Florida turkey hunting, part II: to the beach!

We took the afternoons off from scouting the first few days.  One day, we headed to Playalinda Beach for some shore fishing and in hopes of catching a rocket launch.  Either I got the date wrong for the launch or it got scrubbed.  The beach was nice and we had it almost to ourselves.  We caught some small whiting, sheepshead, and bluefish and Micah caught a keeper seatrout in the surf.



 






Our second fishing trip was on the Sebastian River thanks to Mark McBride.  Mark and I met while trying to capture some ducks for a side-project in South Florida.  When I mentioned that we would be in the area, he suggested a tarpon and snook fishing trip.  It didn't take any urging for us to sign up.  I didn't take any pictures of the trip, but I believe that Micah got some that will show up in the next post. It was a great nature tour on which we saw all kinds of aquatic and bird life, many of which were first for Micah.  We also had plenty of time to discuss hunting, wildlife management, and other similar topics with Mark who is a waterfowl biologist with FWC.  As far as fishing was concerned, Mark caught a few large gafftopsail catfish, I jumped a tarpon, and Micah lost two mystery fish (one likely a shark) and had a snook take his bait right at the side of the boat after missing it a few times.  Unfortunately, it didn't take the hook.  All in all, it was a great experience, and we are very grateful for the time on the water.


Funny enough, a few nights later, we caught a launch as we left the WMA from afternoon scouting.  Micah saw it out of the corner of his eye and we stopped to watch.  As it rose, we saw the boosters come off and fall back to earth.


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