Some fishing trips have tales of good catches and others have tales about the one that got away. This tale, unfortunately, is about the latter. Last Friday, Denny Voith and Gerry Gersbach fished aboard my boat. The day started out great when Denny landed and released a 27” snook on his third cast. The rest of the day, however, did not fair as well. After trying numerous spots only a couple of small mangos and jacks were caught. It was getting close to the end of the trip when I stopped at the last spot of the day. Again the action was extremely slow with Gerry landing a cat fish while drifting a live pigfish.
I was standing at the gunnel in the middle of the boat watching the live shrimp Denny was retrieving. The shrimp got about three feet from the boat when this huge snook appeared out of know where. The fish just lazily approached the shrimp as if we weren’t even there, open his mouth, and sucked in the shrimp. Denny and I looked at one another in amassment. The fish slowly turned away as if to say I’m big, I’m bad, lets get it on.
When Denny set the hook it began to peel off drag jumping several times revealing itself as to just how big a fish it was. I estimated it to be around 15 lbs. The fish then turned and swam back to and under the boat. Denny got it out of a critical spot and the battle continued. After a few more minutes the wise old fish brought itself to the rear of the boat with Denny in pursuit. The fish dove under the boat dragging the 30 lb braided line across a trim tab slicing it like a razor. Needless to say we were both very disappointed at losing the big fish, results - Snook 1, Denny 0. I’m sure it’s a story Denny will tell for a long time – “The One That Got Away”.
There are some good size mango snappers in the river now. Mangos to 14 inches are being caught on live shrimp. There’s also a lot of flounder around that are also being caught on live shrimp. Evan Cape who fished with me this past week had a 3 lb flounder and Wes Smith had a 2.08 lb flounder.
Evan’s buddy, Greg Taphouse, had a trout that weighed in at 7 lbs even. The big trout was released. Evan’s other buddy, Brad Melvin, had a 17” grouper in the ICW around Beverly Beach area. There were also other snook caught that were anywhere from 10” to 18”.
Roy Mattson at Roy’s Bait House reports that Oscar Sarmiento landed a 4.05 lb flounder at Matanzas inlet. Roy Smith had 2 flounder that were both 2 lbs. 11 year old Kenny McIntyrel caught a 17” trout. Roy Earl – 27”, 4.08 lb trout and 4 more over the slot size of 20”, all were on live pigfish. Emily Rodgerson had 11 trout and 1 flounder fishing dock lights at night, all fish were released. John Craig and Jason Longfellow had 5 trout, 2 flounder and 2 snook.
I was standing at the gunnel in the middle of the boat watching the live shrimp Denny was retrieving. The shrimp got about three feet from the boat when this huge snook appeared out of know where. The fish just lazily approached the shrimp as if we weren’t even there, open his mouth, and sucked in the shrimp. Denny and I looked at one another in amassment. The fish slowly turned away as if to say I’m big, I’m bad, lets get it on.
When Denny set the hook it began to peel off drag jumping several times revealing itself as to just how big a fish it was. I estimated it to be around 15 lbs. The fish then turned and swam back to and under the boat. Denny got it out of a critical spot and the battle continued. After a few more minutes the wise old fish brought itself to the rear of the boat with Denny in pursuit. The fish dove under the boat dragging the 30 lb braided line across a trim tab slicing it like a razor. Needless to say we were both very disappointed at losing the big fish, results - Snook 1, Denny 0. I’m sure it’s a story Denny will tell for a long time – “The One That Got Away”.
There are some good size mango snappers in the river now. Mangos to 14 inches are being caught on live shrimp. There’s also a lot of flounder around that are also being caught on live shrimp. Evan Cape who fished with me this past week had a 3 lb flounder and Wes Smith had a 2.08 lb flounder.
Evan’s buddy, Greg Taphouse, had a trout that weighed in at 7 lbs even. The big trout was released. Evan’s other buddy, Brad Melvin, had a 17” grouper in the ICW around Beverly Beach area. There were also other snook caught that were anywhere from 10” to 18”.
Roy Mattson at Roy’s Bait House reports that Oscar Sarmiento landed a 4.05 lb flounder at Matanzas inlet. Roy Smith had 2 flounder that were both 2 lbs. 11 year old Kenny McIntyrel caught a 17” trout. Roy Earl – 27”, 4.08 lb trout and 4 more over the slot size of 20”, all were on live pigfish. Emily Rodgerson had 11 trout and 1 flounder fishing dock lights at night, all fish were released. John Craig and Jason Longfellow had 5 trout, 2 flounder and 2 snook.