Expert bloggers

by CLAUDIE SPEED

Do you say “erb” or “herb?” However you say it, there is a tantalizing choice of fresh herbs in the produce section of your favorite grocery store. But you do not have to buy herbs; you can grow your own at home.
Imagine cooking dinner and running to your garden to pick really fresh herbs.

Herbs are very easy to grow following just a few guidelines. They are shallow-rooted and adaptable to containers — which is how I grow my herbs — or you can plant them in your garden.

I like to fill containers with two or three varieties and add a flowering plant for interest. They make beautiful patio pots as well as great gifts.

Like many other plants, you will want to group together the ones that require either dry or wet conditions. Some herbs can take more sun, while others prefer filtered sun/shade, but most generally grow satisfactorily under the same conditions of sunlight and soil.

Pesticides should not be used on herbs, but a spray-on insecticidal soap is acceptable, although you should wash herbs before eating them.

A good housekeeping practice is to check plants frequently, removing any insects you find. Harvest your herbs regularly, and they will keep producing instead of flowering and going to seed.

Everything old sometimes becomes new again as with the revival of herbs to provide more nutritious food, alternative medicines, essential oils and cosmetics. Fortunately for us here in North Florida, most of the common herbs may be grown throughout the year.

Ten of the most popular herbs today are basil, chives, dill, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme and Mexican tarragon. Of this group, parsley may need to be replanted if it receives too much sun. Mint is a good herb for a container, as it tends to spread. Another herb which has become more popular is cilantro.
If you like butterflies, dill, parsley and fennel are good host plants. You will want to plant extra; one for you and one for the swallowtail caterpillars that will devour the whole plant and then reward you with swallowtail butterflies.

Herbs are a gardener’s dream — easy to grow with minimal effort in small spaces and a joy to harvest!

Seasonally, there is an herb bed in the Nassau County Demonstration Garden at the James S. Page Governmental Complex in Yulee. Also, you can visit the Extension Web site at: nassau.ifas.ufl.edu/horticulture/landmatters/herbs.html.

Claudie Speed lives in Fernandina Beach and is an active Master Gardener volunteer.

Joe Murphy shows a redfish he caught and released recently fishing with blue crab.

We could definitely use less wind in our area. Every day, it seems the wind is blowing 15-plus knots. The forecast for today is showing improvement with lighter winds. Even with the high winds, anglers reported some decent catches.

Offshore fishing for snapper, grouper and flounder was decent for anglers with larger boats who could withstand the high winds. Many anglers also spotted cobia lurking around the wrecks and rock piles.
Live pogies, pinfish and grunts were doing the trick this past week. Rapala Magnums, Mirrolure deep divers and jigs rigged with plastic tails were working this past week for the lure angler when trying to entice a curious cobia.

Small kingfish appeared from AH to the FB bottoms. Trolling live pogies, cigar minnows or threadfin herring will be an excellent choice for live bait.

Fishing the jetties, inshore towers and around the shrimp boat by-catch has been producing cobia, sharks, jack crevalle and bull reds. Spanish mackerel and blues are being caught trolling along the jetty and beaches around the pogie pods, especially on the incoming tide. Reds and trout are still in good numbers on both sides of the north and south jetties. Sheepshead also are still being caught tight to the rocks.

The back-country fishing has been tough. The flounder have been moving into our rivers, many have reported them still to be too short to keep, but Lowell Hall reported a nice catch of several in the 4- to 5-pound range this week using live mud minnows.

Today, you have an excellent tide for the topwater plug angler. We have a high tide occurring around 7:41 a.m. This is a perfect tide to fish over the oyster bars with a topwater plug.

Trout, reds and flounder have been reported this past week at Fort Clinch along with blues and Spanish mackerel. The pier is still closed for fishing, but there are a whole lot of other spots to fish the fort. Cheryl Pankake and Linda Roaderick, fishing Amelia Island State Park on Wednesday, report a nice catch of redfish and puppy drum fishing the incoming tide.

Surf fishing has improved due to the increase of bait traveling up the coast. Blues, Spanish mackerel, whiting, bonnethead sharks and trout all were reported being caught this week by surf anglers.

