The Valencia Lakes Fishing Club (VLFC)

Transcription

1 Dedicated to Fishing Education and Activities On behalf of the Valencia Lakes Fishing Club, the club wishes each and every member a Healthy, Happy and Prosperous Holiday season and New Year. Our Nov. meeting was a business meeting and the clubs business got done! The VLFC is looking forward to a productive new year beginning with the election of officers on Jan. 3 rd. THIS IS YOUR CLUB, make a New Years resolution to become more pro-active by sending information into our Newsletter, coming to our open Board of Directors meeting (2 nd Wednesday of the 4PM) with your thoughts on how to improve the club and telling your new neighbors to join you at our next meeting. We currently have approx. 154 members and growing. IF YOU HAVE AN IDEA FOR A WORKSHOP, PLEASE CONTACT GARY garys49401@aol.com NEW: If you learn of any member, or their immediate family, have had a hardship or a blessing, let us know so we can pass the word on to: Charlie Brown - cebrownlawyer@gmail.com. The Valencia Lakes Fishing Club (VLFC) 2016 VLFC OFFICERS PRESIDENT - Charlie Brown V.P. Denny Lombardi SEC Y Donna Snider TREAS. Arlene Suchman DIR. AT LARGE Seymour Shaw DIR. AT LARGE - Rich Brown DIR. AT LARGE Keith Schneider cebrownlawyer@gmail.com sdl1167@gmail.com dsniderfl@yahoo.com arlenesuchman@aol.com thepony27@gmail.com reelfunny@gmail.com shoebz@hotmail.com CHAIRMAN Gary Spieler NEWSLETTER Gary Spieler 2016 EDUCATION AND ACTIVITY garys49401@aol.com garys49401@aol.com

2 1. JANUARY 3 6:30pm -NEXT VLFC MEETING SOCIAL HALL, CLUBHOUSE Start thinking about NEW OFFICER ELECTIONS! Our January meeting is a combination social with food, nomination and election of officers and directors, and fishing educational, Know Your Fish. Please join with us for pizza/lasagna and soft drinks (you may BYOB!), socializing with other anglers and the nomination, election and installation of new officers and directors. And, get to know your fish! 2017CY dues are $20.00 per person and now payable. We look forward to a fun evening and an active The VL Fishing Club is open for membership to all VL residents. Hope to see you there! Charlie Brown, President 2. MARCH 7 TH, 2017 (tentative date) - Clewiston (Lake Okeechobee) bass fishing trip CONTACT: Denny Lombardi - sdl1167@gmail.com 3. JUNE 5 TH -8 MAHI MAHI FISHING TRIP IN THE KEYS CONTACT: Keith Schneider - shoebz@hotmail.com 4. GOLF CART FISHING By Appointment CONTACT: ALAN ( BASSMAN ) BERKOV mailto:aberkov@tampabay.rr.com

3 VLFC MEMBERS On December 26 th, 2016 we held our annual, Joel Linky Grandkids Fishing Derby. Rich Brown, Chairman, once again organized a flawless event in which approximately 35 grandchildren and their countless Grandparents and Parents enjoyed a beautiful event. The weather was perfect and although the bass were not as plentiful as in past years, everyone had a wonderful time. Rich Brown will be stepping down this year and has created a simple template for his successor. Please consider getting in touch with Rich (reelfunny@gmail.com) if you would be thinking about contributing to our clubs most important and appreciated community event. This event could not have been successful without the help of so many VLFC volunteers. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION! Editor, Gary Spieler If you d like to send or receive pictures from this event. ******* ******* AL WAX L-2016-Grandkids-fishing

4 YOUR GO TO PLACE FOR WHAT S UP! The VLFC is proud to debut our new website: Much thanks is due Allison Davis, our new webmaster, for her tireless work to get this up and running. The website is still under construction but please check it out and send your comments to Allison: allison0929@gmail.com. This is a very valuable asset, and it s yours! ***** Great videos, pictures of our members ***** Contact Information for all VLFC Members *** Issues of VLFC Newsletters *** TURN UP THE AUDIO, THERE S MUSIC, TOO! WEBMASTER- ALLISON DAVIS - allison0929@gmail.com

