Thursday, January 30, 2014

Naples Pier

One of the joys of our annual trip to Florida is the chance to go fishing.  I struggle to fit this in at home and photography takes priority - hard enough to fit that in.  Most mornings see me down at the pier in Naples at sunrise for a couple of hours.  2012 was a struggle, but 2013 was great.  It wasn't just me though.

Most days an osprey called in  - herring gull like in terms of it's tolerance of people.

Looking vaguely hobbit like - smaller than you would think but look at the size of those feet (yeah I know, perspective, but they were big.


The reason it called in was soon apparent


when one of the locals tossed a fish onto the roof of the shelter!
Lovely views.

The real spectacle this year though was the sight of huge tarpon (100lbs +) smashing into the shoals of baitfish.  If you watch the video make sure you have your sound turned on - the sound was as striking as the view.

naples pier from Brian's 'Wobblecam' Videos on Vimeo.




Other birds joined in - you can see pelicans on the video, as well as dolphins.

There was a downside - if you weren't careful a pelican can snag the hook, and several got snagged while we were there.  most got sorted, but the pictures below reveal the sad sight of some with hooks or almost certainly hook related wounds.  Basically when the fish were really smashing into the baitfish the pelicans joined them and you just had to stop casting to avoid snagging.
Still a stunning place to spend some time

2 comments:

Brian J Davis said...

Super shots Brian, really enjoyed the series of stuff from USA.

Brian said...

Thanks Brian. One of the joys of travelling abroad is getting close to good looking wildlife. You should have seen all the ones that got away!