Salt deficiency? Oh yeah, I’ve got it, got it real bad. You see, I have absolutely zero saltwater trips on the calendar.

I realize how good I had it with those annual spring bonefishing trips to the Bahamas. And even when that didn’t pan out last year, I managed to wheedle in two days of bonefishing on my girls trip to Belize.

But I don’t have anything on the books, not even redfishing, and it’s leaving me feeling woozy and unsettled. My electrolytes are out of balance. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of Hyponatremia include fatigue, irritability, restlessness and confusion.

Check, check, check and check. I have them all. I fear no amount of Gatorade can fix what ails me. I need some time on the salt! Get me to a flat stat.

 You see, unfortunately a couple of weeks ago, the motor was stolen off our boat. It’s been the cause of endless ire and frustration, especially since they no longer make these two stroke motors. The Professor has been living on Ebay and Craigslist trying to find a replacement (not to mention looking for someone trying to sell his stolen motor.)

So with a bittersweet sense of ceremony we launched the boat with the new-to-us motor and launched a new era for our little v-john flats boat.

Fishing was tough, we only saw a few fish and they were quite skittish. But the weather was sublime and it felt great to be out on the water.

Besides, take out “A” for Angling and Launch quickly turns to Lunch –which we found just down the road from the boat launch.

So if you happen to come across a two stroke Yamaha motor anywhere on the I-10 corridor along the Gulf Coast, give us a shout. We’re still hot to find our hot motor. But the good news is we have plenty to keep us busy and grateful. A great day on the water. Killer hotdogs. And the launch of Paddlefish, which made for a wildly entertaining week last week.

Thanks to each and everyone of you who have already purchased the book! I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying your feedback. If you haven’t had a chance to buy it yet, don’t be shy…I am happy to take your order and ship your copy!

I hope Monday morning is treating everyone well and launching you into a good week.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”-Henry David Thoreau

That’s one thing I love about saltwater fishing. I’ve seen it happen with redfish, and bonefish too. Sometimes, much to my delight, they will fall prey to competitive panic that the person on their left or right might get the crispiest, juiciest piece of fried chicken and so they start throwing bows to get their choice piece of bird. Or shrimp. Or fly-meant-to-imitate-a-shrimp.

We have been enjoying many wonderful family-style meals this week here in Mobile, with both in-town and out of town family and friends. Countless blessings and amidst a backdrop of shrimp and celery salad, crab soup, New Orleans-style roast beef poboys, smoked turkey, pimento cheese, shrimp gumbo, corn salad, red beans and rice. It’s a basic law of nature (not to mention basic law in the South) that when you need a dose of comfort, nothing does the trick like family and comfort food.

And stealing away to fish in the marsh for a few hours in the morning.

Departure Publishing (yes, coincidentally my very own publisher) has released two fantastic fly fishing books this year and I can’t wait to devour them cover to cover.

The first is KEEPER by Martin Donovan, a British streamkeeper. I’m told it’s a raucously funny take on storied English trout streams. I am already loving the “Foreigner’s Guide to the Queen’s English” included at the front. Bullocks, I need a quid to buy a pint and settle in with a good read….

The second book, THE BLITZ is by my friend over at Fishing Jones, Pete McDonald as well as Tosh Brown. Pete wrote the stories, Tosh took the photos. It’s a coffee table book about stripers and eastern seaboard saltwater fishing and will make you want to get on the water stat.

Congrats to my Departure Publishing brethren on two very exciting fishing books! Run, don’t walk, to get copies for your library.

And since we are talking about books…it seems fitting to tell you that as of yesterday afternoon we have a cover concept for my book. Which is convenient because it goes to the printer in two days.

We loved it so much we asked our Man to serve it with every meal. Yes, including breakfast.

No doubt thrilled to be rid of us at the end of the week, he was gracious enough to send us home with the recipe:

3 limes
3 eggs
1 pack cream cheese
1 can sweet condensed milk
1 Graham cracker crust
Zest lime, then juice
Food process
Bake at 350 for 20 min
Room temp then refrigerate

This key lime pie might be just the comfort food I need this Spring as I am otherwise virtually inconsolable. As many of you know, this is the time of year I venture to Exuma Bahamas for my annual bonefishing trip with my parents. Sadly, this year, I am breaking the four-year streak and won’t be able to make it.

I have been a whining fool over it. Of course I should shut my key lime pie hole and just be grateful that I was able to sneak in two days of fishing on my Belize Girls trip in January. But honestly it stings. It really stings.

I thought I would share a look back at the recent years in Exuma:

2010…

To see the 2010 video montage and trip report visit the post Bone of Contention

2009…

To see the 2009 video montage and trip report visit the post Even Bonefish Get The Blues

2008…

To see the 2008 video montage and trip report visit the post Mama Told Me There’d Be Days Like This

2007…

No video post for 2007. That predates the blog!

So there you have it. A look back at the past four years in Exuma. Looking at the pictures is like pouring salt in my saltwater wound. But hey, at least I had two great days in Belize and who can cry with key lime pie?

Try your hand at the recipe and share a picture of your key lime pie to flyfishchick (at) live (dot) com

I’m off to Live Oak Florida for Springfest. Don’t forget to tune in to see my episode of Bass2Billfish this Friday 1:30pm EST and again on Saturday 11am EST. Let me know what you think!

Cheers! Catch you on the flipside….

