It seems like the window for fishing the last couple of weekends has been small when trying to avoid winds and rough conditions in the river. Luckily the wind laid down for a bit one day after work this week, so I decided to give it go. Since I was short on time, I was going to fish artificial, but I came across a pod of bait on my way out and in one cast a caught a baker’s dozen of a variety of bait fish. I haven’t fished a couple weeks, so I told myself if I caught one good fish I would consider the trip a success.
Sticking to the leeward side of the river, I pitched live mullet near docks, mangroves, and anywhere I saw activity. Within a couple of minutes I heard the first “pops” and witnessed the “mullet dance” (when the mullet starts to swim in a fast tight circle) a clear indication that a predator fish is going after my bait. As you will see in the video, I was a little rusty at setting circle hooks and I was reeling down before the fish had time to eat. I missed two good shots in the row, on what I believe was either a smaller snook or decent trout. I moved around a bit searching for any activity and pitched again. This time a bigger snook or tarpon chased my mullet right up under the dock. After a big topwater feed, I missed the hook set yet again. I have a bad habit of setting the hook to fast around docks, afraid that the fish will take me through the pilings. I put a new mullet on and casted towards the same area again. This time the chase happened in open water and I was able to wait longer. After a few Star Wars “stay on target” directives, the fish finally ate. I thought it was a nice snook at first, but as the fish got closer to the boat, I could see it was a super nice speckled trout. I got super hyped, at the size of the fish. At first site I thought it was going to be a mid 20s inch trout, just based on the weight and thickness of the fish. When I got it on the tape it was only 20.5 inches, I say only because I thought it was going to be huge, but it’s still a nice sized trout. It amazes me how drastic the size of a trout varies from a 16 inch fish, to a 18, to a 20 inch fish. After releasing the fish back into the water, I continued to cast around. I missed another really nice trout, I could see his tail flailed out of the water when it launched at my mullet. As the wind picked up and the temperature dropped I decided to call it an evening.
I was a little disappointed at the prospect of possibly catching multiple nice fish in a short outing, but I was excited to be able to find the fish after not being on the water for a couple of weeks. It looks like the wind forecast for tonight and tomorrow looks bleak, but Sunday is shaping up nicely. Hopefully I can put something together then. Until next the time, tight lines!
Spanky (=
Beautiful trout, dude. The circle hook should set itself with just a little bit of pressure. It’s hard to tell from the clip, but you might want to try baiting the hook a little shallower. Personally, I like to go under the mouth and through the nose, which makes it pretty much impossible to foul the hook.
Thanks JC! Shallower / through the nose sounds like a good call. I’m going to give that a go next time!
Very nice report! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you mshlapack, glad you enjoyed it!