This afternoon I fished my normal spot for a bit and caught a couple of small fish and decided to move on.  I won’t say where I ended up because there are too many local guys fishing this tourney that might “discover” my spot.  Man the fishing was incredible!  I caught 30 plus Trout, 2 bluefish and one was 24”, two Snook with the biggest going 23”, a 20” Gag Grouper, several jacks, ladyfish, and a redfish that was 24”+ that got off at the boat.

 The biggest excitement came just before dark when I was thinking about heading back to the dock.  All of the sudden my topwater lure was destroyed and drag was screaming from my reel.  At first I thought it was another Snook because of the way it ran… but then it jumped!  Holy crap it was a giant Sea Trout that looked like a 15 pound largemouth bass.  It had to be the fattest trout I’ve ever seen.  I fought it for about ten minutes making sure that I kept the drag just right to not break the line (20lb Power Pro with a 30lb fluorocarbon leader ).  I fought him perfectly and got him along side the boat and I figured he was 28” or more and went to grab my net.  As I turned back to the fish the lure came out of the water and hit me on the shoulder with a thud.  Bye bye giant Trout…

 After a few choice words that I can’t repeat here, I looked to my shoulder and saw the lure is stuck to my shirt and I thought, great I’m hooked good.  (By the way I just spent 4 hours in the hospital two weeks ago getting an infected thumb taken care of because of a fish hook that lodged in my knuckle and I just finished the antibiotics yesterday).  After getting over the thought that this giant fish was a goner I studied the lure to find out that I was not hooked after all.  I removed the lure in amazement to discover that the front hook was gone.  The eye that is mounted in the lure is in tact but the hook and split ring were gone.  All I know is I had that fish hooked good and if it wasn’t for a tackle malfunction I’d be an easy winner this week.  Oh well this is just day one, six more to go…

Tight lines everyone…

But this morning was totally different.  The water was alive with bait fish and big explosions on the surface.  I got out this morning and had a DOA Shrimp in the water about 7:45 AM.  The first cast I lost a 20″+ fish at the net… the very next cast I landed an 18 incher.  A couple of casts later, as my DOA Shrimp was falling, my pole was almost pulled out of my hands.  It took drag for about 10-15 seconds then allowed me to get some ground on it.  At this point I couldn’t tell what I had only that it was BIG.  After another few seconds it blasted the surface… it was either a small Tarpon (20-40 Pounds), a giant snook, or the biggest Trout I have ever seen.  At just that minute I was watching in amazement as my DOA Shrimp is hurling back at me.   He spit it out and I think tried to threw it back at me.  Just like that… GONE  #%?^&!

I ended up with a couple of keepers and 2 ladyfish for Redfish bait next week.  Tomorrow I’m heading out with a fellow competitor because he is without a boat this week and is supplying beer.  I let you know how that works out tomorrow…

Catch Fish and Have Fun