So in a nutshell, fishing in Belize….thrilled I went, George Bradley is the nicest, hardest working guide on the planet, low water this time of year, unfortunate cold snap, cloudy skies, wind, wind wind. Tough conditions. Smaller fish than Bahamas but not easier to catch.

All sight casting, tails tails tails tails. Thousands and gazillions of bonefish tails. Saw a massive snook, no shot. Spooky spooky spooky bones. Shallow water. Damn wind. But managed to catch 3 on first day, 8 on the second day. Loved it.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a saltwater trip for me without…wait for it….a slideshow.

Enjoy!

The Professor has hooked me up with his favorite guide down there, George Bradley. So I have two days scheduled and I am over the moon. My dad tied some flies for me. I have new leader and tippet, rods and reels are set out. I am good to go.

At our breakfast table banter yesterday we were talking about the trip and well-into his second cup of coffee, the Professor started giving me a a pretty good lecture about the fishing. Bluntly he told me to make sure to tell George I wanted to look for bigger bonefish, sight-casting only, and that I didn’t want to get planted on some big mud, picking off small bones hand over fish. I mean fist.

Whoa there! Speak for yourself hoochie coochie man!

I cried foul on that. I do not get to bonefish nearly enough to be that high brow. I am here to tell you I have no problem setting up on a mud. I mean of course I’d rather stalk a pair of 8-lb bones that are cruising the flats at perfect speed at a perfect distance, coming at me at an angle, with the sun just so I can see them before they see me, with the wind at my back so I can make the perfect cast. Who wouldn’t?

But when it’s been a long day, and you’re singing the bonefish blues because the only fish you’ve seen was about 5 hours earlier as he was wrapping your line around fourteen different mangrove bushes, then frankly my friend, a fresh puff of mud is clearly a welcome sight.

This launched a vibrant debate over coffee and cereal. The Professor was adamant that I was better than that. I assured him I was not.

The whole thing exploded with the Professor’s final proclamation on the topic, “Frankly an Exuma veteran like yourself doesn’t need to be whoring herself out to the mud!”

Then he called me a tension junkie.

I love a fresh puff of mud when saltwater fishing. I love Muddy Waters on the jukebox. I bet the father of the Chicago Blues could fish the heck out of the bones because that mannish boy would have gotten down and dirty with a lead-eye fly if circumstances called for it. Muddy could sink it low, plug it in, amp it up, and deliver.

So what do you think? Saltwater fishing….would you pass up a good mud, or starting blind casting right in the middle of it?

I am a fan of Muddy Waters and I’ve got the playlist to prove it. I will be singing the blues while searching the big blue flats and if I see a mud, I will have my mojo working my friend.

“Everything….everything…everything gonna be allright this mornin’”

So we chucked the to do list, shoved the TPS reports to the trashcan, had a blended Johnny Paycheck-Office Space moment, and took to the water.

We launched at 8am. I was hooked up by 8:15 am.

Whoo hoo! TGIF! Instant celebration!

Order the potato skins fully loaded baby. In fact I think I am going to name this non-descript, highly-effective saltwater fly the ‘Loaded Potato Skins’. Like a crowd of drunk co-workers who’ve taken happy hour well into the evening on multiple shots and a few rounds of white russians, these redfish simply couldn’t resist the TGIF Loaded Potato Skins fly pattern.

We saw several redfish, had shots, made shots, missed shots. This was the smallest of the three I caught but without question the most fun to watch. I was sight casting to all three and saw each of them take, but there was something about this fish that was especially fun. It had extra flair.

My third fish snuck up on us so I had to do a little flea flicker cast behind me and he devoured it. No fork, no knife. No napkin in his lap. Just pounced on it with greasy reckless abandon. I am going to start chumming with bacon bits, then hit them with the ‘Loaded Potato Skins’.

I tried my hand at push poling so the Professor could have a shot. But I need some more practice there – not to mention the sun was getting high in the sky and the fish a little too spooky. So we clocked back into reality just in time for lunch. Not a bad way to escape for the morning…

Happy Friday everyone.

We didn’t have a ton of time because we had to get home to catch the second halves of the Alabama/South Carolina and the Carolina/Clemson games. It was a gorgeous day as the Professor poled me around the cuts and creeks. We saw about half a dozen redfish, but couldn’t get one on the fly. The only eat I had was this big ole crab who ate my shrimp pattern.

I will say, the closer I reeled it in, the more those pinchers were daunting!

The Professor was cool as a cucumber reaching for his pliers, that is until I swung the crab over the boat. The crab released his grip on the shrimp and fell right into the bottom of the boat, scattering about pinching at everything. In his very Professor-like tone he simply said, “Well, that’s no good.”

Oops.

Note to self: Keep The Crab and His Wiley Pinchers Over The Water, Not The Boat.

But the Professor scooped him up quickly with the net and all was well.

As a part of our pilgrimage to the Pascagoula Marsh we topped off the saltwater outing with a stop at Papa Rock’s for their off-the-charts hot dogs. This convenience store, which is nestled among gorgeous oak trees, sells 500-600 hot dogs a day! With a steamed bun and fresh toppings like sauerkraut, chili, Tabasco and jalapenos, it’s no wonder the line is nearly out the door for their dogs.

After a tasty lunch of beer and hot dogs, we drove our sodium-filled bellies home to watch a little college football. Even though we didn’t catch any reds, we felt pretty darn lucky. Just a perfect Saturday in the south…