redfish

Sunday morning I headed out to the Ponce-New Smyrna area to do some fishing this weekend.

According to the marine forecast, Sunday was to be the best day to go out the inlet… so I did.

I had shrimp, whole blue crab, and some sand-fleas. I tried cast-netting bait, but after an hour or so of striking out, I head out anyway. After all, I came to fish not chase bait.

As I headed out the inlet I saw a couple of shrimp boats working their lawnmower pattern a mile or so north. There can’t be any fish feeding on the critters the shrimp boats are stirring up I thought so I headed south to the reefs a couple miles down the beach.

I pick a reef, see it on my sonar and drop the trio of baits I had. Waited about 15- 20 minutes, reeled the baits back up … they were as whole as I dropped them. Fish didn’t even look at them it seems.

I’ll save the suspense, I tried a few other reefs in the area with the same result. I spent a couple hours or so out there before I decided to keep it moving.

On the way back into the inlet the shrimp boats were still around and after seeing a thousand birds head that way, I did too.

Figuring the shrimp boat would be stirring shimp up, I decided to use shrimp as bait. No bueno. I tried behind the boat, on the side of it, even heading it off at the pass. After not getting any bites on shrimp, I swithced to lures and ended up with the same result. An hour after chasing the shrimp boat around, it was time to go in and call it.

Monday, the next day I got a gentelmen’s start. I didn’t get on the water till about 9. In addition to the bait I had from the day before, I did manage to talk a couple of Pins to go on a boat ride with the rest of the bait.

I was destined for Ponce inlet to fish the jetties this morning, but when I got there the seas were as calm as I’ve seen them in a while and out the inlet I went. I headed for same reefs I did the day before, yet this time I picked a different set of reefs.

The morning started out a bit like the previous day, with little bites. However when I hopped to the second reef, the sand flea I had down there was inhaled almost as soon as it got down there. The next sand flea produced a small trout. Thinking there was fish down there, I sent all three of the baits I had down; the sandflea, shrimp, and pinfish. I replaced the shrimp and flea a couple of times and after those bites settled down for about 15 minutes, I was ready to go to the next nearest reef. I start reeling up the rod with the pin on it, and it feels like its stuck on a rock so I give it a tug and it tugs back! Now that’s a feech! The reel is a Saragosa 5k on a 8ft. 30-50# crowder with 50# braid and I tell you, that fish had the rod bent over and taking drag even though the drag was as tight as it could get. After a few minutes I loosened the drag out of fear of putting too much pressure on the line and it snapping. The fight continues for about 10-15 minutes and I finally get it to the surface. It does a couple more half-hearted runs and it finally lays on its side near the boat and I know its done then. I grab the net get it in the boat, take some pics and send it back on its way after reviving it for a few minutes.

That was the only “good” fish of the trip but it was a good one.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.