# Marsh Madness in April



## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

Lucky me...the wife decided to go to breakfast with the "girls".   

Low tide about an hour after sunrise, cool, with an east wind at less than 10.
Line was getting brittle so I made use of the "ugly stripper" to change out the old

http://www.microskiff.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1236435776

and install the new. Dropped off the old line at the ramp depository before launching.

I wonder how many ugly strippers have been made?  :-?











Caught the tide change and followed it into the marsh. By entering at dead low,
all the usually submerged hazards are easily visible, and a course can be determined to get through.











Poled my way back into the marsh following the meanderings of the mosquito creek.
Gets tight in places, you'd best be able to pole from either end of the boat.
Some times there's not enough room to change your mind, let alone turn around.











Mullet, mudminnows and reds keep ahead of the boat until we all run out of places to go.
Then it's a mad minute when everything blasts through the grass, around the boat in a rush to escape the dead end.











Back when the marsh was considered useless lands and a breeding ground for mosquitos
canals and ditches were dug to bring more water into the area, in hopes it would control the health hazard.
That worked out well, Not!. It does give slightly deeper and faster access into the backwaters.











Too bad the lens on the camera's not polarized, you'd be able to see what I saw through my sunglasses.
Bait fish, crabs and an assortment of larger fish, all using the canals and ditches as a place to feed and relax
away from the easily accessed open waters along the ICW. I was the only person in sight all morning.











I even found a few juvie snook in the shade of a overhanging cedar. They gave their location away
when they lunged at the school of mudminnows I was herding up the ditch. The mud, dug out to make
the ditches, was deposited along the edge of the canal and holds a record of every animal that, recently, walked the banks.
Deer, hog, raccoon, bobcats, otters, gators and wading birds all leave tracks to look at, when you get bored with fish.
Excellent way to spend the morning, as long as you don't mind getting a bit dirty...










No fish were harmed during this trip, as there were no hooks on the spook jr.
This was probably also responsible for my continued ownership of said lure
as it makes for easy retrieval when an unexpected wind gust blows a cast into the grass or brush.

Yeah...right...gusts, winds 10 mph or less all morning.


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## HaMm3r (Dec 11, 2006)

*Re: marsh madness*

You know Brett, I almost towed the Gheenoe up to Bings this morning, but all the weather reports showed it was going to be very windy. I decided to mow the yard instead. Clearly a bad decision!  [smiley=frustrated.gif]

Sounds like one of us had a nice relaxing morning anyway.     ;D


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## CarlosNoe (Sep 5, 2008)

Looks like a nice trip I check out spots like this around different times of the year in the Everglades write down what I see, and some times discover fish in those areas. Once the rain start I like to hit those spots...do good some times...


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## Salty_South (Feb 25, 2009)

Thanks for the pics, especially the first one!


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## Bissell (Feb 27, 2010)

Just a trick ive learned, if you take a pair of polorized sunglasses and hold them in front of the lens of your camera, you can take polorized pics


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

I wear prescription sunglasses.

It'd be like looking through the bottom of a Coke bottle. ;D


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