Urban Youth Impact Fishing Excursion Take Two

Yesterday after a short lesson at the Urban Youth Impact site, we decided to try our hands at fishing the lake behind their facility.  It was a gorgeous afternoon, and we all felt lucky.  We set out to fish the north side of the UYI facility, since we fished the south side last week.  Within minutes one of the students caught a small bass, and we all had great expectations for the rest of the day.  Sadly, we only caught one more bass before we had to pack everything up and head inside.  We are slowly figuring out the lake and how to fish it, and we are all looking forward to catching the two released bass when they grow much much bigger!

Captain's Report 2/22/12

Yesterday morning Capt Rich and I headed out on a charter with three extremely enthusiastic anglers.  We started the morning clearing Palm Beach Inlet, and trolling around out front.  After about 30 minutes we landed our first nice sized dolphin fish on a rattle-jet with a bonito strip.  The second dolphin can soon after hitting a squid dropped back behind the boat on a slow troll.  After 2 hours we decided to try our hands at some bottom fishing, and caught triggerfish, bluerunners, and a nice grouper which was quickly released due to the season being closed.  Once everyones arms were nice and tired from reeling in the bottom fish, we set up another troll and caught 2 more dolphin fish, bonitos, and a nice wahoo.  The wahoo was caught by trolling a lure with a strip on the planner.  The you so much for such a wonderful day guys, and we hope to see you again very soon.  We have another charter booked for this Saturday morning before we meet our Riviera Beach students for kayaking, and hope we can have as much success as yesterday.

Urban Youth Impact - first fishing trip

On Tuesday we decided, since our students had been doing so well the last few weeks at the Urban Youth Impact site, that we would hold a short class and then try find some fish in the lake behind their center.  The afternoon was a little chilly, for South Florida standards, we I presented the students with their own fishing rods and we set out to find the fish.  This was the first time many of these teenagers had been fishing, and it was a sight to watch them trying to put a wiggling worm on their hook.  There were a few hesitant students at first, but after awhile everyone was putting on their own worm.  The fishing was a little slow to start, but we finally started hooking a few bluegills and sunfish; there was even a bass hooked, but sadly it spat the hook out after a minute or so.  All fish were released so we could try catch them again next week!!  Everyone has a great time fishing and relaxing after a long hard day at school

Riviera Beach Marina Day - February 2012

This past Saturday we held our first Riviera Beach Marina Day, at the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina. We could not have ask for a more wonderful day, or more amazing volunteers.  The morning started off with some welcoming speeches from invited guests, as well as a generous check presentation from the Riviera Beach CRA and The Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation.  Following the welcoming, all the kids and their parents were able to go around the park and enjoy the activities we had planned for them.  The activities included learning to cast and catch Backyard Bass, learning different fishing knots, painting marine scenes on a giant canvas, learning about marine critters at the touch tank, lifejacket relay races, and the most popular activity which was kayaking around in the Intracoastal.  The purpose of the day was firstly to introduce the families to fishing and having fun with fishing; but more importantly, thanks to the Riviera Beach CRA to sign the local students up for free fishing, snorkeling, and kayaking excursions held every Saturday at the marina.  Thank you so much to all those involved in making this event such a success, and thank you to everyone who came out and enjoyed a beautiful South Florida day with us.  We can not wait to enjoy all Riviera has to offer with all the students

Making a Difference: Kids fishing for (and catching) success

We would like to thank Mark Potter and everyone at NBC Nightly News for spending time with us and seeing all we do.  We can not thank those enough who help us with the students, and more importantly the students, we would not be where we are without you.  We hope you enjoyed the news segment as much as we did filming it.  Capt Rich and I had a ball with our students, and it seemed like they were having a blast.  We can not thank everyone involved enough.  Making a Difference: Kids fishing for (and catching) success

NBC Filming and Saturday Fishing

                                         Capt Rich Showing off with two fishing Rods

Last Friday and Saturday we had the privilege of showing the crew from NBC Nightly News around and what we do with our students at the Florida Fishing Academy.  We started our Friday teaching our High School students at Village Academy and ended at the Riviera Beach Boys and Girls Club with Backyard Bass and lifejacket relay races.  The next day we all woke up really early and met at the boat at the Riviera Beach Municipal Marina for a fishing trip.  The weather gods were looking out for us, as predictions were calling for 3-5ft seas, and thankfully we had 2ft seas.  Within minutes of setting out the lines we caught a kingfish, but sadly it was 1 inch short and it was promptly released.  We decided to try drifting over the spot where we caught the king and caught yellowtail, triggerfish, porgies, and sand tilefish.

Around lunch time we headed in to meet our next group of students from Riviera.  With the sea now building we decided to stay in the intracoastal and explore the area around the boat.  We started off snorkeling around the boat in the marina, and saw stingrays, giant jacks, snapper, urchins, and much much more.  After swimming around at the dock we decided to go over to Peanut Island and explore.  Some of us went snorkeling again, while others explored the island with Capt Rich.  It was an extremely busy two days, but also a ton of fun.

Look for the news story about us on the NBC Nightly News to be airing sometime this week.  Thank you so much to the NBC crew, as well as all who were involved and helped Capt Rich and I this week to make this all possible.