Hung-over, maybe? At the ripe time of 0630 hrs. It was a gathering of friends of Jeff Handa's, a past customer of mine. So we all got on our perspective boats and headed out for a big day of fishing.
I stayed in the river. So did another boat. And the 3rd boat went to Nassau Sound, to do the Whiting fishing up there.
I had a special spot up my sleeve that I wanted to try on the last hour or two of the incoming tide. A spot that has been full of "ass-hander specials".......big Jacks and Redfish.
So we anchor up, I show the guys the ways of the float-rig, and we're off. John makes the first hook set. His float rippppps across the water from about 2 feet deep, straight up into a slight cove on the bank. But this cove is shallow and has boulders all over the bottom. And almost every single hooked up fish ends up running for the shallows and up in almost, no water. Most of the time it's an instant snap of the leader as the fish goes around the rocks. And this Jack Crevalle, does the same. John's pulling hard, and as the fish goes up into inches of water, a huge wake from the local party boat comes rolling into the bank, and I see an "out" for John to take. And that was enough water to... PULL THE FISH THROUGH! I'm yelling, "REEEEEEL!!!!!!" As the fish swims into the wake and now into a bit deeper water, while John continues to pulls the fish out of the rocky structure. "if it wasn't for the huge wake of the Party boat, that fish would have just swam right around the boulders...." Ya just had to have seen this miracle of luck, to believe it. As the Jack gave John one hell of a battle. GIVE'EM NO QUARTER! That's the only way of getting any good sized fish out of this spot.
So we continued and got ripped a few more times by good fish in the structure. Then, we saw what we came for. REDS. Redfish busting on top of the structure and on the bank, feeding right there in front of us, and we couldn't get one to the boat. It was pretty exciting!
So we moved on. Next spot was an old dock where a Ladyfish handed Casey his butt, breaking him off while jumping out and on the other side of the dock, we were fishing. Then Jeff caught a Trout, and a baby Gag Grouper. John had a few slammers and a Ladyfish. Then the action slowed, so I tried another portion of the dock, with just a bite or two from bait stealers.
ACTION....is what I wanted, no matter what. So I went back into a creek'ish area. Which turned out to be fishing the Nursery Grounds. It was a Redfish, Trout, Ladyfish Festival. One after another. The guys pulled small Reds and Trout to the boat. None were "keepers" but it was fast and furious. John and Jeff would stand on either side of Casey, and have their floats go down with fish on....while Casey was wondering what's going on! A dozen or more Trout and Reds and Ladyfish later. Casey finally got his Trout.
We burned at almost 9 dozen shrimp, fast. It was a tad cooler than it has been. And a beautiful day. Even though it was a Saturday. The other boat in the river had some of the same, and the boat that went to Nassau Sound caught 36 Whiting.
The heat was still really bad as we said our goodbye's back at the boat ramp parking lot. It can really suck the energy out of you. And it has me, I'm taking it easy tomorrow. Because I have a Monday morning charter.
----------------------------------
If you have the need for some good clean fun with a large group. I can always reserve multiple boats for you, and we can fish the inshore waters. From 8-18 people, it doesn't matter.
3 passengers per boat, is perfect.