Enjoy your weekend. Until next time … Capt. Jim.

The Nassau County Narcotics Division conducted a buy/bust operation in the Yulee area this week and arrested eight people — all who live outside the county.

Wednesday’s operation netted 60 grams of crack cocaine, 3.5 grams of marijuana, 1.5 grams of powder cocaine and one stolen vehicle, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office said.

Arrested on drug charges were a female juvenile from Jacksonville, Donald Lewis Ross of Orange Park, Louis K. Brown of Ponte Vedra Beach, and five others from Jacksonville — Kevon T. Belsches, Joseph I. Lunsford, Leslie M. Elixson, John G. Farmer and Alicia B. Webber. Lunsford also was charged with grand theft auto.

— Scott Butler

The Hunker Down crew — (front row from left) Doug Geis, Hamp Tanner, Scott Geis, (back from left) John Tanner, who owns the boat, and Cliff Thrift — won the annual Amelia Island Bluewater Shoot-out Saturday, May 10, 2in Fernandina Beach.

Due to the continually rising cost of fuel, anglers are searching for different avenues to conserve fuel. There are ways to make every ounce of fuel burn effectively.

Anglers are going to have to boat-pool. Carpooling has been around for years; now we have to begin to look at boat-pooling. The days of seeing a lone angler out enjoying a day on the water may be over, as anglers begin to share rides to help with the ever-rising fuel costs.

You also will need to take your engine into your mechanic for a tune-up. A tune-up will help your engine save on fuel. If you are a do-it-yourself kind of guy, you will need to change your spark plugs and fuel filters.

You also will have to be more load conscious. Carry just enough fuel for your trip. If your tanks hold 200 gallons and you are only spending a day on the inland waters you will not need a full tank of fuel. Fuel weighs approximately 8 pounds per gallon.

If you keep your boat docked in the water, make sure you have a clean bottom. A boat with a whole eco-system growing on the bottom will decrease your fuel efficiency. Make an appointment to have that bottom job done.

Learn how to use your trim-tabs efficiently. Trim-tabs are for leveling your boat on the water. I'm on the water almost daily, and I'm always seeing a boater on the water whose boat is not running with the trim-tabs set efficiently.

Bluewater Shoot-out 

The Amelia Island Bluewater Shoot-out had an awesome turnout, according to tournament director Capt. Allen Mills.

Many of the crews reported sporty seas in the early morning with the seas lying down beautifully during the day. Plenty of big game fish were caught, with dolphin taking the center stage.

First-place honors went to the Hunker Down fishing team, which caught and released a sailfish and weighed in a 31-pound dolphin. The Pay Dirt team captured second, also with the catch and release of a sailfish.

The Lady Angler award went to Dawn Stevens aboard the Paradocs, weighing in a 25-pound dolphin. First place Junior Angler went to Capt. Mills' daughter, Alex, with a 26-pound bull dolphin aboard the Wahoo II. Congratulations to all the participants and a job well done.

Until next time ... Capt. Jim.

Andrew Horstman shows a nice trout he caught recently in the Amelia River.

As the saying goes, “The heat is on.” With heat comes warmer water temperatures, leaving Northeast Florida with awesome fishing.

The mullet have started to infiltrate our backwaters, along with pogies and greenies at the jetties. Sardines and cigar minnows have arrived at the offshore reefs. This is all good for fishing in our area. With bait come predators.

Cobia are one of my favorite species to target, and the reports show catches improving weekly at our inshore reefs. This weekend I would expect them to begin showing up along our buoy line, along the beaches around the bait pods and in the by-catch of the shrimp boats.

Live pogies, eels, pinfish and greenies are great choices if you would like to have live bait available to target cobia. Whole large squid works well if you are looking for a dead bait to catch a cobia. There are many artificial means to catch a cobia. Rapala magnums, Mirrorlure or a jig with an artificial eel or curly tail are all deadly choices when choosing artificial bait.

