Sometimes when the fishing is slow we have to think of ways to amuse ourselves. Such was the case Black Friday when Capt. Ralph Olivett, his friend Kelly and I went to try our luck at flounder fishing. We had nice healthy bait in the livewell and beautiful weather, all the makings of a great day for fishing. Just one problem though, the flounder were not cooperating. We fished several locations and only had one flounder all morning long and it was released. It was just barely legal size.
As the afternoon rolled around it was apparent that the flounder were taking the day off but we continued to fish. I came up with the idea to make things interesting. I suggested that the first one to land a crab would be rewarded a dollar from each of the other two. The contest was agreed upon and the fishing began, or should I say the crabbing began. The competition was fierce between the three of us and after a lot of laughs Capt Ralph had come out the winner.
Moving on to the next spot we changed the species of the competition from crab to Twigger fish, also known as a stick or small branch. Lots of times you never know what you might reel in while bottom fishing. The contest was on. Ralph had the first Twigger, a small one. I then hooked into something that felt like a fish as I reeled it in against the current. I told Ralph to get ready to net “it” as I believed it was a big one. As it came into view “it” turned out to be the largest Twigger of the day. Boy did I take a lot of abuse over that but I was proud to win that portion of the competition. The day did not wind up being a total bust when I landed a 26” redfish just before calling it a day. Even though the fishing was slow three friends shared a lot of laughs that day.
Here’s a quick story about how aggressive fish can be when they are feeding. I was fly fishing last week using a fly that was 2 1/2 inches long when I hooked a fish. I knew it wasn’t big and when I got it to the boat it turned out to be a snook. How big was it you may ask? It was about 6 inches long. It swallowed that fly all the way to the back of its throat. Luckily I crush the barbs on my hooks and was able to retrieve it and release the little guy unharmed.