I Love Fishing

I miss fishing lately because of the very cold weather that we are having here in Florida. I hope this coming weekend will warm up so we can go to the beach or we can go boating in the river. But if the weather is not going on our favor we have to stay at home again. Now that hubby finish working on his boat trailer I really want to get out there and catch some yummy fish.

I'm glad that my whole family love to eat fish especially my 4 year old son he always ask for more fish on his plate. One time we try to go fishing offshore we didn't stay long out there because my son got sea sick, poor baby. SO now we fish on the river and his fine, we catch red fish, black drum and a lot more other fish. Hubby like to go offshore and catch big fish, but we can't do it with two kids on board.

Warm day

Wow our weather today is high on 76 degrees I have to enjoy this weather because after this its going to cold down again. My goodness yesterday I was planning to go bike riding so I went to the garage to get the bike ready, then I found out that the back tire of my bicycle was flat. Anyway I try to pump air on it for over an hour but it didn't work because my pump is so tiny.

When hubby got home yesterday from work he fix the tire so today I am looking forward to ride it around the neighborhood area.I need to get my girl stuff ready for school I have to make breakfast also. Well, thank you everybody for all the visits and have a wonderful day.

Icy Plants

Here are some picture that I took last week when the temperature here in Florida went down to 21degrees. The kids really have fun when we go out side they play with the ice in the grass and our plants. They said wow snow Lol!My gosh I hate that day because I have to take off all the ice all over my car and we're running late to go to school. I'm happy because this week its going to be warm in the med 70s.

Offshore Trolling - Part Three

To conclude this series on Offshore Trolling, we'll discuss trolling speed and what to look for while you are offshore to put your boat on the fish.


Trolling speed is important, especially if you are targeting a particular species. While you can catch just about any fish at any trolling speed, certain fish prefer striking a bait that is at their preferred speed. In addition, the trolling speed you select will dictate the type of bait you use or the type of rigging you use with your bait. When trolling with live bait, you must troll at much slower speeds than trolling with dead bait or lures. Your trolling speed should be no more than a knot or two. Hook your live bait through the mouth with a circle hook and slow troll. With this setup, you can catch everything from Mackerel to Sailfish. If you are trolling with dead bait, such as ballyhoo, you can set them up with or without a skirt. If you are slow trolling at around 4 to 5 knots, you can catch Spanish and King Mackerel without skirting your bait as the bait will hold together at the slower speed. However, I usually put a couple unskirted ballyhoo and several skirted ballyhoo out to see which is preferred. Mackerel and Dorado prefer the slower trolling speed, but will attack baits at almost any speed. If you hook up a Dorado, don't land the first one right away. Dorado are schooling fish and will continue to stay near a hooked member of their school. Keep the first one on your line in the water near the boat, stop trolling and just let the boat drift while you cast more lines into the school and keep landing the fish. When the school loses interest and moves on, you can continue your troll.


If you prefer faster species, such as Wahoo or Tuna, you will need to either use a skirted ballyhoo, artificial bait or a lure. I like to use a combination of these to first find out what the fish are interested in. Trolling speed should be between 6 to 8 knots. Once you hook up a fish, you will need to slow your speed so you are fighting the fish and not the fish plus the boat. I usually do not completely stop trolling as this will cause your lines to drop and possible become tangled, not to mention you may hook up another fish while you fight the first one. This, however, may not be possible if you hook up an exceptionally large fish. In this case, you should have someone on the boat reel in all of the other lines to prevent tangling with the line that the fish is on.

Trolling from one reef or known fishing location to another can catch fish, but if you want to really catch a lot of fish, you need to look for signs of the presence of schooling fish. Some of the signs are birds hitting and landing on the water (this is a sign of schooling bait), water surface turbulence as fish are hitting bait at the surface, large amounts of flying fish breaking the surface, water color changes indicating an underwater current or change from murky water to clear water, water depth changes, bottom structure on your fish finder that may hold bait or reef fish and water temperature changes. A subtle change of as little as 1 degree in water temperature could mean the difference between a day of trolling with nothing to show for it and boat full of fish.