Cobia, especially a large one, are powerful. Handle these fish with care and release the ones that are too short as soon as possible. Regulations state a cobia must be at least 33 inches to the fork to keep.

Chris Murphy displays a recent gator trout catch.

Trout fishing remains excellent floating a live shrimp or a mud minnow on the bottom. Fishing the high tide over the oyster bars and the low tide around structures such as docks, the edges of oyster bars should produce fish for you.

Topwater plug fishing has been improving with the warmer water temperatures. You never know what is going to boil on a topwater plug this time of year. Trout, reds, ladyfish, jack crevalle and bluefish will all strike a topwater plug this time of year.

Offshore bottom fishing remains consistent on the inshore reefs with grouper, snapper, sea bass and a few flounder being caught this week. Small kingfish, barracuda and bonita have arrived along with the live bait at the inshore reefs 10 to 15 miles out for the anglers who would like to troll this weekend. Artificials or live bait should do the trick.

I want to wish good luck to the big-game anglers who are fishing the Amelia Island Bluewater Shoot Out today. Dolphin, wahoo and tuna should be in line to be weighed in today. Ballyhoo rigged with a skirt, trolled around 4 to 6 knots will usually leave you with some hot rod-bending action.

The surf has been fair to slow this week. There has been plenty of action from bonnethead sharks and blues. The point on Amelia Island State Park has been producing whiting along with a few short, chubby flounder.

There have been a few flounder show up at the George Crady Bridge State Fishing Pier this week, also. Fishing along the beach and around the smaller finger jetties at Fort Clinch also has been good this week, with a few flounder also being caught.

Enjoy the gorgeous weather predicted for this weekend.

Until next time … Capt. Jim.

When we began roasting in the ’80s, we chose to purchase shade-grown coffees.
Coffee trees that are shaded by a canopy of larger and taller trees native to the region are known as shade-grown coffees. The soil is rich and not bleached by equatorial heat, which produces a higher quality coffee.

Later, that same coffee became bird-friendly coffee because the birds had a place to roost in the canopy of trees. We love birds like anybody else and continued to purchase shade-grown coffees.

Then, it became Rain Forest Alliance coffee because no trees were cut down to make room for the coffee plantation. We love trees and the birds in them, but really just like shade-grown coffee.

The price for that same coffee went up because environmental organizations redefined what already existed. To get the official Rain Forest Alliance stamp on the coffee sack adds cost to you, the consumer, for something that already existed.

Left alone, the farmer would have continued to supply shade-grown coffee because he received a higher price for the quality coffee.

To receive an organic designation, a coffee plantation must be free of pesticides and chemical fertilizers for a minimum of five years. I grew up in Miami, and my family owned an exterminating company. What I knew then still applies today: If there are chemicals introduced into the soil, it will be there much longer than five years.

We all pay extra for that organic coffee even if, in reality, it does not exist, except in a very few places where the farmer could care less about the organic designations by a society or governments.

If you want true, organic coffee that has never had any pesticides or chemicals, purchase Mocca Yemen Matarri or Sannani. The coffee costs are greater, but the costs are attached to quality and not the designations.

The price of coffee is, and has been, fairly stable for decades. What makes for this stability is that supply has kept up with demand.

The plantation farmers plant and harvest as they have always done. The volume they produce has gone up. The price they receive for their efforts has not changed in real revenues. Even with all the altruistic organizations that profess to save the farmer, not much has changed.

Unfortunately, what starts out as a honorable effort ends up a bureaucratic quagmire of administrative costs.

Politically correct business is great PR, but the dirty little secret is that the farmers have not received a fair compensation, and will not, until the governments and elite, feel-good policy-makers make it possible for the coffee roaster to purchase closer to the source, the farmer.

On the smaller scale, there are a few dedicated coffee merchants who select quality coffees that can be purchased via auctions and the Internet direct from the farmer.

The revenues to the farmer are higher because of the quality of the coffee, not the artificial directives of an organization.

We all need to be aware of conserving, healthy consumption and human inequalities.

Continue to support your favorite conservancy, bird-friendly, canopy-preserving, humanitarian, green-living and planet-saving organizations.

