But just like me with someone who booked a charter on a East wind breezy day. "I gotta deal with it."
And that's what my buddy, DOA Rob has to do, also.
He's off work, 3 days. If those 3 days are east windy, freezing cold, hot as hell, raining, you name it, he's going fishin'. And if not in his boat, you'll find him in his Hobie Kayak sitting a foot off the water, casting his D.O.A. Shrimp for Trophy sized Trout. He and I are alot alike, but so different at the same time. It's the float-rig rod & live shrimp for me. Rob's all about a 1/4 oz. DOA Shrimp in his yak because it's usually easier to not have to worry about live bait. Hence his nick-ame....DOA ROB. But we both hunt BIG Trout, 12 months a year.
Well, Rob went yesterday. And he went to a area he loves. Which is a place I find hard to fish, 90% of the time. He left late, and sat through big East winds, that backed off, then blew all over again, later. We talked on the phone, and Rob couldn't get back to his truck. The tide went so low that he would have had to trudge through mud. But he tried it, and sank up to his hips in St. Johns River Gumbo. So back to his yak to wait out the higher tide.
Rob showed up on my door step last night at almost 9:30PM. Wet, and with mud still caked to his arms. But it was all worth it........
Because Rob caught his 4th or 5th, SN
OOKAnd what a beautiful fish it was, at 29 inches....thank goodness, Rob has his Snook stamp!
He also caught a 21" Trout.
Snook, especially this nice are a rare but getting to be a more common catch in the St. Johns River. From Palm Valley/Ponte Vedre in the ICW too the river here, the catches are heard about, but it's not like anglers go out "Snook Fishing", like in S. Florida.
What kills me, is that I fish every nook & cranny I can fit my boat in, and have never caught one. Let alone know if I hooked one, or had a customer hook one, even. I've traveled to S. Florida of course, when I had the time too, to catch one. And didn't!!!! Because it was too cold in S. Florida when I was there. Now, ain't that FUNNY!
Rob and I stood under my boat-port looking down into his cooler, "that fish didn't migrate here in the last month....it couldn't have. 30 days ago the water was still cold for them, supposedly??????"
We believe a fish like that made it through the winter, somewhere around here!! But where?
Just goes to show you, that you never know what will happen when you're out there fishing.
Rob, had the one nice Trout out of a handful, that was it. But stayed at it, and look what happened.
This is what most of my customer's need to realize. IT'S FISHIN'...that's all it is. Do it right, do it often, and you never know????
This fish isn't Rob's first Snook from around here, either. He's caught other's although smaller, in creeks south of the river, in his yak also.
Hell, I'll take any size!!
I still need a Snook, and a Wahoo to complete my list of "local fish"....I think I'll have a better chance at a Snook. But, by the looks of it, I may have a better chance at a Wahoo, than a N.E. Florida Snook?
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Supposed Snook water Temp preferences:
70 to 85 degrees.
