A few years ago, when I first got excited about fishing, I joined a well known fishing website that had a forum page where newbies like me, eager to learn and become better at the sport, could post general questions and get answers and guidance from more experienced anglers.  I logged onto it in desperation one day and posted the following question, "What resources are there for a woman who just wants to learn how to keep up with her husband on a fishing trip?"  I waited for a few hours and then checked my post for responses.  There were lots of them, all very helpful, and I appreciated that, but there was one answer I received that stood out from the rest.  It simply said: "Check out a program called 'Ladies, Let's Go Fishing'."  I thanked the responder and clicked on the link they provided.  Wow - It was exactly what I had been looking for.  As I read the information on the site, I saw the next seminar on their calendar was scheduled for the month of April in Stuart, Florida.  Maybe I could talk a girlfriend of mine into going with me.  I could go by myself, but certainly didn't want to.  After a brief but persuasive speech about 'a girls weekend away', I convinced my good friend, Becky, to with me.  She and her husband were new boat owners themselves and did a little fishing on the weekends, she could use a little extra help, too, I figured.  So we drove down on a Friday afternoon and spent the weekend in Stuart.  We attended the Friday evening Meet-&-Greet, the seminar on Saturday, and spent Sunday morning fishing before we drove back to Ocala.  We learned so much and had a great time, too!  It was well worth the investment of money and time.  Since then, I began to get e-mails from that organization letting me know the seminar schedule for the remainder of the year and each year after that.

Shortly before the NCLA club was organized, I received an e-mail from the LLGF organizers.  They had added a 'mini-seminar' to their regular annual schedule and the location would be a place called Matlacha, pronounced Mat-la-shay.  Not a location I was familiar with, but some of the other ladies there were.  When our first NCLA meeting took place back in February of 2013, I shared the news about the LLGF organization and it's mission to educate women in all things fishing related - or at least as much as they could in the scope of one weekend.  Although the NCLA club was in its infancy, the plans to attend that seminar one day weren't completely eliminated, they were just put on the back-burner for about a year. 

The beginning of 2014 brought a new e-mail from the LLGF site with all of the 2014 seminar dates.  The first one on the list was the 'mini' - a condensed version of their usual weekend-long seminars, located in Matlacha, FL.  about a 3-4 hour drive from Ocala / Crystal River.  The notice was quickly forwarded to the rest of the NCLA members to see if any of them would be interested in pooling finances for a 'girls-weekend' in Matlacha.  Four women answered the call, Delores, Dot, Liz and Marilee.  Liz had already taken a short vacation there some years ago and recommended a place to stay, so reservations were made at the Bridgwater inn and the finer details of the trip were hammered out over the course of the next few weeks.  It was just a matter of waiting for the 5:00 whistle to blow on Thursday, March 6th.  That's when the festivities actually began. 

Marilee and I both work full-time and had to make advanced arrangements to be off work both Friday, March 7th and the following Monday, March 10th and that worked out just fine for the both of us.  Liz came up with a great travel plan.  She had invited us to a sleep-over at her house in Homosassa Thursday night so that we could all get up the morning of the 7th and head straight on down the highway from her house.  It was an excellent plan and I'm sure glad she thought of it. Marilee drove to my house at around 5:00 p.m. Thursday evening and we spent the next hour loading our kayaks and gear into my truck and 10 ft. trailer.  A quick stop at Arbys for a bite to eat and we made it to Liz's house just before sunset. 

A few over-night essentials were unloaded as Liz welcomed and escorted us into her beautiful doll-house style home where we each had a guest bedroom to call our own for the night.  Ten minutes later we were all in the kitchen, sitting at the bar drinking a glass of wine, catching up on a little girl-talk, and chatting about our expectations for the next few days.  By 10:00 p.m. we had gone through a couple of bottles of wine, shared some funny stories, and were talked slap out!  We called it a night and shuffled our booties to our respective rooms for the night.  We needed a good night's sleep, the next morning would be a 3-4 hour drive.