Coffee lovers, bring in your own coffee container so the barista will not use another cup, lid and sleeve.

If it saves the planet and saves you money at your level of participation, it is then truly a worthy cause.

Timmy Long (left) and Capt. Allen Mills hold up an 89-pound wahoo. The seventh annual Bluewater Shoot Out out of Fernandina Beach, Florida is this Saturday, May 10. 

During May, trolling for big game at the Gulf Stream usually provides a fantastic bite. This is the time of year the big-game reels are screaming with yards of line streaming off due to the bite of a huge wahoo, high-flying dolphin or a bruiser of a tuna. Now is the time to be trolling at the break.

May is the ultimate month to be big-game trolling the Gulf Stream. This is why Capt. Allen Mills chose this the month for the seventh annual Bluewater Shoot Out.

Capt. Allen expects light west winds for Saturday's tournament. The captains meeting will be 6 p.m. Friday at the Amelia Island Yacht Basin. Tournament begins Saturday with vessels exiting the St. Marys Inlet at 3 a.m. Fishing begins at 6 a.m. and the lines must be out of the water by 3 p.m. Weigh-in begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Fernandina Harbor Marina. Capt. Allen welcomes you to stop by and watch the fishing teams weigh in their catch.

This week, anglers have had excellent success fishing the Gulf Stream. Capt. Greg Simmons aboard the Ringleader reported large dolphin and wahoo being caught.

The same success should occur this weekend if the weather prediction holds. Hopefully, marlin and sailfish also will be tagged and released this weekend.

Many of our local anglers choose to troll medium to large ballyhoo with skirts. Sea witches, Islanders, C&H Flames and Wahoo feathers are some of the most popular lures to troll ballyhoo this time of year. You may rig with a double or single hook; that is a personal preference. Another popular method for trolling is using a wire line with a No. 3 planer to keep your bait deep with the other lines trolled on the surface.

I used to spend a lot of time at the break, trolling at approximately 4 to 6 knots, depending on how rough the seas I'm trolling are on any particular day. If the seas are sloppy, you may have to troll just a bit slower.

To win a tournament, you must have a crew that is in tune with each other. When that bruiser strikes, each crew member in the cockpit must have a task, know their task well and get it done quickly and carefully. Lines must be reeled in quickly to prevent tangles, the deck must be secured, and the fish must be gaffed efficiently and carefully. You also need an experienced boat handler at the wheel. Whatever your job, you must work together like a fine-tuned crew. Be prepared and make every strike count.

By all means be careful. There are too many ways an angler can be seriously injured at the break, and it is a long run back to the Fernandina Harbor Marina with an injured crew member on board.

George Lawrence and crew aboard the X-treme are the team to beat this year. They are the winning team from last year's tournament with a first-place sailfish. Good luck and good trolling!

Until next time ... Capt. Jim.

The predicted weather for this weekend looks to be fabulous - this is why we live in Florida. The high tide will occur around 8:25 a.m. today, giving you a great early start for topwater plug fishing.

Live shrimp and mud minnows have been working well in the backcountry this week. There were good reports of trout being caught from topwater anglers using Rapala Skitter pops or skitter walks, Bomber Long A's, Mirrorlure Top Dogs and the Zara Spooks. The Exude jerk baits, Berkley Gulp and Contender tails all have been producing nice catches of trout.

The deep holes along docks and over oyster bars are great hangouts for reds and trout this time of year. I would plan on being on the water at first light today and Sunday for catching gator trout on topwater plugs. Don't forget your bug spray; the gnats have been awful.

Grouper, snapper, sea bass, flounder and the occasional cobia are being caught on the inshore reefs. Bring your sabiki rig; there is live bait available at the reefs. Boston mackerel, Spanish sardines and cigar minnows are frozen baits to bring along.

Trolling the break for wahoo, dolphin, sailfish, marlin and tuna should be fine this weekend, especially if the weather holds as predicted. Don't forget to contact Capt. Allen Mills at 261-9481 about the upcoming seventh annual Amelia Island Bluewater Shootout on Saturday, May 10.

