Good day fellow fishing nerds,

This week I continued to find clear water in shallow, mangrove protected areas. It seems like it takes me a couple of hours of slowly moving on the trolling motor before I find a section with fish. There is no grass but a lot of mangrove roots, so it’s important to move slowly and keep your eyes peeled for any activity. Once you see a fish, chances are more are nearby. Continue to be patient and slow your trolling motor down as much as possible while still making way. Fishing artificials such as gulp shrimp rigged weedless or cut bait has been the trick these last few weeks.

On this trip I managed to find a nice school of drum. I scared away most of them with my boat wake, but I was lucky enough for them to come back. There must be a good food source nearby of some kind. When you find a nice honey hole like this, it’s important not to fish it out even if you know you can catch more. Too much pressure on the school and they might not be there on the next trip. I hooked into a nice slot redfish, who immediately dragged my 21 foot boat into the mangroves. I was able finesse the fish out with some lucky bail and rod actions. Unfortunately I gut hooked the fish and had to harvest the fish. This is actually the first fish I’ve harvested from the river in my three years of fishing. I consider that win but also I knew it wouldn’t be right to release a fish that I knew would die. So I brought it home and cleaned it up to make sure to honor the fish by making it into something delicious.

While cleaning the fish, I decided to cut the stomach open because I’ve always heard guides say to take a look and see what the fish has been eating. Since I never do this I was curious to find some info as to what these fish were eating on back there. To my surprise when I opened the stomach, this redfish managed to eat an entire rattlesnake whole. I’ve never seen a rattlesnake before and this was surprising to say the least! If you can handle a little blood and guts, make sure to check out the video to see the snake! I’ve never heard of a fish taking down a snake before, but it makes sense considering how often I catch them on topwater lures that can look like snakes swimming.

If you enjoy cooking at home make sure to watch the second half of the video as I make a blackened redfish with spicy mojo and mofongo. It turned out absolutely delicious. If anyone wants the recipe I can type it up and send it over to you. Either drop a comment here or DM on IG @AlexSpanky.

Until next time, tight lines!
Spanky