Neither Maria or Will were die hard experienced anglers, like a few of my past trips were. So from the river to the jetties I struggled to get them into enough current to float-rig fish. Then after that wasn't working we tried bottom fishing, that wasn't working much either.
One cool thing was the sight of Jim Anderson in his fire engine red Shamrock hooked to a big fish flying through the air as we passed him at the tip of the South Jetty. Looked like he had a perfect crowd pleaser Tarpon hooked up, as the fish did back flips in the air, and was shiny silver.
I yelled, "man that's one of those crowd pleasers!!" And Jim was hard at play, with what was a big Barracuda, not a Tarpon. Wow, that was one pissed off snaggle toothed Ledge Trout!
He got it to the boat on a mono leader, so we went closer. He said he caught a small Seabass, and saw a dark figure swipe at it, so he sent the Seabass back down to the bottom and BAM....the Cuda took the bait. Jim went for the gaff, and came back to the rod, right then is when the teeth met the leader for the last time. And the Cuda swam away, a whole lot less frisky.
Either way, an excellent catch. Cuda's are definitely at the jetties. And very much on the prowl on the clean green incoming tide. I see them all the time.
We finally found a decent spot and Will caught a Ringtailed Porgie, and then a pup Black Drum.
But still the search was on for a place they didn't have to be master casters to fish properly.
Finally the tide started to turn around and fall....."oh what sweet relief!"
That's when Will's float vanished and he reeled in a nice Flounder.
The tide started to move along as it should and all they had to do is drop out the stern and let their float drift.
After a few small Mangroves, Blennies, and tiny Black Seabass, nothing was else was happening.
Heck we should of been hooking up some decent fish here. We had it all, now.
And not long after I said, "we should have some Jacks here, this spot is jack famous. They'll be that big fish that pulls real hard, for ya"
I was drifting Will's float out for him, because the action was slow and his attention was hard to keep on his float-rig. And that's when the float went under and I handed him the rod. This was a Ass-hander on my light float-rig rods that's for sure. The fish was fast and burned drag off the reel. Here is when the rubber meets the road for a Jr. Angler who's never caught a really big fish, let alone a big Saltwater fish. You just can't jerk this one to the boat. So I really had to coach him. I had to get into my commanding voice and have him react, when I told him too. Up under the boat, a few times. The fish tried it all. And after a wearing out of the fish and Will, a 10 pound Jack Crevalle came to the net....only after a long light tackle battle.
We ended the day on this big fish high note, and headed back to the dock.
Next up: Monday and Tuesday.
Not all the interested in this weekend, there's a wind switch at play to the east and no current.
I'll start again with a new week.
