Just Joined the Club

South Bay weekend started out great. My brother, a friend, and I spent the Friday night camping out by the bay and it was worth the roughing it. I hadn’t been out fishing for a couple of months since I’m really trying to finish up my biology degree and I actually told a couple of people that fishing was “the last thing on my mind”…harsh words I know.
Well…I had to ask for the day off and my boss kind heartedly felt sorry for me and let me go, so we were off! We left home around 3pm and were going to fish into the night so after loosing an hour chasing bait, we decided to use lure. Something that many people don’t know is that my while my brother is a pure lure fisherman…I just can’t help myself and am I sucker for bait, I guess because you can just hangout and wait (lazy I know). But I decided to work lure out there with the Big Boys, and it was well worth it! What we do is walk into South Bay and wade into the middle of the channel fish it up until the dinner bell ends and hump that 45 minute walk out just dreaming of walking on solid ground. While were out there we all just spread out and fish the area, I’m talking 360º fishing and we hook on to one it will literally go all around you.
The story that I have is my initiation in to the Monster Snook Club, I was out there working one of the saltwater assassins that I could have sworn should have hooked everything out there, but nothing and it was when I changed to my Billy Bay gold shrimp when everything changed. You know then things happen when you know no one will believe, so it’s like screw it, that’s what happen when I casted the Billy Bay out. As soon as it touched the water and gave it a pop, a nice 22” speck slammed it and it was straight to my stringer. After about 10 minutes of working the lure, a nice fat snook took my by storm. My brother was fishing about 100 yards to my right and saw my rod just bend and all I could hear out in the water was my drag just peeling that line. I thought it was a red because it started swimming sideways but then it saw what it was when it leaped out of the water “tarpon style” twice and then my brother rushed over with the net, it was a nice hook up near the throat and my first NICE SNOOK. After that I good, caught a decent trout to top it off, and was done for the trip.
While my brother and friend stayed out there nailing reds and trout, I was happy with my catch of the weekend. One for my record books.

A True Fisherman

There are some people that have it and some that don’t! It’s funny that at times when I walk past some music that is playing I can’t for the life of me make out some of the instruments that are being used or even the bass line that walking up and down the neck the of the bass guitar, but many people can. I think that sometimes it’s a lot like fishing! When I used to work at a fishing/boating store so customers would come in and ask me how they could fish, and as simple as that question is, it’s one of the hardest to answer; ok, what do you want to fish for, how do you want to catch it (i.e. bait, artificial, etc.), where are you going, when are you going, and the questions went on and on!

When I said that some people have it and some don’t, it’s interesting that some people are naturally talented towards things like music and take it on like a fish to water, but I think fishing on the other hand is something that doesn’t come natural to anyone. Yes, I will admit that some have beginners luck, but anyone can catch a fish but show me someone that shows consistency in catching and I’ll show you a fisherman. After college when I came home and was finally stretching out my sea legs and training myself to fisherman lifestyle I will admit that I was rusty. I would constantly ask my brother, “What the hell am I doing wrong!” and he would just answer, “It’s just that you’ve been away for a while, you need to spend some time out here…that’s all” and it drove me nuts. I couldn’t get a bite to save my life, but little by little, step by step, hour by hour, I was getting back what I had lost when I left for college years prior. The reason I tell you this is because I strongly believe that a lot and most of it comes through experience. While fishing is a sport more than a sport it’s a science. You need to study! I’ve never met a good fisherman that didn’t know his knots, which are so essential to the game; they are what links you to the fish on the other end! Another thing, a fisherman needs to be able to read his surroundings, the waters, the tides, and also open a book once in a while. You need to study about the fish that you’re going to be targeting, and actually have an interest in learning. Once when I was working, a customer came in and asked me about leaders and immediately asked him what he was targeting and told him I have just the perfect thing. I quickly got the supplies to quickly make a leader, and he freaked out telling me that “I don’t want to deal with all that tying crap, I’ll just buy the pre-made ones”. I didn’t get offending when he refused my teaching him how, but the thing that offended me was the fact that he called himself a fishermen…and that is one thing that we take very personally. To be a fisherman takes years of hard work out there on the water; reading, studying, with nothing but trail and error with that to learn from after doing your homework the night before. Overall, all I’m trying to say is that what comes easy to many people like music, fishing doesn’t come easy to anyone and people that see fishermen out there making it look like a walk in the park is only after years and years of perfecting the sport that they love. Remember you can give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day but teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

Drum Fishing

Hey guys! This weekend we went drum fishing at the ship channel, and we caught some drum! It was a very windy day and the tide was moving out, yet we wanted to wet our line so we ventured out. What we used was crab and it was awesome.