5 Dock Fishing in the Winter Part I Posted in How-to Fish, Techniques These series of articles underscores what many of us think is the most challenging and entertaining category of winter inshore action on saltwater - - fishing residential docks! The mud in the backwater where residential docks have been built by the thousands in and around the bays and intercoastals is black and thick. When the water's cold, it holds warmth. That warmth attracts fish. Redfish and snook, in particular, populate the docks with big trout -- some of the biggest you'll find all year -- often hanging at the deeper mouths of the canals holding the docks. Part 1 of this how-to series of articles has a section attached to it that we pulled out of the book "Skinny: How to Fish Shallow Saltwater" that I wrote with Captain Mel Berman. We hope you enjoy this bit of cold-weather reading. Residential docks aren't easy to fish, but can produce big fish to the brave of heart. Try not to yell obscenities when you get broken off. Trust us. You will. Fishing docks in the wintertime -- for me, at least -- is one of the most challenging and productive ways to find fish in the bay. And while there's no question that you'll find it easier (almost too easy at times) to catch big redfish under docks in the wintertime, the snook you find with them tend to lurk there all year. When I wrote the book "Skinny: How to Fish in Shallow Saltwater", dock fishing played a big role. Captain Mel wasn't that much of a dock guy; he liked fishing in any form, anywhere, and under pretty-much any circumstances. Invitations on guide boats weren't hard for him to come by, and docks are a little bit too much work for a four hour trip. All that said, I got in a chapter about dock fishing -- positioning the boat, where the fish sit, bottom structure, nighttime fishing, skip casting, and more. Reading over the chapter before I put it up there reminded me of a friend of mine I miss really bad. A guy named Captain Mel Berman. One other thing before you read the

6 document. On page 17, the book suggests you use a "hand-done" chart as opposed to digital/satellite images, because they provide easier-to-read depth statistics. Download a free program called Google Earth. It provides the old-fashioned charts we suggest -- but in an incredible and beautiful digital format that works perfectly on your iphone, Android, or "Crack-berry". Docks and Man-made Structure December dock fishing is a phrase popular with just about everybody that fishes skinny water in Tampa bay and anywhere there are residential areas with canals and docks behind the houses. Captain Mike Plastic, a friend and fishing companion, gets credit for coining the term. Interestingly, it was probably a cold October that first time he mentioned it, saying let s go fishing (common from the mouth of Captain Mike). I said it was too cold, to which he replied haven t you ever heard of December Dock fishing? It s not December" I said. It s cold, isn t it? was his timely and by the end of the day correct snappy answer. When we say docks we re not always talking about the ones that you tie a boat too. This Spillway and access walkway is the same as a residential dock; it holds bait the same way, and attracts predators the same way. It doesn t have to be December to go dock fishing; the fish go under docks whenever it gets cold. Water temps around maybe 62 degrees. Redfish, their cousins the puppy drum, second cousin the speckled sea trout (yup, another drum), snook, and the ubiquitous saltwater catfish hunker down underneath residential and commercial docks. Docks can be thought of as houses where fish live, because their actual structure creates a roof. The roof is the deck of the dock or walkway. Underneath the roof is the house. Because of this house analogy, there are two things to remember about dock fishing. If you make noise on the outside of the house whoever or whatever is inside is going to run out. In this case, they re going to run away from the dock. Be quiet. Fish docks on higher tides. The more water that you see under that roof, the more room there is in the house. The higher the tide, the bigger the house. The bigger the house, the more fish there are living in it. Tidal flow is important BUT it is NOT as important as the amount of water that s present. In a lower tide, there s only room for one or two target snook underneath this dock. It s a perfectly viable dock, but as the house gets smaller, the room inside diminishes. When the tide s low there s less room in the 'house' for snook (and others) to live. The more room there is in the 'house', the more fish can fit in it

7 For simplicity s sake, we re going to talk about residential docks, because there are a lot more of them in skinny locales than there are commercial docks. Marinas, which sort of fall in the middle of residential and commercial, are prime candidates for catching big fish in cold weather, but there may be restrictions, and certainly armed boaters so do be careful. Remember, being nice, friendly, and respectful of others properties is key. While some people aren t exactly overjoyed that you re fishing behind their house early one morning, just be quiet, polite, and keep down the curse words when a powerful redfish makes a fool out of you and peels off 50 yards of line while running out from under the dock you re fishing to the one next door wrapping your line three times around the dock you re on while he s departing. Overall, people that have waterfront houses don t mind if people fish around their docks if they re nice and respectful and quiet. On the other hand, they don t really have the right to tell you not to fish there. The water s public regardless of the privacy of the neighborhood it flows through. This is true for rivers as well as all saltwater, but not true for lakes which can -- by being surrounded by houses be made purely private. Why fish are found under docks Docks are like decks; they are a series of boards that rest on joists or cross pieces which in turn are attached to pilings. Pilings are large round timbers pressure-treated to avoid rot (although the process slows and doesn t stop deterioration of the wood) that are sunk into the bottom. Barnacles love dock pilings; that s part (but only part) of why fish pile up around them in the wintertime. Docks get warmed from the sun. They're often found in canals, and canals are muddy, not grassy, by nature. Dark mud attracts light and is warmer than bright sand; the water underneath those rooftops called docks is a little warmer than the surrounding (open) flats and large bodies of water. We ve seen thirty snook just sitting in 12 inches of water with their bellies on the skankiest-smelling, darkest, slimiest mud in the Bay. And they were happy fish, just waiting to warm up so they could resume their hunting. Hopefully this how-to article has taught you some techniques that will help you catch more fish this winter! If you liked this article please read the following articles below.