The north and south jetties have been producing sheepshead, redfish and whiting this week. Fiddler crabs, blue crabs and large shrimp have been working well at the jetties.

The water clarity at the surf has finally cleared up due to the lighter winds. Pompano, whiting, blues, trout and Spanish mackerel have been reported this week.

The George Crady Bridge State Fishing Pier has been sporadic this week, with whiting, trout, blues and puppy drum reported.

After getting your fill of tasty seafood at the shrimp festival, I hope you can spend some time on the water, too.

Until next time ... Capt. Jim.

Capt. Jim Guest with an impressive haul of huge black drum reeled in by himself, Johnathan Taylor (his first fish), Levi Martin, Claudia Guest and Jim Guest Jr. aboard the Guestamator.

Great fishing abounds in Northeast Florida in the spring time. One of the most popular species to target is the Spanish mackerel, which school in our inlets, sounds and along our beaches. The size of your boat doesn't matter; you can have fun fishing for these toothy critters from the boat or bank.

You can enjoy fishing for Spanish or blues either by sight casting or trolling. When sight casting for Spanish, I like to rig with a No. 7 black barrel swivel tied to approximately 24 inches of 30-pound test fluorocarbon leader tied to a Krocodile spoon. Some anglers prefer to use flexible 20-pound test vinyl-coated wire for leader to prevent cutoffs.

When I see the Spanish striking in the bait pods of glass minnows or birds diving, I like to sight cast into the bait pods. I usually let the spoon sink for a few seconds, and then I begin my retrieve of the spoon quickly.

Another highly effective method in catching Spanish mackerel is trolling. I use a No. 1 planer trolled behind the boat. This is probably the most effective method to catch Spanish mackerel and blues this time of year. I tie a No. 7 snap swivel tied to approximately 10 feet of 30-pound test monofilament tied to a No. 5 black barrel swivel tied to another 10 feet of 30-pound test. Then I attach a No. 00 or No. 0 Clark Spoon in silver or gold. These rigs can be purchased rigged and ready to fish in moments. I like to place my planers approximately 30 feet behind the boat. The closer to the stern of the boat you troll your planer, the shallower it will troll, the further back you place your planer, the deeper the planer will troll.

Your boat speed should be slow enough to take the planer down with your speed approximately 3 to 4 miles per hour. When trolling I would have a Rapala Magnum plug trolled on a 30-pound class rod way out behind the boat past the planer rods in the possibility of picking up the strike of a cobia. " 'Tis the season" for cobia, also.

I prefer to locate the bait pods and sight cast in to the schools of bait with light tackle. The bait pods usually can be located at the ocean side of the north or south jetties or the St. Marys Sound on the incoming tide all the way through to the high tide. Sight casting for Spanish mackerel with light tackle is a fun way to spend some time on the water.

Spanish mackerel have to be 12 inches to the fork and you may have a bag limit of 15 to keep. Follow the rules and regulations and have a fun day on the water with family and friends. As always, handle with care, Spanish mackerel have a mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

Until next time ... Capt. Jim.

A Nassau County woman and three accomplices have been charged with prescription fraud in what could be a two-year forgery scheme, according to Fernandina Beach police.

Prescription forms stolen from a Georgia doctor were passed in Fernandina Beach and elsewhere in Nassau County and may have been used in Georgia, said Capt. David Bishop of the Fernandina Beach Police Department. He said police were alerted April 9 after a pharmacy worker noticed something amiss on a hydrocodone prescription and called the doctor for verification. The doctor said the forms had been stolen and that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was already investigating the theft.

Lisa Hayes, 25, was charged with 14 counts of obtaining prescription medication by fraudulent means and 14 counts of forgery. Bishop said Clifford Stripling, 23, Jennifer Williams, 27, and Christopher Rowland, 21, were named on the prescriptions and were charged with obtaining prescription medication by fraudulent means. Rowland was arrested April 16. The others were arrested Friday. All four are from Yulee.

Bishop said another 31 cases were turned over to the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office for investigation. He said the scheme may have been ongoing for as long as two years.

Dana Treen