I hope this series was informative. Get out there and do some trolling. It's a great way to spend the day. The sights and sounds of the ocean is a great way to relieve stress and you can get the added benefit of some great fishing action. Good luck and happy fishing! A bad day of fishing is always better than a good day at work.

Offshore Trolling - Part Two

Last time, we talked about the potential and equipment required to go offshore trolling in a relatively small boat. The main thin to take away from that discussion is 'the smaller the boat, the more critical you need to be of the weather and conditions before you head out'. A 20-foot boat is capable of making the trip 10, 20, 30 or even 40 miles offshore, but there are less days every year with the right conditions to permit an offshore excursion in your small boat than there is in a 50-foot sport fisher. That being said, my wife and I have been caught offshore when a storm took us by surprise and we experienced 9 to 11 foot waves. It was unpleasant to say the least, but if you know how to handle your boat in rough conditions, you should have no problem getting back in safely. The key here is 'know your boat', and head back into shore before the weather turns on you, but if you get caught don't panic, take your time, angle your boat to absorb the waves the best you can, and head for the nearest port or shoreline.

Trolling is a great way to fish, have fun, and catch some really huge fish. Almost any trolling technique that you can use on a large boat can be used as effectively on a small boat. And you will have the satisfaction of knowing that your entire day of trolling cost you less in fuel than 1-hour of trolling on that 50-foot sport fisher. When I lived in Central Florida, I spent most of my time fishing out of Port Canaveral. After years of fishing this region, I knew the best spots plus I had marked many spots that weren't on the local fishing charts. On many occasions, I caught more fish than the big boys. On one outing in particular, I took 3 friends fishing to a point near Pelican Flats where we immediately started hooking up Dorado (also known as Dolphin Fish or Mahi-Mahi). We landed 35 Dorado ranging in size from 12 lbs to a 55 lb Bull Dorado. We decided to head back in early and on our way back, one of the local sport fishers pulled up next to me and after seeing the fish, asked me to point them in the right direction to catch fish since they were coming up empty and had several folks on board that were paying a lot of money to go fishing.

Some of the equipment that you should consider adding to your boat if you have not done so already are outriggers, downriggers and enough rod holders to place a good spread of lines in the water behind the boat. You should size your outriggers to your boat. As an example, I mounted two 15-foot outriggers to my 20-foot boat. Outriggers mainly come in two varieties, aluminum and fiberglass. I prefer aluminum because they have less give than fiberglass, so I get a faster hook set when a fish hits, but this is personal preference. I also mounted one downrigger to the starboard aft portion of the boat. A downrigger is great way to position a bait at a particular depth in order to catch any deep swimming fish that may pass under the boat. This is my Wahoo killer as I have caught most of my Wahoo from this downrigger with a ballyhoo/chartreuse skirt combo rig. You should run at least 4 lines in order to give a spread that will attract attention. Two lines are run from the back of the boat and one line from each of the two outriggers. Another option togive you a more efficient spread is to run one line from the downrigger 40 to 60 feet under the surface, two lines flat out the back of the boat 100 to 200 feet behind the boat, one or two lines from each of the two outriggers (you can run two lines from each outrigger by attaching an extra clip on the outrigger cord half way up the outrigger) and another line setup with an umbrella rig straight out the back of the boat, but closer than the two flat lines at the back. This type of spread gives you the optimum opportunity to attract fish to your boat and by using the umbrella rig gives them the illusion of schooling bait chasing smaller bait, which entices the larger predators to strike.
When setting up your rigs, use light to medium weight (30 to 40 lb) line with comparable wire leader since many fish that you will attract while trolling have very sharp teeth and will cut right through normal leader material. Also, change up the types of rigs and the colors until you start catching fish. Then you can change all your rigs to the type of rig that most of the fish are hitting. I usually setup the downrigger with my standard Wahoo killer described above, one rig with an artificial lure, one with a bare ballyhoo and the rest with ballyhoo and various colors of sea witch skirts.


Next time, we will finish up the Offshore Trolling series with trolling speed and things to look for that will help to find the fish.