8 Dock Fishing in the Winter Part II Posted in How-to Fish, Techniques In this article we will touch on the proper way to get your bait far under the dock where fish generally are going to be set up waiting for a meal. Skip Casting - The secret to effective dock fishing. So what s so hard about this? If you know where the fish are going to be when it s cold outside, and you know just about how they position themselves relative to the posts holding up the dock and the tide flowing past them, what s the problem? There are two. One is getting the bait to the fish, and the second is getting a hooked fish out from underneath that dock. That s a trick we can only partially illustrate; experience is the best teacher. We can certainly tell stories about dock fishing, because we ve done a lot of it. We might even argue it s our favorite form of skinny water fishing, but that would be a stretch. Skip casting is a specific technique that as far as we know was developed specifically for fishing docks. It s the only way to get your baits underneath the "roof." Depending on a number of factors, including the position of your boat, the wind, and the flow of the tide at that moment, you might have to cast from either side of the dock. The problem comes from having to place the bait or lure underneath the roof. If you re on this side (the bottom of the image) you re not in so much trouble, but you still have to bounce that bait horizontally to get it under the dock. If you re on the other side, casting down underneath the surface of the dock, you might have to bounce-skip the bait three or four times. And believe us when we say that being able to skip that bait underneath a dock is the difference between an outstanding experience and fishing where there appears to be nothing alive. It s the difference of casting a shrimp two feet outside a dock compared to getting it two feet under the dock. Don t believe us? Try it one freezing cold, windy, snotty day that turns out miserable -- or incredible depending on your ability to skip cast -- and you ll believe us. The real

9 bummer is watching people that can do it catch big, strong, hungry fish cast after cast after cast while you re holding your line (so to speak). The closest of the pilings are the easiest to cast to; cast there first. They re also the ones to cast to if you re moving from dock to dock or can t position properly Positioning your boat to effectively get baits under the "roof" Boat position is very important in dock fishing; use trolling motors to get around if possible (although people using the new four-stroke engines say they re so quiet they don t scare the fish). The bait or lure is going to either move away from your boat (with the tide) or towards it. Again, let s compare a realworld dock to our amateur drawings; so you can make a connection between what s happening with the food the predator expects to see, what you re going to use to simulate that natural food, and where the predator is likely to be. Cover the dock well and don t ignore any potential feeding areas Move close and quiet around the docks. The same thing applies to flats; always be quiet. Talking isn t bad, but hitting the boat is deadly. Fish are not only predators, they re prey. Hearing anything out of the usual (which is pretty much silence itself if you think about what fish are listening to) scares them. With fish it s not fight or flee; it s flee. They hear something scary and it scares them. If you think quiet and walk quietly and be as still as a cat hunting a mouse, you can catch fish underneath these same docks walking on them as you can casting underneath them. It s harder, but it can be done. Docks are another one of those places where people fishing from them cast as far away as they can, while guys on boats cast underneath their feet if possible. Let s get back to the conversation about how to get your baits underneath the dock, we come back to skip casting. There s two ways to cast over your shoulder (be it left or right) or sidearm. There are transitional casts that are in between the two extremes, but for teaching purposes let s stick to one over your shoulder and the other sideways. An overhead cast gets more distance; sidearm gives more flexibility. Although it s harder to master, it can provide perfection of placement and the ability to skip the bait or lure into otherwise impossible-to-reach locales. If you cast sidearm, release at the perfect time, and throw the lure or bait down towards the water at a slight angle, the bait will skip. Ever skip a stone across the water as a kid? It s the same thing. Practice the cast in wide open water on the flats; then try skipping a bait underneath the roof of a dock. We promise it ll work. It won t work all the time; sometimes you ll throw that shrimp nine