Somehow we got to talking about Snook and our eagerness to catch one this year.  Bert nodded his head in agreement.  He knows how exciting it is to bring one in the boat and added how tasty they are on a dinner plate.  Of all the fish he's caught and eaten over the years, Snook is his all time favorite.  He went on to tell us a story about being at the 'intake' in Crystal River recently on a cold afternoon and he could count a total of 15 fairly large Snook in a nearby canal.  They were all congregating together, snuggling up against the rocks where the sun was beating down and warming up the rocky bottom.  He just gazed at them in awe.  They didn't seem to want to move from that spot.  It was a pretty amazing sight.  Reports were coming in that they were being caught all up and down the Crystal River coast and in King's Bay so they seem to have made a tremendous come back.  His bait of choice was small finger-mullet. Capt. Dan Clymer, our guest speaker last month, had hinted that we could find Snook in the Salt River between April and May.  Bert added that Snook could be found wherever there was any type of intersection of water.  They lay in wait as bait fish get caught in some rushing water and BLAM - free meal!

We moved to the topic of different types of bait, starting with live, natural bait.  Bert asked if any of us had a cast net for catching bait and the room was silent.  None of us had, of course, but it's a technique we'd like to learn at some point in the future.  He propose that we start with a six foot cast net which is relatively small and get used to the feel of putting a part of it in the mouth.  Using your mouth in preparation for the cast is the easiest way to make a smooth cast.  There are other ways where the mouth is not used, but it's a little harder to perfect because it requires more shoulder balance.  Jennifer Saranzak, our good friend with the FWC recommended practicing the Calusa Method and she forwarded a youtube video as well.  http://youtu.be/lOUkj2h2LjI  A bucket full of bait fish can harvested by using a cast net vs having to buy it at a bait shop.  It's just a matter of investing some time into learning the throw/cast technique.  Once you have a nice supply of bait fish at your disposal, it's simply a matter of hooking them through the lip, casting your line and waiting for the reds and trouts to strike....they can't resist!

I suppose the three major target fish we're after would be the same as most everyone else here in Crystal River, spotted seatrout, red drum and snook, but hey, we're happy with just about anything that we can reel to the boat and identify.  Bert wondered if we'd ever seen a group of redfish tailing.  That's when the water is so shallow and larger redfish are scouring the bottom, the tips of their tails protrude out of the water.  Some of us had - it's quite a sight to see.  You just want the world to freeze in that very moment (except for the tailing redfish, of course) so that you can just watch and observe the beauty and simplicity of their movement.  Redfish....just doin' what they do.  Throwing a live shrimp on a circle hook with a reliable knot is sometimes all it takes to hook one for yourself.  There are a few other artificial lures that Bert suggested might work just as well.  They're equally attracted to iridescence and bling, something a little shiny, but when push-comes-to-shove....nothing beats a live shrimp.  Everything in the water likes shrimp!!

Seems that one of our favorite knot tying websites,  www.animatedknots.com , is one of Bert's as well.  We were introduced to this site last year when RG Schmidt, the Tight Lines fishing columnist in the Citrus Chronicle gave us a two-day crash course in saltwater fishing.  This is one of the best educational sites out there for learning how to tie fishing knots. 

The Non-Slip Mono or Loop Knot is one of Bert's personal favorites.  He gave us another hand out with a short biography of the creator of this knot, Lefty Kreh, and some detailed information on its advantages and disadvant......oh wait....there were no disadvantages.  What?!  Many line-to-line and line-to-hook knots are designed in a way that if there is too much pressure applied to the knot, it will actually 'choke' the line enough to break it.  This is not one of those knots.  One of the major advantages to this knot is that once the tag end is trimmed, it faces the lure which prevents blades of sea grass and other debris from getting caught up in the knot - which happens often with other knots.  This can get really annoying when you have to clean your line of weeds every time you pull your lure up out of the water!  He suggested practicing at home with monofilament to learn the technique so that when you need to retie to a hook, it'll be easy.  Since this is a type of loop knot, it's designed for artificial lures and jigs, anything that is supposed to imitate a swimming motion.