Offshore Trolling - Part One

Depending on where you live, offshore trolling is not necessarily an activity that is reserved for large boats. In Florida, generally speaking, it depends on a combination of the species you are targeting and the region of Florida where you are launching your boat. It is not necessary to go 50 miles offshore to catch big fish. One thing to keep in mind is that Florida's east coast runs at an angle in a Northwest to Southeast direction, but the Gulf Stream runs North to South. This means that the further south you go, the closer to the Gulf Stream you are. In Jacksonville, the Gulf Stream is about 60 miles offshore, in Cape Canaveral it is about 40 miles out, in Fort Pierce it is 14 miles offshore and in West Palm Beach, it is the closest to the east coast of Florida at around 4 miles. Even though the Gulf Stream may not be within your reach , there are many reefs that hold large fish within the range of fairly small boats almost anywhere you launch in Florida. I have a 20 foot Key West Walkaround Cuddy with a single Suzuki 140hp four-stroke outboard. I have been more than 30 miles out off the coast of Cape Canaveral. When you own a smaller boat, before you head offshore, I suggest two things. First, study the weather and marine forecasts the night before your offshore excursion. You can obtain the best marine report for your area at http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/index.shtml. At this site you can obtain the latest data directly from the weather buoy located offshore. The main thing to look at is the wind speed (WSPD - lower number is best), wave height (WVHT - lower number is best), duration between waves (DPD - higher is best) and the Marine Forecast, which will put this data into more of a layman's terminology. Remember that a wave height of 3 feet at 3 seconds duration is much worse than 4 feet at 10 seconds. The shorter the duration, the more chop there is to the waves, which results in a rougher trip. The other thing to consider if you want to fish offshore is a membership with a towing service such as Seatow. This is especially important if you have a single engine boat as I do. Let's say you are 35 miles out of port fishing on top of a known wreck and your engine quits. A tow back to port can easily exceed $1000. With a Seatow membership, you only pay around $120 per year. Once incident can make it well worth your while. Also, make sure you have all of your safety gear. Remember, you can't swim to shore when you are 30 miles out as easily as you can when you are fishing near docks and shoreline for inshore species. You should have life vests for everyone on board, flares, first aid kit, marine VHF radio (to contact Seatow if needed), GPS, Compass (if your GPS fails, you can always find your way back to shore using the compass) and Depth Finder/Fish Finder (important as there are sandbars and shallow zones miles offshore in some areas of Florida).
Next time, we will talk about some trolling techniques that small boats can use to catch fish like the big guys.

Fish Yummy

I miss fishing in west palm beach we caught a lot of fish over there. Now we are about 5hours away from there. Although we like it here in Jacksonville because we are a lot closer to the beach compare to where we live before. But I miss catching pompano and other yummy fish that we caught in west palm. We are planning to go fishing tomorrow I hope it's not that cold otherwise we have to cancel it.

The kids get so cranky when we go fishing and it's a little cold, but if we say we go on the beach they don't care,even if it's cold because they like to play in the sand. Their cranky when daddy wants to go fishing in the boat because they can't play in the sand. Have a wonderful Sunday everyone and thank you for passing by here.

Cutting Down

Now that I am really serious on losing weight I work hard on controlling my cravings on eating the food that I like especially the one that is so high in carbohydrates. I cut down on my rice intake before I eat rice three times a day, now I only it rice two to three times a week. If I can I want to eat rice only once a week, but I need to work on that first I just can’t do it in an instant. Some people use weight loss products like Leptovox, for me I will try to work out and eat less first, but if this will still not work then I need to think about diet pills or something.

Flying Lizard

My son really like this lizard in the picture, Papa caught this lizard when we visit Philippine in 2005. My son was just 9months old then, so now that he is older I show him all the picture that we have when we visit Philippines. He said that he want to go to the Philippines and catch a flying lizard with his grandpa.

The Treadmill and Me

I am working hard to get rid of all this extra pounds that I have. Hubby bought me treadmill couple years ago and I was so thankful to him for buying me the treadmill. Now I am using my treadmill everyday, so I hope I will lose some extra pounds soon. When I talk to my friend the other day she told me that her treadmill quit working and she just got it couple months ago. So now she is thinking on returning it and look for other brand of treadmills out there.

