do feel a bit out of place as EVERYONE else seems to be a spin fisherman either casting from the beach, a pier, or off a bridge.  At least it's fun figuring out new things.  We'll see how long the novelty lasts...