10 yards above and beyond the dock. Other times you ll hit the shrimp or whitebait (or jig) so hard against the side of the dock that it will never be the same. But sometimes you ll skip that thing so far under the dock it will come out the other side, with the entire width (or length if you re really good) of the structure to fish. Like we said at the beginning of this article: experience is the best teacher when learning the proper way to skip-cast baits under a dock, but hopefully this how-to article has taught you some techniques that will help you start skip-casting the right way Had any interesting fishing experiences? Heard of any interesting fishing ideas? Would you like to see additional events, educational experiences for our VLFC members? Garys49401@aol.com

11 Dock Fishing in the Winter: Part III - Positioning Your Boat Posted in Casting, How-to Fish, positioning-your-boat#sthash.uzumxpob.dpuf Techniques In this article we will touch on the proper way to position your boat to help get your bait in the strike zone (under the dock!). If you are just finding this article and haven't read Parts I and II yet, you might want to read them first! Here are both of the previous articles: Fishing Docks in the Winter Part 1 Fishing Docks in the Winter Part 2: Skip-casting Positioning your boat for accurate casts Positioning a boat is something we will provide a brief discussion on -- as it is important to know how to position a boat in the right spot for skipping baits or lures underneath docks. Wind is a major with a capital M factor when positioning a boat to fish a dock. Really hard wind pushes bait even though it s underwater against shoreline, underneath docks, and into any structure on the downwind side of the air movement. This is the same dock, with (presumably) the same tide movement, but with a 20 or 25 knot wind blowing from behind the fisherman. Look at where the fish are. Anchors First let s talk about anchors. Anchoring a boat in skinny water is very different from anchoring a boat in 60 feet of water. For one thing, the anchor isn t going to sink that far. For another thing, you can t make noise, or dropping the anchor is only going to anchor you where there aren t any fish. And we hope you remember about fishing where there are fish. Anchors require chains to work properly, and this is as true in skinny water let s say three feet deep or so as it is in deeper water. You might not need as long a chain, but you need one. We use two or three different anchors depending on the depth of the water but most commonly we use a flat aluminum 'fin anchor,' which can be kept fairly quiet. The chain is jacketed in soft plastic so it doesn t click if it touches something made of metal. That lets us sort of hook it underneath one of the anchor cleats when we re moving a short distance in skinny water; the person on the front of the boat can slip it out

12 from underneath the cleat and the anchor slips quietly to the shallow bottom. Wind and Tide Wind and tide come into play whether you re anchoring or drifting it s just a matter of if the boat is moving or not. When we re throwing nets, we often want to have all the space we can get, so we tie off the anchor line to the stern, and throw the net off the bow. The same thing applies if you re fishing two or three people on one boat; there s often more room off the bow then the stern. Anchoring or more accurately where you tie off the line on the boat is the key to boat position in more ways then one. The tide is not the only factor pulling the boat Add wind moving in the opposite direction and the boat drifts, even though it s hanging on its anchor. When the tide changes, though, and runs in the opposite direction, this same wind that is now causing the boats to just linger around the anchor lines will have them pulling hard in an hour or two or six. Proper Boat Positioning requires simple steps: Think about where the fish are going to be. Determine that you DO NOT want your boat to be at that location. Your boat should be casting distance away. Position the boat so you can either cast to the fish, or let the water move your baits past where they re likely to be. Do you have a great idea for a VLFC event? Join our open board meetings (the 2 nd Wednesday of each month) and share your idea. Let s make it a reality! OR perhaps you can garys49401@aol.com and I can share it with the board.

13 Captain s Corner: Snook, baby tarpon on the move By Capt. Pat Damico December 15, Falling water temperature is causing snook and baby tarpon to head upriver to their winter haunts, where both species can adapt to freshwater. Many fish that have been around river mouths, bridges and near beaches are migrating upriver and making frequent feeding stops. Structure is key as any diversion from a smooth bank often holds baitfish. Points, sand holes, channels, fallen trees, undercut banks and small mangrove islands must all be explored. Don t spend a lot of time in one spot. Cast accurately with baitfish patterns the size and color of what you see in the water. A cast that lands 3 feet from structure will not produce as well as one within inches or under fish holding obstacles. Watch your temperature gauge. Warmer water in small shallow bays can be a hot spot. Fish will often be in groups, so when one or two are caught, continue fishing the area. Keep the boat parallel to shore with an electric motor where two experienced fly casters can work an area using different setups. An outgoing tide will drain small creeks of baitfish and large predators will be in the closest deep hole waiting for an easy meal.