Little Piglets

My daughter was so amazed when she saw this piglets walking around the neighborhood in our village in the Philippines. She said mommy why are they walking around the side of the road? I said That is normal in the small villages in the Philippines you will see a lot of animals wondering around.

My Laptop

I was watching hubby playing with his new laptop today and it is really cute I like it. Then I compare my laptop to his laptop I then, I said oh! no my laptop is getting old. Hehehe! Just want to have a new laptop. My laptop is still work good and look nice, It just that I don't have a belt-in camera on it.
I was looking on that Sony Vaio I like it especially the red color. If I can save enough money I would love to buy on those and give my old one to my daughter.

My Girl and the Bubblegum

My daughter was so upset yesterday because she want us to buy her a bubblegum. But I said no because after she chew it, she will put it in the table or carpet and that is a big no,no for me. So yesterday she was so mad and crying like crazy. But then today when we go to the store she ask me again if she can have a bubblegum, so mommy say yes I don't want her to cry again.

The good thing is that she promise me that she will put it in the garbage can when she's done with it. That is good coz I really don't want to see a bubblegum anywhere in the house.

Done Grocery Shopping

Finally I am done doing all my grocery shopping today. All I need to do now is clean the house and wash clothes. I talk to my mother today and she asks me if I can send her a diet pill, I cannot believe that even my mother want to lose weight. So many people want to lose weight and I’m one of them. Anyway have a great weekend everyone.

Happy Birthday to My Dear Mama

Happy Happy Birthday Ma and I wish you good health, a lot more birthdays to come and may your wish will all come true. I Love You Mama and I miss you!

Dreaming For A Vacation!

I could use a little break sometimes and if I have the money for a mini vacation I would love to go to vegas. My mother has relatives who live there, so maybe one day we can go and visit. I also like to travel by car because I love to see those different place that I never seen before. Every time we go travel I always enjoy all the beautiful scenery. So as much as possible we like to travel by car.

Not Done Yet

My gosh until now I'm still not done putting all my Christmas decor away. I keep getting interrupted with other things that I need to do. Anyway if hubby don't have any plan for tomorrow, maybe I will work on it again so I can put it in the attic. We just got home from grocery shopping and that was not fun with two kids that keeps on whining.

Anyway tomorrow I have to go to flea market to buy some vegetables and some fresh fruits. maybe they have some mango like the kind we have in the Philippines. I need to go by myself tomorrow so i get it done fast. Hubby can watch the two creatures hehehe!

More Horse Ride

My daughter really had fun when we attended the birthday party of her classmate, because once again she was able to ride in a horse. She was so excited to see the horses and other animals in the farm, but the best animal for her was the horse. She can’t stop feeding the horse. She asks so many questions to the owner like do they take vitamins? My goodness! the owner told her that they give them some horse supplements. The great thing is that she had fun.

Need Time

It's been days now that I did not do much on my other blogs. I guess I need to get back on doing my everyday update again if I can. But I thank you all so much for keep on visiting me here. I try to get back on all my EC card dropper, but sometimes I get really tied up with my offline world.

I'm going crazy watching my Filipino Channel. I like it because It help me with my stress sometimes especially when I'm watching funny shows it make me laugh too. Laughter is the best medicine and it is true.

Making It Work

I been a member of momslikeme and so far I am having a good time in their chatting with other mommies that leave in the same county. I chat with one mother today and I did have fun chatting with her because we both like to lose some weight. I decide to keep on doing my work outs and if this will not work for me I need to think about using weight loss products. So far so good for me and I’m doing well on controlling my cravings. I hope I can do this until I lose all the weight that I need to get rid off.

Spending Time With Grandpa

The kids was so happy when my father in-law come and visit us. The kids was so excited to see their grandfather. I'm also glad that dad visit us because it's been years since the last time we spend time with him. Hubby was also happy to see his dad after a long time. I wish I can see my parents also, but I don't know when yet. Have a great day everyone!

