I took a week off of work to do some serious fishing this past week. I’ve been trying to take the week off to go fishing for a few weeks now, delaying it twice due to weather. Last week’s weather was supposed to be the best of the past weeks so I took that. The fishing plan was to do a few days in the NIR/Mosquito Lagoon then go south to Sebastian for few days…

Saturday, a front was supposed to be coming through so we made that the get the boat/bait gathering/maintenance day.

Sunday we put in at Riverbreeze Park and head north along the river waiting for the fog to burn off. Well, it never really did; at lunch time it was still foggy and we weren’t dressed for the cooler weather so we had a lunch warm-up break at JBs and had a few. Got back on the river and headed south after lunch. Two grown men, slayers of countless finned species, after hours of fishing were only able to boat a single Mangrove Snapper. We’re not worthy… we’re not worthy.

Monday, we chose a different strategy. Since the NIR didn’t do so hot for us we decided to fish the Mosquito Lagoon the next day instead, launching at Haulover. Due to the wind we went west once on the water and fished the flats and adjacent cove. The fog from the day before was still present, but did burn off earlier than the day before. Nevertheless, we didn’t do any better than we did the day before with just a couple of smaller fish boated.

Tuesday was my check in date for me down south so southbound I went at about 6 a.m. Hotels don’t let you check in till the afternoon so I found a boat ramp by the hotel, put the Gheenoe in, and headed east across the river towards the inlet.

Snook season just having opened up, they’d have to be willing to eat almost anything I reasoned. I fished by the rocks- before and after the fishing piers, tried the incoming and outgoing tide, even trolled a couple times with no hook ups; other than the rocks on the bottom.

A few hours of that not working, I then headed to the US-1 bridge over the Sebastian river to try bridge/pylon fishing. On the way to the bridge I cast netted some mullet so I threw one on a hook out of the stern of the Gheenoe and I’m fishing a live shrimp on the rod in my hand. About 30 minutes into fishing, the mullet gets tangled in the prop and I couldn’t get it unstuck. I didn’t have a knife handy so I got the bright idea to turn the motor on and have it cut the line. I turn the motor on, put it in reverse… uh oh, the line isn’t cutting, it’s taking up the rod instead. SNAP! The stankin’ rod breaks and the reel starts to go overboard… Instinct makes me reach for it but I’m on the back weighted to one side and as I reach, I cross the threshold of no return — and I’ll be damned if I didn’t fall out of my boat; pants, hoodie, boots and all.

Wait, it gets better! I pull myself back in the boat and notice during the commotion another one of my rods has also fallen out. I started out my trip with four rods and I’m already down to two. Freaked out and freezing now, I throw everything I was fishing with in the bottom of the boat and head to the boat ramp to get dry clothes and warm up. After about a 30 min boat ride, I get to the ramp, beach the boat, go to the truck and grab some dry clothes and change in the public bathroom throwing my soaking wet clothes in the back of the truck. And that’s how my down south fishing adventure started…

The first two days of fishing I concentrated on the fishing around the inlet- even heading out the inlet once to look for triple tail along the weed lines. The third day I did a bit more venturing and fished around the spoil islands, Black Point, and the flats around Big Slough. I saw/noticed more bites and life in that general area. Wished I would have explored a bit more, I may have found some other fishy spots.

I did do some night fishing, too, but that didn’t pan out either. I drove to the Jetty Tuesday night and tried for a couple hours but didn’t have much luck. While driving to the pier I did notice some docks had lights on them so I got my boat and headed out to them. I hooked a couple smaller trout and a small snapper but nothing big.

All in all, not the most productive fishing I’ve had but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it …