14 3 Tips For Catching Flounder On Artificial Lures Do you want to become Flounder Strong? And do you want to increase the number of flounder you catch on artificial lures each year? If you answered Yes to either of these questions, then this article is for you. By Nick Lytle But before I reveal the three tips, let s start with the most critical piece of flounder fishing first. The most critical piece of the puzzle is RESEARCH. Yep, research. Research, aka doing your homework, is even more critical than the lure you use. In fact, when targeting any new species of fish, your overall success levels will always be heavily dependent on your level of research. If you can t find them, then nothing else matters. Studying flounder behavioral characteristics will help you understand where they live and what they are doing during each part of the year. Why?

15 Because once you know where they live and what they feed on, it s pretty easy to match up the right artificial lure to make it look like the flounder s favorite meal. Quick Flounder Knowledge 101 Flounder spend the majority of their lives lying on the ocean floor, waiting for an easy meal. Flounder are excellent ambush predators, blend in with soft bottoms throughout the coast of Florida, and are very aggressive. Here, in Northwest Florida, we have two types of Flounder. The Summer Flounder and the Gulf Flounder. Female Summer Flounder prefer brackish waters and move offshore to spawn, during the winter months. Flounder Tip #1 Have A Strategy Before You Hit The Water Strong angler Thom Ray with a nice flounder As I mentioned before, the key to targeting a flounder is having a strategy in place BEFORE you hit the water. Strategies can only be made after doing extensive research to help dial in your strategies. My fall flounder strategy hinges on a number of variables, but the simplest (and most important) revolves around migration habits. We know summer flounder migrate out of estuaries, creeks, and bays beginning in the fall. So, let s use that knowledge to our advantage. As fall progresses, fish begin to exit the bays and estuaries through passes, canals, and rivers.

16 As the fish make this migration, they become easy targets and can be found in the same area year after year. I prefer to target areas close to inlets and deep water. When searching for new fishing locations, I always use Google Earth. Google Earth allows me to locate target-rich environments. My definition of a target-rich environment is an area that has healthy grass and large potholes like this one below. I have never fished the area pictured. However, this is a perfect example of an area I would go to catch fish. Potholes create the perfect ambush point for flounder and should be worked thoroughly from more than one angle. So always study up and have a good idea of where flounder will be during specific times of year, tides, etc. Flounder Tip #2 The Right Equipment and Tackle The Matrix Shad Ultraviolet

17 When targeting Flounder, I prefer to use a 7 bait casting setup with 20 pound braided line and a 20 pound fluorocarbon leader. However, any medium action setup will perform perfectly. Bouncing soft plastic paddle tails and flukes will allow you to cover a ton of water, while fishing for Flounder. More often than not, I use a Matrix Shad in the color Ultra-Violet (see it on Amazon here) Regardless of which soft plastics you prefer, be sure to pair the soft plastic with a jig head that is heavy enough to keep the lure on the bottom at all times. If the lure does not stay within six inches of the bottom, your chances of catching Flounder drastically decrease. Flounder Tip #3 Setting the Hook Like A Pro Like myself, I m sure many of you have a story about a flounder that let the lure go just before reaching the net. Why does this happen? eating. It happens because flounder typically bite their prey then return to the bottom, prior to It is common for anglers to unexpectedly set the hook, pulling the lure away from the flounder. When fishing for flounder, you will feel the lure hang on the bottom. When this happens, do not set the hook!

18 Instead: Slowly raise the rod tip. Feel for fish movement. Keep steady pressure. Wait for it THEN SET THE HOOK HARD!!! Once you have him on the line, a big flounder will shake their heads and pull drag like small redfish. But you won t even get the chance if you don t set the hook correctly. Conclusion Targeting a new species can be challenging. But with a little dedication, research, and a few drops of luck you will succeed in catching more Flounder. Remember, research is the key to mastering anything, and fishing is no exception. And when you combine research with the right tackle then you will see more flounder coming in your boat. Go become Flounder Strong!

19 ****Valencia Lakes Fishing Club s *** Annual Joel Linky Memorial GRANDKID S FISHING DERBY Monday, DEC AM

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21 PICTURE OF THE MONTH * St. Petersburg, Florida* Photographer: Gary Spieler * Please forward any photographs to: garys49401@aol.com

22 RESOURCES 1 #1 Resource HOW TO, WHERE TO CATCH SALTWATER FISH ING OUR LOCAL WATERS The Online Fisherman CURRENT SOLUNAR CHART FOR OUR LOCAL WATERS CURRENT INFO FOR OUR LOCAL WATERS KNOT TYING GENERAL LEARNING INFORMATION FLORIDA FISHING RULES/REGULATIONS WADE-FISHING SLOTS, BAG LIMITS OTHER If you would like to add to this list of resources please forward your suggestions to: garys49401@aol.com

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