cuda

Capt Mark managed this nice river ‘cuda on a Tsunami topwater plug. The snow white meat of this overlooked species made for a fantastic lunch!

After a bit of a lay-off due to the wind Kim and I were finally able to get out for a morning scouting trip. I decided to look south of town as we’ve not been this direction for well over a month. We hoped to find plenty of mullet and pilchards along the eastern shorelines and the predators which routinely feed upon them.

Mother Nature provided us with nearly no baitfish anywhere within the three miles of fishing grounds we covered. In fact, the few mullet we did see were hiding deep in the mangrove roots trying to hide from the snook, trout, jacks and more. As things turned out, we only saw them as they jumped out of the water attempting to avoid the maws of a few hungry critters. The extra high waters of this particular tide cycle certainly hurt our chances of catching much outside the mangrove line.

About halfway through the falling tide we started getting a few slaps, pops and swirls on our topwater plugs. Eventually a few lips stuck to our hooks and we boated a jack, a respectable trout and a good sized river barracuda! The bite ended far too soon as the sun climbed over the trees and burned through the remaining morning haze.

On a different note; the jetty fishing has been good for guys who go almost daily. Some mornings the pompano show up hungry and eagerly eat goofy-jigs or fishbites on surf-rigs. Other days, the snook go on a feed and devour pilchards or mojarra on almost every cast. We even witnessed a great lookdown bite one late morning on the jetty’s tip. These odd looking critters are delicious and happily eat smallish jigs cast into the swift currents!