Beautiful Lemon Bay Florida

Last week I was in Florida and got to do a little fishing in Lemon Bay, which is located between Sarasota and Ft Myers, Florida. Our first stop was the bait shop to get live shrimp, 3 dozen for $12 bucks. Talking with the bait shop worker, we found that the recent pattern has the fish biting in the morning and they stop by noon. Soooo, we were out on the water in the morning and the weather couldn't have been better.

The bay was as calm as glass and the temp was about 75 degrees. Perfect for a day of fishing.

You can see our target fishing spot just ahead in this photo, the bridge. We have found that fish like to stay near the bridge supports. We should catch red snapper, snook, and sheepshead.

Here, Pop is preparing to wet a hook in the bay! Right at the start, we were catching fish. They were small at first, red snapper and snook, but started to become larger as the day moved on.

Just as we started fishing, the wind kicked up and the water started to get choppy. Also, other fishermen had the same idea as we did, fish near the bridge. Lucky for us, the bridge proved to be successful.  

SHARK!!! SHARK!!!................Nope, it's a bottle nose dolphin. Pop told me that last week a dolphin swam under a fishermen's boat and grabbed his catch of the day. This dolphin did move near our boat, but didn't attempt to steal our fish. Anyway, just like clockwork, as noon neared, the fish stopped biting.

The reward of the day, fresh fish (sheepshead to be exact and dressed up in an old convict outfit, black and white stripped). Oh yeah, checkout these teeth below. 

This fellow looks like a hockey player. I took this picture of a sheepshead to show you their teeth. I think they look like human teeth? You don't want to put a finger in there. Sheepshead use their teeth to crush the shells of their prey and grind them up like a garbage disposal. Anyway, sheepshead smell like fish, but taste chicken sort up? I think we have a few fat shrimp left over from fishing. Perfect to put on the barbie with these sheepshead, yum...... 

Hey, Checkout My Maps at LeoMaps.com