Looking For A Brand New Watch

I start wearing my watch again it’s been awhile now that I never wear them. I cannot believe that I did not wear any watch for months. Anyway I was browsing around today looking for a new watch for my hubby. I visited kenmarwatches.com. Their Website is very easy to navigate and the selection of watches is awesome. I even saw a watch that I like to buy for myself, they have a good variety of Fendi watches I already see one watch that I like to buy for hubby. I am sure he will like the watch that I am going to buy for his birthday.

I also really like that Gucci watch that I saw at their Website the price is very affordable. I still have to save some money so I can buy both watches. For you out there who want to shop for a brand new watch, visit kenmarwatches.com. You will find all the watch that you are looking at their Website for a very affordable price. If you have any questions you can also chat with their customer representative. Get your brand new watch today at kenmarwatches.com! They provide 100% CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.

Back To School Soon

Monday is back to school time and my baby girl is ready for it. She is so excited to see her classmates and teacher. I keep on telling her that she has to go to bed early tonight so on Monday she will not be so tired. On Monday I will be back on my normal days drive back and forth from home to school.

I still cannot believe that the winter break is done already, and next month my daughter will be turning eight my goodness I am really getting old. It seems like it was just yesterday that I give birth to her now shes almost as tall as me. I don't know what we do for her birthday yet. I guess I have to talk to her and ask her what she wants to do.

Keep Your Family And Home Safe

Every time I watch the news, it always scares me when I hear about burglaries. When we were still living in Orlando, we didn’t have an alarm system and this made me feel so unsafe every time my hubby went to work. My husband usually went to work at 5am and every time he left for work, I always made sure that all of the doors and windows were locked. But even though I knew the house was secure, I still couldn’t get rid of the feeling of being so scared.

I always had a question in my mind like what if somebody would break the window. This worry drove me nuts, so when we moved here in our new house I made sure that we had a security system. I’m telling you, now I feel so secure. I can sleep better at night and its stress free. Try ADT security today. Right now, they are offering a great deal. Just check out their website. Keep your family safe from burglary, fire and more. Get your home security system today.

The Kids And I

I really had some fun when hubby took this pictures at first I make the kids pose for me and they were so good just posing and smiling. When it's time to take the family photo they don't want to sit still, especially my boy, I guess he got tired on keep smiling on the camera. Maybe next time I can take a lot of family photos. I learn something next time I need to do the family picture first, so they don't get tired with the flash and start being grumpy.

Kids and The Bathroom

Hubby and I are planning to change the counter top and the sink in our 2nd bathroom. We want to change it into two sink so the kids will not fight on who’s going first when they brush their teeth. I was also thinking about putting a new bathroom light fixtures, but I have to wait until we have enough budget to do it. For now the kids just have to be nice to each other until mommy and daddy can saves up some money to change the counter top and sink.

New Years Eve Family Picture

This is our family photo for 2008. I have a lot of pictures of my kids and hubby, at first they don't want to pose, but since I'm the boss of the house I made them hehehehe! Anyway this is the best picture I can get, because my boy want to jump off on his dad's lap and run around the house.

It's all About Snow

My kids and I always wanted to play in the snow, but since we are living here in Florida we do not have any snow all year round. When we spend our 2007 Christmas in Michigan it was really fun. We just like the snow and when we are watching the snow falling from the sky it was just so magical for me. I grow up in a tropical country, so that was my first time to see a snow. I’m wondering if all the people who live in the place where it snows a lot is using snow chains for their tires. I guess I have to ask my friend about it LOL!

Happy New Year To All!

Happy New Year to all my family & friends out there. Thank you all for keep on visiting me here!

Cleaning The Closet

I remember back when I was still in the Philippines my mother always want the house so clean before the New Year. I cannot believe that I am doing it now in my own home hehehehe! Time really flies. I also noticed when I was cleaning yesterday in our closet that we have about four luggage that is still brand new, we never use them yet. I remember that we bought it last year for our trip to the Philippines, but we did not go due to hubby’s work. For now I’ll just have to keep the luggage in our closet until we need it.