Day 7 - Black Friday

When we caught fish throughout the week we asked most of them if there was going to be any great opportunity to catch a shit ton real easy somewhere on Black Friday – we got no answers! Crystal River is a small community and I doubt there were going to be any long lines at any store. LT however, thought different and said this is the day that old people look forward to. Luckily, we Schiffers boys were not going shopping.

We hung around the house a bit this morning. Headed to the Publix for some nail clippers and beer and then off on the kayaks. To the bait spot and cast netted for about 30 minutes until I felt we had enough bait fish for the morning and then met LT out in the bay. LT was cast netting as well by Buccaneer Island as I came up to him. We fished in the area for some time. As I was approaching the northern end a guide standing on the roof of a passing pontoon boat yelled out to me that there was a school of reds around the bend. Within seconds thereafter, the school rushed by me churning the water. LT and I tried to catch one but had no success.

We headed in the main shipping channel and LT starting throwing hard baits for Ladyfish. He was killing it! He graciously gave me a lure and we were both off to the races. I don’t recall the count of ladyfish we caught, but it was plentiful! The whole time we were fishing for them, we were hoping to latch on to a jack or maybe even a mackerel, but our Black Friday wish did not come true. We did however have a blast reeling in the ladies!!! Stayed out in the channel for several hours before finally coming in around 2pm.

I wanted to clean the kayaks and have some of the other gear have an opportunity to dry off before putting the stuff in the car. Plans were that we were starting to head back tomorrow and wanted to get the kayaks on the roof of the car before 5pm or so. The no-see-ums will eat you alive once the sun sets and I did not want to be messing with the kayaks then. Bug spray is a savor here and I need lots of it. Those little gnats tore me up this trip. The arms and legs have hundreds of bites to show the battle scars.

Car pretty much packed and we headed to Sellers Seafood around 4:30pm. The place was busy already, but not fully booked so we got a table right away. Anna and LT had some mudbugs, we also ordered snow crab legs and fried gator ribs. All the food was good as usual. Sellers is landmark restaurant here in Crystal Rivers and the place is always hopping. Before leaving we got a couple of cheesecake slices to go. LT and I ate ours the moment we got home. Anna was saving hers for breakfast. Not sure it will make it that long.

After getting home, LT and I fished out on the dock for about an hour with the remaining bait fish. We had a ball. Didn’t catch anything but catfish, but that was okay. Ended up watching about an hour or two of Netflix and then headed to bed.