But when we arrived at the bait shop there wasn't any shrimp...sold out from yesterdays crowds. So we waited about an hour and Wade the shrimp man showed up with his truck of "west coast" shrimp. Because he isn't catching any here in his home waters.
Small, weak, and generally very unappealing live shrimp. But hell, that's all there is.
It gets this way around this time of year. Another wonderful event.
Because it was warm, sunny and a weekend, the hordes of people on the water was literally a joke. Wake making cruisers were going up and down the intra-coastal waterway like tractor-trailers on I-95. Which was where we started first.
And I love it when you travel the distance and get to a spot where you've been fishing all week long (Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday) and there's a boat sitting on the spot, that really burns my butt!! Wasted time and fuel.
Tom caught a few small Trout, but the constant wakes are just a big giant sign, "YOU WILL NOT CATCH QUALITY FISH HERE."
So we beat feet outa there. But the river was no better. The HUB as I call it, where the river and ICW meet all the way to the end of the jetties was a froth of wakes and boats everywhere.
I was just about to run north for an hour just to get away from all the people. There is peace on a weekend, in certain places.....It's Nirvana, but one heck of a boat ride away. I have seen this place with my own two eyes! But Tom talked me out it.
Then there was the full moon falling tide. So strong on a few of my spots I couldn't get my anchor to hold no matter how many times I tried. And these were the same places I fished on Thursday and had so many Trout it was ridicules. Now, I couldn't even anchor because of the current.
But, we did find a spot or two where the molesting boat wakes, and current were bearable.
And we caught a few Trout. Mostly small ones, boxing a few 16-17 inchers. I even caught a few decent Trout on a plug. The first time I ever tossed this lure. And I was impressed in it's versatility.
Those little treble hooks really gang hooked this fish really good.
We had to actually sit and wait for the current to slow down as the boat planed in the current at a spot where I just tie off. Only after maneuvering around several boats just to get to the spot. It was if the area I wanted to go to was being blocked off from making an entrance. I'm just not used to this kind of BS. And it was worth butting our way in through the lines of some "Croaka" fisherman to have Tom catch a 27 inch Redfish in that high speed current on the float rig and small hook.
At one point we tried fishing a commercial dock, and by the time I turned around after anchoring, there was a human standing on this dock even, casting in our direction!
Holy Crap, there's no escape!!!
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. (that's what the "borg" used to say to Capt. Picard on the new Star Trek, remember that?)
We packed up and went back to the boat ramp to clean our catch, and go home.
I guess this was a wake-up call, that I need to fish another county on weekends.
Okay.....more gas means, more cost. If you want to catch fish, and I want you to catch fish.
