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3. Back online at home, and a Florida Keys trip copming up!

FINALLY got back online in my own home, at my new location. Don't have to go to the library to post anymore!

And, my neighbor and I are planning to head down to FL by auto in the next couple of weeks. Driving so we can be flexible and take plenty of fishing gear!! And a couple of new telescopes, got a nice big payout from my late Mother's inheritance...oh, and two new fly rods and a new reel with 2 extra spools (already loaded with 3 different 7-weight lines), and been tying up a few saltwater flies...there is The Winter Star Party going on between 16 and 23 February that I will at least try to pop in on for a night or two, maybe next year commit to the whole week there, but we are fishing, including some freshwater on the way down to the Keys. And some botanizing in the Everglades, Big Cypress, Key Largo...plus beach combing and snorkeling!

We are not setting a return date so we can stay flexible, but it will be early March. Neither of us has work to run back here to, and I am set for $$$ for now (a BIG change in my life!!!). Work will start up eventually again, and I have to help my sister sell a house in Troy worth $300k or so. No monetary worries for the time being...I told Ron if we get a wild hair up our ass we might just go billfishing! We're not getting any younger, time to do it when we still can!

More local fishing to come this year too, folks. I have a lot of territory to explore around my new house that I didn't have energy for last year. Expect plenty of photos!

Jonathon

Hi Jonathon-

Thanks for the update on your online status. Am gratified to hear of your planned trip to Florida; sounds like fun. Don't believe I've ever responded to one of your posts before, but I certainly follow them, and am looking forward to your narrative and photos from Florida.

Thanks Roger! I haven't been to FL since '97 and there's a lot to explore there. I will be sure to post plenty of photos of fish and everything else we'll be doing. I enjoy posting my trips and very much enjoy reading those of others and seeing their pics. I should be having the boys (Joe & Todd) up again this year too.

Jonathon

Like Roger, I look forward to a report! All best wishes.

Good for you Jonathon! I hope you have safe and fun trip, cant wait to see some pictures of blue water and green stuff growing instead of white and brown stuff.
Mike.

I didn't know you had retired. Have a good time in Florida. I'm flying doen to Punta Gorda for a week of inshore snook and redfish with a friend who lives in Fort Myers. He has a 21' inshore boat with a 150 horsepower motor. He know the tides and has been averaging a dozen snook 22" - 25" every trip out plus a couple of nice redfish.

Hey Matt, not retired, just off work for the winter this year. It will come back eventually, but not before we have a few weeks on the salt! And with my Mom's inheritance I'm not worried financially. She would approve of a FL Keys trip, she & my Dad took us down there twice & we all had a blast (back in '76 & '77)! Time to go back there with a fly rod - or 3? At least 3, maybe 4!

Jonathon

Wow. Everyone’s heading to Florida. My wife and I are going to visit a friend in Naples and we’ll spend a week in Ft Myers. Looking forward to it. Have never seen the Everglades or Sanibel Island.

Good travels everyone.

Spring will show back up and we’ll have trout on the brain.

Spence

"Have never seen the Everglades or Sanibel Island."

?????????????????

Nerder birder has not been to one of the only subtropical parts of the lower 48??? About freakin' time!!!

Have fun, we will!

Jonathon

I'm leaving for Fort Myers, FL on 02/20 for eight days of inshore snook and redfish. One of my best friends moved there four years ago. He now knows how the bait moves based on tidal action and where to go to find fish depending on water temperatures and other variables. He run's a 21' inshore boat with a 150 horsepower motor. He's landed over 60 snook so far in 2020.

Hey Matt, what flies for snook? I'm tying right now, got a whole bunch of saltwater hooks in a range of sizes.

Jonathon

P.S. Spence, when are you traveling? Should we all try to hook up down there, at least for lunch? Ron & I are flexible with respect to our plans, not leaving now until maybe the 19th or 20th.

Jonathon,

Well it's hard to go wrong with various color combos of Clousers #4 - #6 in all white, blue over white, olive over white, light gray over white. All with a good amount of silver Flashabou and silver Krystal flash in the middle. Tie a couple with lead eyes for deeper water and bead chain eyes for shallower water. Tie them 2" - 3" long. I like to use Mustad S71SZ-34007 they have micro barbs or just the standard 34007 and touch up the point with a file so it is needle sharp and pinch the barb.

I'm set up for all of that, Matt. Thanks! My back is giving me issues today but the vice is set up, on a table scattered with bucktail & Krystal Flash...

Jonathon