Hole in the Wall Island

Happy Monday Spacefish!

I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July weekend! The weather was smoking hot, the fishing has continued to be hot for me as well! I took a few days off in the middle of last week, so this report is actually from a trip in late June. Speaking of smoking hot, I had my smoker running for dang near 24 hours straight on the 3rd and 4th – I know this is a fishing report, but I wanted to give a shout out to Wassi’s in Melbourne, it is my one stop shop for my meats, rubs sauces, hardwoods, lump charcoal etc – I smoked 20 pounds of pork butt, and 4 racks of ribs for a big 4th of July gathering! The bbq we had was almost as good as the fishing at the spot I am about to detail!

Launch Spot

I launched from the 69th Street Kayak Launch in Vero Beach, this spot is located just south of the Wabasso Causeway. Even though it is a little bit of a drive south from where I live in Melbourne, I have enjoyed great fishing success in the areas between Sebastian and Vero, the borderlands between the Space & Treasure Coasts have really clean water, a healthy and thriving population of Snook, and more Seagrass and Oyster beds than you will encounter fishing between Titusville, and Palm Bay. Cleaner water, and natural structure makes for good fishing! The fishing was so hot at this spot, that I really never covered much ground. Once I launched, I paddled across to Hole in the Wall Island, did a big circle around it, took my time and fished slow and methodically, and 4 ½ hours later pulled back into the launch after a great morning of fishing!

One of Those Days

This was one of the best Snook mornings I have ever had, I didn’t catch some egregiously large number, but I hooked 3 large overslot Snook! One I successfully landed. It was the one in the header picture, I was able to use the Old Town pedal drive to reverse pedal and keep this massive fish out of the mangroves while I wore her down. I was using a heavy action casting rod, with a baitcaster reel, 20 pound braid to 50 pound mono leader. I was able to use the leverage of the pedal drive, combined with the heavier tackle to keep leverage and horsed her in, in roughly 2 minutes.

The next one, I hooked under the mangroves on a Saltwater Assassin SW Shad in “Fried Chicken” – I was able to use the pedal drive of the kayak to keep her out, though I was using a 3000 series Penn spinning reel, she was taking more of my line on her runs, than the one I had on the baitcaster, and with lighter 30 pound fluoro leader, and 10 pound braid, I was afraid to cup the spool and have the leader snap, as I have fallen victim and lost the game of “pop goes the leader” too many times to count. I was keeping my rod tip up to keep the leader out of her mouth, and I was trying to guide her massive head into the net, the hook came out of her jaw, which was heartbreaking – but on the positive side, I didn’t leave a hook in her, and I had already caught my biggest Snook of 2024 to that point.

The third and final overslot fish, was very similar, hooked under the mangroves on the Saltwater Assassin jerkbait, she was pulled out, with her head turned to me, then a Bull Shark came and tried to attack, it was a decent sized shark, roughly 5 feet, in 5 or 6 feet of water. I opened the spool and let her run back to the mangroves. She was able to get away from the shark, but once back in the mangroves she got the line wrapped up in the mangroves, and due to it already being frayed, it broke off. I feel bad about the hook being left in, but I am glad she did not fall victim of the shark. Being sharked is a new phenomenon for me. I guess now that I am able to reverse out into deeper and more open water this brings on a new risk that didn’t exist when before I, along with my non-pedal drive kayaks would be pulled into the mangroves for close quarter combat.

Topwater

Outside of the big Snook, I was able to land a variety of species that morning. Jack Crevalle, and Ladyfish, which are a topwater usual, Redfish, which can kind of be hit or miss with topwater baits, but the surprise catch for me that morning was a Bluefish – which I don’t catch much inshore.

As far as the bait and setup goes, I used a 7 foot Medium Heavy casting rod, with a bait caster with a lower gear-ratio, which I actually prefer because it helps me to slow down my presentation. I used 20 pound braid, and 50 pound Mono. The plug I used was the YakTribe Topwater in “Mae Mae” which was features a red-head, and white body. I replaced the trebles with VMC 2/0 Single In-Line hooks.

Subsurface

Once the topwater bite slowed down, I was able to continue catching fish on a new jerkbait. The Saltwater Assassin SW Shad in “Fried Chicken”. This bait has a bone color body with silver flake, and a chartreuse tail, which I really think helped generate bites in the mangroves. I rigged this on a 4/0 Mustad screwlock hook, with a ⅛ oz belly weight. I was able to hook a handful of smaller Snook, and Reds under and around mangroves, and I hooked up with two more bruiser Snook, which I detailed earlier in the report.

This bait presentation skips really, really well – I was able to skip this bait really far into the mangroves. A few Snook were caught when the took the bait on the skip. One the bait would settle, I would give it soft, subtle twitches and let it fall back from the the bottom.

Conclusion

I feel like so many outings I go out, and I am finding the Snook, but I am catching a bunch of smedium sized ones, it was nice to be able to land a big over-slot mangrove mama, but to also get bites from several large Snook in one outing. I mean after all, unlike John Page, I am just a mere mortal! Like I mentioned earlier, it could have been a great spot, or it could have just been one of those days!

When considering good and bad days of fishing, I always look back and reflect on what I could have done better, but also I am not naive as to think that conditions don’t play a huge role in our successes and failures as anglers. When it comes to summer time fishing, I have definitely noticed that morning topwater bites definitely increas after we get a bunch of rain the night before. That being said, with some rainy afternoons in the forecast, I would definitely recommend to our readers to get out the morning after a rain if you can swing it, the topwater bite is likely to be on fire the morning after a good dumping of fresh rainwater.

That all being said, I’d like to say THANK YOU for reading this report, and a huge THANK YOU to Kayaks By Bo for being our paddle partner! I hope that you all have a fantastic week, may your lines be ever tight my friends. Until next time!