There I am sitting at the bar finishing my breakfast and slurping the last sip of my coffee when a see a fellow by the name of John climbing off his flats skiff tied up right there at the dock. He had a hefty, short, stout bait casting rod and a large, fresh threadfin shad he had just removed from his livewell. He baited a 3/0 hook with a live and lively threadfin, and freelined no more than 6 feet of line down between the floating dock and the fixed dock - right behind the bar I was sitting at. About twenty seconds later, I saw his rod bend double, then heard him cuss as his 50 pound monofilament line frayed and broke on the edge of the floating dock! Woah buddy! He had my undivided attention now! I ordered a refill on my coffee as John walked back to his skiff, opened the hatch on his livewell and netted another threadfin. By the time John was back to drop his line between the floating dock and the fixed dock, I was there watching from a perch on the fixed dock! Once again, six feet of line and a freelined threadfin and THIS resulted!
John proceeded to literally SPANK the snook fishing in between the 3 foot space between the fixed and floating dock! He got a hit every time he dropped his bait in the water, hooked about one of every three fish that hit, and landed about one of every three fish he hooked! The rest broke his line when they dug down deep and frayed it against the dock and pilings! At one point, I watched a fish that had to be 48 inches long suck the threadfin right off his hook! John looked up at me and asked, "Was that a tarpon?" I hated to tell him he had just missed hooking the biggest snook I had ever seen in my life! At this point, I called Erika, told her I would be late picking up the T-shirts, and switched from breakfast coffee to breakfast beer!
Another fellow sitting at the bar, his name was Bob, soon joined me watching John play with the snook there at the dock! John told us he had caught several large snook there the previous day using the technique he was demonstrating to us. He had gone out that morning, spent several hours since daybreak looking for bait, and had finally castnetted a livewell full of big threadfins under the bridge at Big Carlos Pass. John landed three nice snook and lost three times that many to break-offs in the two hour period Bob and I watched him fish! The tide was slack by 12:30, but the bite quit about noon. John said he would be back the next day and Bob and I said we would meet him there!
I was off Friday the 13th - the next day. The tide was running a bit later then so I arrived about 10am with my flow and troll bait bucket full of store bought pinfish and a stout 5 1/2 foot baitcasting rod (my "bridge rod"). John was back with a friend of his and another full livewell brimming with huge threadfins. I started fishing my live pinfish while John and his friend fished their live threads. Before long, our new friend Bob showed up as well!
John and his buddy fished a different dock this day, while I fished the dock at which John had had so much success the previous two days. I watched them both catch slot sized snook (one was 29" and the other 30").
I had one huge hit that I failed to hook up on, but aside from that - nothing. I did enjoy watching some guys painting their sailboat as I fished.
And I enjoyed watching a pod of dolphin having group sex in the middle of Matanzas Pass (though they wouldn't cooperate very well with my attempt at dolphin porn)...
John and his buddy left before noon while Bob and I fished and regaled each other with exaggerated tales of our fishing prowess and bought each other a succession of beers. By the time the tide ended, Bob and I had caught no fish what-so-ever, but we both managed to catch a slight buzz from the beers.
Hey! You can't catch fish EVERY day, right?
Life is good!:)
0 comments:
Post a Comment