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2011 DOA writer’s event at River Palm Cottages, Jensen Beach Fl
7.5.2011
Last week I was out of town for a few days attending DOA writer’s event at River Palm cottages. The writer’s event is a once a year event put on by DOA lures to help network with writers and manufacturer involved with the company through out the years. It is an invite only event with only about 20-30 people get to attend each year in the summer time.
Essentially it is a very laid back atmosphere where the writers/photographers/manufactures mingle, eat, drink and fish for two days. I find this a lot more fun than attending the shows since everyone is not “on guard”.
Amongst the sponsors this year was Johnson outdoors(Minnkota, Canon down riggers, Humminbird), Hobie Kayaks, Plano, Seagar, Costa Del Mar, Shimano and of course River Palm Cottages. I got to talk to many of the manufacture about up and coming products as well as test out some of the new gear on the verge of being release this year.(more on this later)
The weather we had for the 2 day event was very stormy and cloudy for the most part. One minute it would be fine then 15minutes later a rain shower would come down on us. The mornings usually was calm and predictable and as the day goes by the storm clouds would build up and it starts to pour down. The weather made for some interesting fishing indeed.
The first day on my boat was local guide, Captain Greg Snyder and Blair Wiggins the host of the TV show Addictive Fishing. These guys are excellent fisherman and a blast to hang out with. They are good friends and you can definitely tell.
Greg was running his 22′ Action craft Costal bay and wanted to go for snook early in the morning, hit the tarpon then go after permit. The snook at first light started off a bit slow but they got going good. The lure of choice that day was the Clear with silver specks DOA 1/4oz shrimp. We had several break offs on the 40lb leader and manage to land a few, the largest being about 10lbs.
Next we moved on to the tarpon which rolling right off the beach. Casting shrimp, terror eyes and bait busters we did not get an eat on our boat. The boat next to us did get an eat on a DOA cal jerk bait. The fish was hooked on 15lb braid and took quite a long time to land. Since the boat was with the event I snapped some shots before leaving to look for permit.
Now when Greg told me he has been catching permit on DOA terror eyes I shook my head but deep down inside I sorta, well, kinda didn’t really thought it was a consistent thing. With the overcast skies seeing the permit flashing was next to impossible. We drove around for a while catching random bonito, blue runners and such. Around 2 pm the cloud started to clear for us and could see large flashes in the distance. Up on further inspecting these were large 20-30lb Jacks which we did not want any part of.
Just as we were about to move, a pod of permit swam up to the back of boat. Everyone started casting the brown terror eyes(304 Rootbeer/Gold Glitter). I can remember thinking, “I wished we had some crabs..” then Greg hooks up. Then I was thinking “Jack?” but it wasn’t moving fast. Greg brings in a nice permit and was then a believer. I put down the camera and started to cast along with Blair. The Blair hooks up and lands his. After some photos I then hooked up one. Unfortunately mine got wrapped around the wreck/structure and broke me off. 
At this point the bite slowed and the storms started to rolled and so we decided to called the trip and head back to River Palms to join everyone for dinner. The next 2 days was filled with over cast skies and intermittent thunder storms. This was definitely not fun for taking good photos.
This change in the weather slowed the fishing down for us while fishing with with Mark Nichols of DOA and Hobie Kayak guys. There were fish caught but not of the size we were looking for. Darn mother nature turned the switch on us and it just did not happen for us that day. It was however, quite an adventure that day dodging storms. I also got some great video of Mark’s 15 year boat filled with all kinds of useful and funny contraptions he conjured up.
Quick video of How to work a DOA Terror Eyz for permit. If you look carefully I’m using the new 2012 Shimano Stradic FJ and the new Shimano $49.00 price point spinning rod. (for the price it’s excellent!)
D.O.A. writer’s event day2, Blair Wiggins, Captain Greg Snyder
July 20th 2010
Just like the day before we woke up at 5am to have breakfast waiting at the gathering place. River Palms provided the lodge right on the water. DOA even had box lunches ready. It was a very cool setup with awesome hospitality. I will have to revisit this place once the winds calm down a bit so I can get offshore some.
Speaking of the wind it cranked up on us even higher today, but today I got to fish with Blair Wiggins the host of the popular TV show Addictive Fishing and his friend Captain Greg Snyder. Using DOA shrimp and DOA cal jig heads we were out there before sun cam up. The bite was excellent as the sun come coming up as it looks like everyone was hooked up with some snook.
During the action I decided not to fish as I wanted some jumping shots. The only problem here is the surf was crashing with the east wind. It was very “unsafe” for my camera to be out there wading in the rough seas. Taking a chance I tried anyways. Many times I had to hold the camera above my head to avoid the splashes as the waves comes crashing in.
Once the sun came up though the bite came to an abrupt halt. The only thing we caught after that was a small snooklets. We packed it in about noon so every one could head home.
I left 3 camera bodies, 6 lens and a video camera in there. The pelican box is worth every penny.
2 slow shutter speed photos. Since the fishing was so so I just put the camera in S mode(shutter), turn the know down to like 20/s and got some cool blur effects.
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