Now that Bert extoled the virtues of the loop knot, it was time to learn how to tie it for ourselves.  Virginia went around the room and gave everyone a set of knot tying supplies which consisted of a couple of yards of paracord per girl (to represent fishing line) , and a utility clip to represent a fishing hook.  We're nothing if not resourceful!  The first piece of advice Bert gave us before practicing our first knot was to make sure that we allowed plenty of extra 'line' to make our loops.  It sometimes takes more line than you expect.  It's worth the extra pennies an extra foot of fluorocarbon may cost to ensure a good strong knot that'll hold a nice big fish.  He took us through a visual step-by-step demonstration with some over-sized knot tying supplies of his own and  ending with his final instruction to: "lick it - pull your tag - tighten your knot....pull your tag - tighten your knot....pull your tag - tighten your knot."  Once the tag end is clipped, we end up with some beautiful Non-Slip Mono Knots for use with artificial plugs and lures as Gloria is showing in the above photo.  The final goal is practicing this over and over again and learn how to make the loop between 1/4 and 1/2 inch in diameter.  No more than that.  The loop knot allows us to 'present' the artificial lure as it was designed to look to a predatory fish.

Not everyone is comfortable using artificial lures, though.  Some of the women are just as happy to stick to the old stand-by of live shrimp or cut bait on a circle hook.  The above mentioned loop knot just isn't appropriate for this type of fishing.  For this situation, Bert recommended that we use a line-to-hook knot called the Palomar Knot  and we spent a few minutes practicing that as well.  This knot keeps the hook and bait in one locked position so the angler is in complete control of its movement during line retrieval. 

The amount of information Bert shared with us was very much appreciated.  The hand-outs he gave us would act as our back-up system just in case we needed to double-check some of our notes when we got home.  Then, in true Bert Winkler form, he announced that he brought a few home-made buck-tail jigs to give away as door prizes.  As he set them on the table, each in their own little ziplock baggie, you can just visualize all the ladies as their eyes got bigger and their smile got wider.  There's just something about a free anything that makes us giddy.  Bert pulled three names out of a bowl and the lucky winners were Sue, Virginia, and Donna.  Each went home with their very own Bert Winkler original lure. 

As Bert was packing up all of his presentation material, Donna handed out invitations to compete in the 3rd Annual Nature Coast Challenge Kayak Fishing Tournament and emphasized the fact that this is a charity tournament sponsored by the Inglis-Yankeetown Lions Club.  She went on to describe the wonderfully delicious home made buffet-style dinner that's served during the Captain's Meeting on Friday night and served again at the awards ceremony on Saturday afternoon both with a cash bar (beer / wine) each evening.  We'll be looking to get a group of ladies from the club to show support by entering the tournament - if for no other reason than to just have fun, donate to charity and socialize.  And who knows.....one of us may actually beat the odds and take home a trophy...it could happen.  So if anyone is interested in more information on the tournament, click on the link below.....Hope to see you there.

We met Bert Winkler through Matt Clemmons who owns Aardvark's Kayak Co. in Crystal River.  Bert grew up in Miami and spent much of his childhood fishing with his father.  He has developed a passion for custom rod building which as carried over into custom lures as well.  http://oldfartcreations.com/  When the NCLA club first got off the ground last year, he offered to help out by being one of our guest speakers teaching us the difference between rod action and what to look for when picking out a rod.  There were more ladies at that meeting than we had at any other meeting the entire year. We invited him back again this year to give us some advice on how to outfit our rod with line and tackle.  His easy-going nature makes him a favorite with the ladies. 

***We were missing two of our regulars, Theresa and Alice, but welcomed two new faces, Julia and Sue.***

Bert starts off any presentation with a discussion on safety.  As a professional electrician, safety is #1 on his priority checklist.  There are always hazards with any sport, including fishing.  "Treble hooks are called 'gotcha's' for a reason", he warned us.  He simply cautioned us to be extra careful when tightening knots to hooks.  This is the task that causes  most injuries because the hook barbs are so close to the hands and fingers.  One wrong move and the barb ends up in the hands or fingers (or, if you ask my husband, the barb will sometimes end up in the leg). 

Second on the safety priority list was sunscreen.  No surprise there!  I attended a ladies fishing seminar several years ago in Stuart and the off-shore charter boat captain said, "Ladies, if you want your face to look like mine, don't wear sunscreen."  He need say no more!

