Discovering new marsh systems is both a lot of fun and a lot of work! I’ve been taking some time off during the cold stint in northeast Florida recently. The down time gave me an opportunity to upgrade some equipment, ink a new deal with the folks at Hobie Eyewear, and discover some new waters. I recently traveled up to Saint Augustine to check out the Guana area, and I also finally got around to fishing Princess Place Preserve in Palm Coast, Florida. What a blast!
Discovering new marsh systems is both a lot of fun and a lot of work!
The First of Four Trips
Well it took me a few trips, four to be exact, to be able to crank out a video. On the first trip I caught a few redfish, only to find that when I got back to the launch, there was an operator failure.
I use a wireless microphone system (Rode Wireless Go) to record audio to the camera you see behind me. It has two parts to it, a transmitter which is in my pocket and is connected to a lapel microphone, and a receiver which sits on the camera itself. The transmitter in my pocket was on, but someone forgot to turn on the receiver. Doh! LOL! That means that I have great footage of two nice Redfish that I caught, but without any audio!
Actually, I have what is called scratch audio…. audio that I use to synchronize the footage from several cameras so that I can seemlessly switch between views. But that word “scratch” means that the audio quality is poor as it’s recorded directly from the on camera microphone on the camera in front of me, with all the wind noise included. So, let’s just say, that’s not good enough quality for my videos! Oh, I did sneak a shot of the release of one of those redfish in on the video if you were looking closely!
I loved that trip because the tide was high! The drone footage I show in the video at low tide, shows a plethora of oyster beds that were all submerged at high tide. The tide brought the redfish in to munch! What a difference the tide makes!
Trip II
Trip number two was decent. I was trying out new leader line, 12 lbs test, and let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. I did catch a nice redfish, that, in all its wisdom, simply headed for the submerged oyster bed. I kept reeling and soon he came up to the surface, splashed his tail, as if to say goodbye, and as I was reaching for my net, he snapped the leader line and went about his day. There went my jig head, my paddle tail, and my faith in that leader line. I’ve got a nice video of it, but alas I didn’t think it was worthy to include. So let’s chaulk that up to a good lesson learned… use the right tools for the job! Oh, and I certainly do hope that my jig head doesn’t leave a bad taste in his mouth. Hopefully he’s free of it by now!
Trip III
Trip number three was a bust. I got skunked. It happens. Interestingly, it was low tide and I had more equipment failures. I had to repair my fins several times and I had power issues with one of my cameras. I got home, ordered new power cables for my cameras off of Amazon (see my Gear here) and within a few days I worked on my equipment and decided to try one more time.
Trip IV
When I pulled up to the launch and saw that it was low tide again, at first, I was disappointed. But I decided to launch and give it a go and I’m glad I did. All of my equipment repairs held up and as you can see, I put a few flounder in the boat. I also discovered all of the oyster beds! In fact, at the very end I found out where all of the local kayak fishermen and women go in that area. There’s a few feeding grounds that you see in the drone footage in my video. Interestingly, I picked out those spots and tried to get back there when I first launched but the water was literally 3″ high. Near the end of the video the tide had risen and I managed to get back to that area, but alas, it was time to leave! They close and lock the gates in the Preserve at 6pm and I didn’t want to get locked in.
Oh well, like a birdie in golf, that just ensures I’ll come back for round V!
Hobie Eyewear – Mojo Float
As you know from the video, this year I’m going to essentially wear a different pair of Hobie Eyewear Fishing Sunglasses in each video. Honestly, I’ll probably repeat a few from time to time. In this video I’m wearing the Hobie Mojo Float version and I’ve got to tell you…. Hobie is the exclusive provider of my eyewear this year … I think this will be my favorite pair. I love the tortois brown pattern, they call it “Shiny Brown Wood Grain” and the “Copper” lens on this pair. They’re very comfortable, and very high quality! I highly recommend them. If you’re interested, you can save 20% by clicking here and using code KFAHOBIE21 at checkout!
~Kayak Fishing Addict
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