June 1
Posted: June 1st, 2013, 8:02 pm
Plan was to get up early, head west and find some migrating poons. Debated long and hard whether we should go for tarpon today or reds, decided for tarpon and then pole for reds when the sun got up. Pops and I woke early and left the house a little after 4:30. We were the first boat at Lanark and greeted with a stiff breeze when we opened the car door. Knew it was gonna be 10-15 but figured we would be able to get settled into our tarpon spot and start catching....... Not exactly. We started our run to our spot and when it was time to cover a bit of deeper water, we knew it wasn't happening. Could not make it to where we wanted to fish so we turned back and figured we would focus inshore. After lots of re-rigging and lots of things going wrong (nothing catastrophic), we were fishin. Fished Lanark inshore for a while but it was very slow. Brought 3 keeper trout in total and we tried lots of different places. Finally decided we had enough of the wind and the waves and no sun, so we decided to pull the boat out and head elsewhere.
Arrived to Shell Point area around 1 or so. Ran to first spot and it looked good but no fish. Ran to spot number two and started our drift....no fish. Started running to another place and the tide was further out than I expected and we started spooking some fish, we decided to just put the trolling motor down and start fishin. Saw reds in about two feet, probably saw 10-12 total and I don't recall any small ones. My Dad got one on topwater that was just under 27 so we put him in the cooler. I was up next. Spotted a red maybe 15 yards away and making his way away from us. I lead him perfectly and he crushes my soft plastic. Fight is on, but the red is digging hard. We battle for maybe a minute and then he digs one more time and my jig pops out. Think the fish was oversized. We keep on fishin and I see a fish probably 10 feet in front of the boat cruising right along with us at about the same speed. I make a cast and it's behind him. Wind in and recast and I lead him but he speeds up and my line goes right over him and lure ends up behind him. Try number three! I lead him this time and he gulps it, fight is on! He gives me a good fight in the skinny water, darting every which way and we finally get him in the net. Measures 28.5 inches so we release it to fight another day. Pops says all my pictures are starting to look the same so I tried something different with my fish, did not go very well haha. Better luck next time. We fished for a litle while longer but it was late and we had been gone from the house since 4:30 so we headed in.
We were able to salvage a day that did not go according to planned and one where we had more than a few issues. It started out frustrating but at the end of the day, for me, you can't top sight fishing reds in clear water. Something about watching them crush your bait after you make a perfect presentation gets my blood going. Probably will not be out for awhile, things are firing up in my internship. Yall go catch em up!
Arrived to Shell Point area around 1 or so. Ran to first spot and it looked good but no fish. Ran to spot number two and started our drift....no fish. Started running to another place and the tide was further out than I expected and we started spooking some fish, we decided to just put the trolling motor down and start fishin. Saw reds in about two feet, probably saw 10-12 total and I don't recall any small ones. My Dad got one on topwater that was just under 27 so we put him in the cooler. I was up next. Spotted a red maybe 15 yards away and making his way away from us. I lead him perfectly and he crushes my soft plastic. Fight is on, but the red is digging hard. We battle for maybe a minute and then he digs one more time and my jig pops out. Think the fish was oversized. We keep on fishin and I see a fish probably 10 feet in front of the boat cruising right along with us at about the same speed. I make a cast and it's behind him. Wind in and recast and I lead him but he speeds up and my line goes right over him and lure ends up behind him. Try number three! I lead him this time and he gulps it, fight is on! He gives me a good fight in the skinny water, darting every which way and we finally get him in the net. Measures 28.5 inches so we release it to fight another day. Pops says all my pictures are starting to look the same so I tried something different with my fish, did not go very well haha. Better luck next time. We fished for a litle while longer but it was late and we had been gone from the house since 4:30 so we headed in.
We were able to salvage a day that did not go according to planned and one where we had more than a few issues. It started out frustrating but at the end of the day, for me, you can't top sight fishing reds in clear water. Something about watching them crush your bait after you make a perfect presentation gets my blood going. Probably will not be out for awhile, things are firing up in my internship. Yall go catch em up!