We moved into the discussion of tackle and Bert confirmed that most of us ladies primarily use light, inshore tackle which was an important piece of information if he was going to teach us about fishing line.  We were all given a hand-out to follow as he began to explain the difference between certain types of fishing line from flurorcarbon to braid to monofilament.  Although the hand-out had very detailed information on it, Bert took a few minutes to review some basics. 

Monofilament:  Con - stretches very easily which can cause you to lose fish more often.

                             Con - it is easily damaged (from oyster bars or fish teeth) and may need frequent trimming.

                             Con - if it sits on the reel too long, it tends to hold that spiral form as it comes off.

                             Pro - it's pretty inexpensive compared to braid or fluorocarbon, which is good on the pocketbook.

                             Pro - adequate for most inshore recreational fishing.  "fishing for fun"

                             Pro - any fish you can catch on braid and fluorocarbon, you can also catch using monofilament.

                             Pro - it floats easily so is great as a leader line for top-water lures.

Braid:  Pro - has no stretch at all so feeling a 'fish-on' is almost instantaneous. 

             Pro - because it is thinner than the other two lines, more of it can be spooled onto a reel.

             Pro - has become the most popular of all three lines.

             Pro - lasts longer so there is less re-spooling.

             Con - it's not cheap.

             Con - it has a tendency to collect wind knots.

Fluorocarbon:  used mostly as leader line

                           Pro - has very little stretch, so again, tied to braid line, it's easier to feel a hook-up.

                           Pro - it's much more abrasion resistant and doesn't have to be trimmed as often.

                          Pro - it's practically invisible under water so not as obvious to the fishies down there.

                          Con - it's expensive, so is typically used by serious anglers who are willing to spend a little more .

As Bert mentioned in the comparison of fishing line, braided line seems to be more susceptible to wind knots.  As a custom rod builder, he has access to a website called mudhole.com.  This site holds a lot of information about fishing equipment.  He suggested visiting the site and looking around.  This is where he discovered the microwave line control system which is designed to practically eliminate wind knots as braid line is being cast.  Check out the video below:

Now that we learned some basic differences in fishing line and what's best to use, we moved on to discussing tackle for specific fish....starting with flounder.  Bert assured us that it is fairly common to catch 4 - 5 pound flounder in this area but warned us not to expect to bring in a 15 - 20 pounder around here, and even the smaller flounder, because of their flat design, makes for a great fight on light tackle.  He gave us another hand-out with some suggested specifications of rigging for flounder right down to the hook size. This would be:  15 inch, 30 lb monofilament leader line with a  sinker attached and a 4/0 circle hook with a live shrimp, finger mullet or artificial jig.  Typically, this would just be slowly dragged on the bottom which is where a flounder would easily spot it. 

CAJUN THUNDER !!!

Best popping cork out there!!

Bert handed out some really great information on popping corks for a little 'quiet time reading' as he called it.  Popping corks come with beads and weights.  Once this unit is tied to the line, the colored beads should be on top of the cork and the brass weight should be below the cork.  Popping corks are designed to imitate the sound of a shrimp 'popping' its tail as it propels itself through the water - attracting predatory fish (trout, reds, jacks, etc.)  If you have a crafty nature about you, you can easily make them yourself.  The beads and brass weights 'pop' against the cork as you jerk your rod from time to time.  Trout are especially attracted to the sound it makes.

Top-water lures are great when fishing for trout or redfish.  Bert talked about the most desirable rod length, how to find the recommended fishing line weight which should be stamped somewhere on the rod itself.  Also stamped on the rod should be the weight of the lure that is best to use for a smooth cast.  You don't want your lure to be too light (like a fly-fishing lure), or too heavy (like a deep sea lure).  A cast is greatly affected by the weight of the lure you have tied to the leader line.  He took a minute to briefly explained the difference between rod action and power.  His suggestion was a fast action rod because it's easier to work when fishing with artificial lures.  He went on to demonstrate how to work and retrieve a top-water lure so that it makes the desired a zig-zag motion on the top of the water, a diving plug so that with a few quick jerks of the rod it makes the lure dive downward a few inches and then rise upward again imitating the reflex of an injured bait fish.